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Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #210 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 13 Apr 2021 › Segment 47 of 50

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Is it wrong for a Muslim to want to make money?

hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imaam imams prayer leader ramadhan ramzan ramazan ramadaan daruriyyat daruriyat dharuriyyat al-daruriyyat darooriyyat hukm ahkam hukum hukam ahkaam halaal permitted lawful aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat verse in sha allah in shaa allah insha allah inshaa allah tawakul tawakkal reliance on god duaa duas duaas supplication rizk provision al-din ad-deen ad-din

Is it wrong to want money? Love what it brings, and the art of giving

QuestionWritten question · questioner not identifiedAnswered 13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu LaythSegment 47 of 50 in the recording2021-04-13-S47

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This segment3:08:42 to 3:21:50 · 13 min 08 sGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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No: Mufti Abu Layth says make money and enjoy what it brings, but do not love money for itself, and remember that giving opens the way to provision.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth takes a message asking for advice on entrepreneurship and whether it is wrong to want money or whether people should stick to necessities. He advises everyone who is so inclined to think entrepreneurially and make money, but cautions against loving money for its own sake: love instead what it brings, such as holidays, clothes, gifts, helping someone or seeing one's children enjoy things, quoting Shah Rukh Khan's advice to get rich first and then become a philosopher. Loving money as a number, he says, makes people anxious when they spend, stingy and miserable. He cites the hadith that God loves to see his servant enjoying the bounties he has given, the saying of Imam Malik that such things are as halal as chilled water, and the dua to place the world in our hands and not in our hearts, and says Islam is not an ascetic religion. As a footnote he says that, counterintuitively, God has hidden rizq in the art of giving, beginning with family and those around one, which requires tawakkul, before he begins to wrap up.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified

Is it wrong to want money, and should this be condemned, so that people stick to their means and to necessities?

  • The question was reconstructed from Mufti Abu Layth's restatement; the questioner's own words are not in the recording

Position stated

correctedChecked by two independent reviews, not by the channel

Mufti Abu Layth says it is good to be enterprising and make money, provided one loves what money brings rather than money itself, and that provision is counterintuitively increased through giving.

In his words

“allah has put you in this world to enjoy this world but i would say don't love money for and of itself love it for these things”

▶ 3:11:38Open on YouTube at 3:11:38

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Transcript

machine3:08:42 to 3:21:50 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
3:08:23

all right thank you for being my light through the deen geode right so creepy though thinking about people [Laughter] it is it is it it's a very it's a sad top topic but it is this is why i say people listen the lord has made this dunya for you let me give you some advice you know people let's and what we'll do is we'll wrap this up because somebody had messaged me and it ties a bit into this they'd ask me about you know about advice on enterprising and you know

3:09:02

entrepreneurship and stuff and and the issue with is this wrong to want money you know and i thought that's a very good honest question you know and it or should this be condemned you know should people just stick to their means and as into the necessities so look let me be i'm very clear that i advise everyone to think entrepreneurially okay i really do i think people should you know they should have

3:09:40

enterprises they should be enterprising um and i think make money [Laughter] i'm definitely down with that from a business perspective i'm not saying you need to i'm not saying you know if you're somebody that you know doesn't really dry you're not driven like that that's fine but there's something important i'd like to caveat what i've just said because it's important that i do because it would be misunderstood otherwise you see i and this ties into to to this as well what i was just

3:10:19

saying about the dunya that lies placed you on this world i'm very keen about people you know making money whatever in whatever field business enterprising entrepreneurially think outside the box and i i definitely think that is you know important if unless people don't want to which is fine however and i'm speaking personally here right i would say that look love money there's nothing wrong with that

3:10:58

but look why do you want money why do why do you why do you want money because of the amenities that it can bring for you so love them like if you want to love something love those things being able to you know have those indulgences whatever they are you know whether it's things that you can so for example people might love being able to go on holiday they may love being able to buy certain clothes they may love being able to uh have the

3:11:38

luxury to you know buy gifts or buy whether it's for themselves or other people or have luxurious things they may love that they may love being able to help someone honestly that these things are very rewarding they may love just being able to spend you know buy loads of things whatever their gadgets or whatever it is there's nothing wrong in loving these things okay these things are of this world and allah has put you in this world to enjoy this world but i would say don't love money

3:12:16

for and of itself love it for these things yeah sure that you know it gives it's like in fact i i think i think there was a lecture by shahrukh khan actually where he said where he was speaking about money and he said that i always tell people that get rich first then become a philosopher which is an amazing point i thought he made he was saying that to i think university was lecturing at a university to university students but look so love these things love amenities you know love being able to buy stuff being able because what happens is as you make money you will do these things and these

3:12:56

things will come into your life so now for example let's say you let's say you are making money and you think well you know what i love i love being able to go and eat different foods and go to play and you're doing that so that's coming into your you know mentally it's coming into your life it's coming you know i love to be able to go on a holiday and you're going on holidays i love to be able to have such in such a car or uh buy such and such clothes or uh you know or do something for someone i love to be able to buy this for them that brings immense happiness i love to to be able to see my children you know enjoying these things and you're seeing these things happen

3:13:35

and materialize and it's it's bringing it's it's rewarding but the problem is if you love money just for money the problem with that is you see you're just counting a number like let's say now it's i don't know it's 35 now it's 42 now it's 56 now it's and the problem with that is the more you like let's say the number is going up but if you spend it the number goes down so subconsciously whether you whether you think about it or not but it impacts you

3:14:13

because you think oh well you know and and you just hold on to just money for the sake of money whereas if you're loving the amenities the the things which you really want money for then they are actually increasing in your life and you're seeing them and you're happy to spend because you that is what you value it's not just money in and of itself because this will just depress you then because what will happen is the numbers going up it's going up but if you start spending it you oh this is going down or i don't like that

3:14:49

then so subconsciously you get trapped so i would strongly advise people that look these are gifts from allah yeah you are in this world fabi allah you know why would you deny yourself gifts and bounties of the lord when he has given them to you if you are there or to pursue them and the hadith says that allah loves to see his servant male or female in it's not specific that

3:15:27

indulging in his in the bounties that allah has given them in so that is absolutely is as halal as chilled cold water you know it is as halal as chilled refreshing water as imam malik would say the thing is that people may demonize it but i think there's nothing absolutely it's a good thing the only problem and i would strongly warn against it is loving money for money because that will psychologically you and it will turn you into a

3:16:06

miserable person and it will make you all tight and fisted and stingy and miserable and seeing everything and and this is why there's such a beautiful dua that dunya that allah gave us the dunya place it right here in our hands but not in our hearts and i thought that's such a beautiful dua uh so people we shouldn't think this is an ascetic religion where we have to abstain from worldly things not at all so and the reason that ties into exactly what i'm saying that we are in this

3:16:43

dunya and the deen compliments us and it isn't about somebody saying you know if you ain't got no money insha'allah you know a queen in ayah allah will shower upon you uh infinite streams of inshallah wealth to come i mean and all of you guys that you you and i'll you know what i'll add a little note to that as well right i'll add a little note to that as a footnote to what i just said about um about money and you know wanting it but for other things

3:17:22

there is an inexplicable you know how quantum physics works people in the sense that it's illogical but it works you know something is in two places at once it's rational but it is you just got to go with it there so i'm going to tell you something that's going to seem perceptively irrational or illogical or counterintuitive and that is that you know when you want to get in this world and you want allah to you know just unleash just open the floodgates of his risk upon you counterintuitively

3:18:02

you have to inculcate within you you have to develop within you the art of giving and that sounds so counterintuitive because you think well no no i want to get i don't want to give i i haven't got to that stage to give i need to get but there is a weird kind of it's it's like a weird balance and it doesn't make any sense it's like you're at this cliff and you're being told to leap

3:18:40

and there's the undeniable impending fear of doom and f and of falling but it's only with that irrational leap that that you can saw the skies and this is something so counterintuitive because people think well no like no i want more if i start giving i have less but believe me when i say that it is hidden in plain sight that allah has hidden risk in the art of giving and it's

3:19:20

right there it's counterintuitive it's steering you in the face but it's the least way you'd expect it [Laughter] and i think that ramadan has come and you know it's it's a great time to sometimes think and it's not about i don't mean by this i don't just mean by this um you have to give money money money like this it could be other things as well and it could be it's not just like oh i walk past and i give someone something the there's an art of giving it's about crushing that

3:20:00

that kind of coveting thing within the soul that finds it that kind of stingy that no you know it's about extinguishing that really and i would say it begins with people who are around you it begins with family you know begins by those around you that's where it first begins and then you know it kind of pans out but yeah that that i had to put that footnote there because i feel that that is something that is really important and it's counterintuitive and it does require tawakkul

3:20:37

but insha'allah you will see if only mufti gets his own show on netflix mufti saab i am nursing a semi [Laughter] innate [Laughter] right people let's uh let's wrap this up man let's wrap this up if i were a billionaire i'd spread mufti's message [Laughter]

3:21:16

you don't know the future there's many great things yet to unfold inshallah for you as there are for for everyone here so people you know what ramadan right here for many of you so let's wrap this up right it's gone on quite a bit um somebody just sent a rock black super chat chakra and ramadan mubarak to you and your family your followers and the beloveds of course to all our beloveds guys i hope you have an awesome ramadan huh right so and what is the ruling of start and

Paragraphs overlapping 3:08:42 to 3:21:50. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2021-04-13-S47, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/47/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7 
Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, April 13). Is it wrong for a Muslim to want to make money? [Video, segment 2021-04-13-S47, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/47/
Chicago author-date 
Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "Is it wrong for a Muslim to want to make money?" Video, segment 2021-04-13-S47, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 13, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/47/
BibTeX 
@misc{abulayth-2021-04-13-S47,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Is it wrong for a Muslim to want to make money?}},
  year = {2021},
  month = {4},
  date = {2021-04-13},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/47/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/47/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2021-04-13-S47, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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