The Express Lane to Jannah: Faith in a Time of Want

🌿 An Age of Unprecedented Want

We are living in a time that some economists describe as the most significant cost of living crisis in a generation. Across the world, families are discovering that their incomes no longer stretch as far as they once did. They struggle to put food on the table. The cost of groceries, of transportation, of even the most basic essentials, has drastically risen.

The global figures are sobering. Over 800 million people live in abject poverty. A recent study showed that almost 40% of humanity — close to half — live on less than $6.85 a day. And this is not only a story of the developing world. Even affluent countries are not immune. In Australia, families are increasingly taking on debt just to cover basic expenses; in the first quarter of 2026 alone, Australians took out a record $5.1 billion in personal loans under financial pressure.

We can all feel it: in some ways these are unprecedented times. The gap between the rich and the poor widens with every passing day.

So the question is this — what does Islam teach us? If Islam is a religion of practicality, a religion that truly helps human beings, what guidance does it offer to navigate this crisis in a way that preserves our dignity, relieves some of the pressure, and keeps our trust in Allah intact? This is not the perspective of a financial advisor or an economist. It is an attempt to look at our hardship through a spiritual lens.

🧠 First — Change the Way You Think

Before we change our behaviour, we have to change the way we think. We need a paradigm shift, a change of mentality.

It is the nature of most people — especially people of faith — to read their bank balance as a verdict on their standing with Allah. If I face financial difficulty, I take it as a sign of divine wrath: Allah must be punishing me. If I get a promotion, a raise, if I am doing well, I read it as divine approval: Allah is pleased with me. Hardship is interpreted as punishment; ease is interpreted as reward.

The Qur'an criticises exactly this mentality, because it is the furthest thing from the truth. In Surat al-Fajr, Allah describes the human being:

فَأَمَّا ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ إِذَا مَا ٱبْتَلَىٰهُ رَبُّهُۥ فَأَكْرَمَهُۥ وَنَعَّمَهُۥ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّىٓ أَكْرَمَنِ ۝ وَأَمَّآ إِذَا مَا ٱبْتَلَىٰهُ فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُۥ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّىٓ أَهَٰنَنِ
Fa-ammal-insānu idhā mabtalāhu rabbuhū fa-akramahū wa naʿʿamahū fa-yaqūlu rabbī akraman. Wa ammā idhā mabtalāhu fa-qadara ʿalayhi rizqahū fa-yaqūlu rabbī ahānan.
"As for man, when his Lord tries him by honouring him and favouring him, he says: My Lord has honoured me. But when He tries him by restricting his provision, he says: My Lord has humiliated me." (Qur'an 89:15–16)

When blessings are showered upon him, the human being says, Allah is honouring me. When his sustenance is constricted, he says, Allah is punishing me, humiliating me, angry with me. The Qur'an names both reactions as a failure to understand.

Because Allah reminds us, in Surat al-Anbiya (21:35):

وَنَبْلُوكُم بِٱلشَّرِّ وَٱلْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً
Wa nablūkum bish-sharri wal-khayri fitnah.
"And We test you with evil and with good as a trial." (Qur'an 21:35)

We are tested with the things we perceive to be evil and with the things we perceive to be good. Poverty is a test — but so is wealth. Do not imagine that only the one enduring hardship is being tested while the one given riches is left alone. Both are tested. And in fact the one with wealth carries the harder test.

Why? Look at human history: it is usually the fuqarā — the poor — who carry īmān, and usually the rich who become arrogant, narcissistic, tyrannical. It is rare to find the very wealthy person who is God-conscious, far rarer than finding the poor person who is. The trial of wealth is, contrary to popular belief, heavier than the trial of poverty.

⚖️ Do Not Trivialise Poverty

None of this trivialises the suffering of the poor. The Ahlul Bayt worked tirelessly so that people would not live in poverty — and not merely with handouts, but by empowering people with the tools to provide for their families. Look at Sayyidah Khadijah (salāmullāhi ʿalayhā): part of why she was so beloved in Mecca is that she did not just give people charity — she was, in our terms, an angel investor, giving people the resources they needed to start their own businesses and become financially independent.

So we do not minimise the emotional trauma of poverty. We live in a world whose resources are not in the hands of Allah's righteous, but largely controlled by powerful people with no fear of Allah, no regard for human life or dignity. Often people suffer financially through no fault of their own — brilliant people, with the skill to build, to provide, to enrich their communities, kept in poverty by circumstances beyond their control. This is the story of most of the world: most people are not financially well off.

So one might ask — all these people who struggle, who suffer financially, will Allah compensate them? You see the obscene contrast of our age: children in Gaza fighting just to find food so they don't starve, while the powerful and shameless talk about buying islands and building country clubs for the rich. Where, then, is the justice of Allah?

🪙 The Wealthy Are Tested Through the Poor

The Ahlul Bayt have many narrations reminding us that this life is very short, and that the suffering of the poor is never ignored. Do not think the rich are favoured by Allah and the poor neglected by Him.

In Kitab al-Kafi, our seventh Imam, al-Imam al-Kadhim (Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar, ʿalayhis salām), narrates a Hadith Qudsi — a divine narration:

قَالَ: إِنِّي لَمْ أُغْنِ ٱلْغَنِيَّ لِكَرَامَةٍ بِهِ عَلَيَّ، وَلَمْ أُفْقِرِ ٱلْفَقِيرَ لِهَوَانٍ بِهِ عَلَيَّ، وَهُوَ مِمَّا ٱبْتَلَيْتُ بِهِ ٱلْأَغْنِيَاءَ بِٱلْفُقَرَاءِ، وَلَوْلَا ٱلْفُقَرَاءُ لَمْ يَسْتَوْجِبِ ٱلْأَغْنِيَاءُ ٱلْجَنَّةَ
Qāla: innī lam ughnil-ghaniyya li-karāmatin bihi ʿalayya, wa lam ufqiril-faqīra li-hawānin bihi ʿalayya, wa huwa mimmabtalaytu bihil-aghniyāʾa bil-fuqarāʾ, wa lawlal-fuqarāʾu lam yastawjibil-aghniyāʾul-jannah.
"I did not make the wealthy wealthy because they are honourable in My sight, nor did I make the poor poor because they are lowly in My sight. Rather, I am testing the wealthy through the poor. And were it not for the poor, the wealthy would have no way of meriting Paradise."

Read that again. If Allah has blessed you with wealth, do not imagine that you can keep your money in the bank, be stingy with it, come to majlis, pray, perform every other act of worship, and reach Jannah by those deeds while clutching your money. The test of the rich is precisely this: your road to Jannah runs through lifting the poor out of poverty. The Hadith Qudsi says no rich person enters Jannah without helping the fuqarā.

And this is no easy test, because so many believe that their money is their money. It is not. The Qur'an says again and again of the believers:

وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَٰهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ
Wa mimmā razaqnāhum yunfiqūn.
"...and out of what We have provided them, they spend." (Qur'an 2:3)

It is not your money — it is Allah's. He has placed the share of the poor in your hands as an amāna, a trust. Your job is simply to deliver it. That is your test.

🛒 The Express Lane at the Reckoning

There is a Hadith from al-Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq (ʿalayhis salām) about how Allah will treat the fuqarā on the Day of Judgment — and here we must draw a careful distinction. This is not about a man who is poor because he is lazing in his mother's basement playing video games. Some are poor because of their own idleness; they are not who we mean. We mean those who work hard, who genuinely strive to provide, but who are poor through no fault of their own in a corrupt system.

Imam al-Sadiq says:

إِنَّ فُقَرَاءَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَتَقَلَّبُونَ فِي رِيَاضِ ٱلْجَنَّةِ قَبْلَ أَغْنِيَائِهِمْ بِأَرْبَعِينَ خَرِيفًا
Inna fuqarāʾal-muʾminīna yataqallabūna fī riyāḍil-jannati qabla aghniyāʾihim bi-arbaʿīna kharīfā.
"The poor among the believers will be roaming through the meadows of Paradise forty years before the wealthy among them enter it."

Allah does not neglect the one who suffers. Even the believer who is rich will have a longer reckoning — that is simply the nature of it.

Picture the grocery store. If you have only a few items, you take the express lane — it is fast, only a few things need to be scanned. But fill the cart to the brim and stand in line, and the checkout takes far longer, even if everything you took was perfectly legitimate and you stole nothing — because every single item has to be scanned and checked.

On the Day of Qiyamah, the faqīr has almost nothing to scan. Two things scanned, and through to Jannah. But the rich person — even if every dollar of his wealth was halal — will be asked about every dollar and every penny: whether it was lawful, where it came from, and how he spent it. Everyone wants to be rich in this dunya; but on that Day, no one will wish to be rich. Everyone will wish they were standing in the express lane.

So we must understand that wealth carries its own challenges and its own difficulties. This is the first thing: in a cost of living crisis, change the way you think about wealth and poverty.

🕯 The Trap of Haram Income

One of the greatest dangers a person faces in economic hardship is the temptation to seek money through haram means. When things become really difficult, when the bills are racking up and the pressure mounts, this is exactly where Shaytan becomes most active. Take the alcohol licence. Sell drugs. Get into these haram transactions. We must be very careful.

There is a narration from al-Imam al-Hadi (ʿalayhis salām), in Kitab al-Kafi, warning us about this. Believe me, it is better to have a halal income and live a humble, simple life than to chase haram income and live in luxury. The Imam teaches that haram income may appear to grow, but in reality it does not grow — it has no baraka:

لَيْسَ فِي ٱلْمَالِ ٱلْحَرَامِ بَرَكَةٌ
Laysa fil-māl il-ḥarāmi barakah.
"There is no blessing in unlawful wealth."

Even if that haram money becomes a hundred thousand, a million, ten million — wallāhi you will not see khayr in it. You will see a great many problems in your life. I have seen people who live very simply, yet Allah pours such baraka into their wealth: they go for ziyāra, they perform Hajj, their children are pious, they enjoy their lives. And I have seen people with tens of millions whose sons and daughters are lost, whose children leave Islam, who have no comfort, who are constantly stressed. No baraka in the wealth at all.

And there is a further danger. Suppose a man makes millions through haram business and then says, I want to sponsor the majlis of Imam al-Husayn. I want to build the Husayniyya, build the masjid, feed half of South Lebanon. This happens. What does Imam al-Hadi say? He receives no thawāb for it — because it was never his money to give. Haram wealth is not truly yours; you do not own it. So when you donate it, there is no reward. And whatever such haram money a person leaves behind when he dies becomes his food, his provision, in the Fire.

Is it worth it? Is it worth destroying your eternal life for a few years of a fancy car and a nice house? A wise person has foresight.

💸 Live Within Your Means

In a cost of living crisis, it is vital that we live within our means. Many of us do not.

I see someone driving the newest Range Rover. I cannot afford a Range Rover on my income — but I take out loans, I take on debt, to give off the impression that I too am wealthy. I pile pressure on myself and on my family, all to keep up an image. I am too embarrassed to drive a Toyota Corolla — though that's a perfectly good, dependable car; I don't know why everyone is against it. People live beyond their means; they are too extravagant.

Allah describes the real believers (Surah 25:67):

وَٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَنفَقُوا۟ لَمْ يُسْرِفُوا۟ وَلَمْ يَقْتُرُوا۟ وَكَانَ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ قَوَامًا
Wal-ladhīna idhā anfaqū lam yusrifū wa lam yaqturū wa kāna bayna dhālika qawāmā.
"And those who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor stingy, but maintain a balance between the two." (Qur'an 25:67)

Live within your means. Some of us struggle financially simply because we spend more than we have. Be moderate — neither extravagant nor stingy.

There is an opposite extreme too. A man has money, can afford a decent car, yet insists on driving a 1975 Toyota Corolla that's falling apart. How do you even get home in this? And he says, Ali ibn Abi Talib was detached from the dunya. He wants to take only that one quality from Amir al-Mu'minin while forgetting the duty to look after his family and keep them comfortable. So there must be moderation — neither extravagance nor stinginess.

And this requires financial planning. Yes — a mu'min should plan financially. Many people have no idea how much they earn each month or what their expenses are; even the basic arithmetic, they never do.

🍞 Self-Awareness in a Time of Famine

There is a narration that during the time of Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq (ʿalayhis salām), there was a drought, a famine, in the city of Medina. The Imam saw that the people of Medina were suffering and could only find barley bread to eat. In his own home, the Imam had more appetising food — but he instructed his household: Buy the same food the people are eating. Whatever is finer and more appetising, sell it in the market, make it available to the people. Look at the nobility, the ethics, of the Ahlul Bayt. Imam al-Sadiq said: I do not like to eat delicious food while the people eat simple food. It is not right.

Today, brothers and sisters, our brothers and sisters in Gaza and Lebanon — wallāh — do not have food to eat. They have nothing. And some of us, every single day, post on social media the five-course meal we are eating. If you run a restaurant, fine, that is your business. But if you are not a restaurant owner — should a believer be flaunting a comfortable lifestyle at a time when there are mothers of the shuhadā in South Lebanon?

One of the mashāyikh told me this himself a few months ago; I heard it with my own ears. He met one of the mothers of the shuhadā — a woman who had given more than one son. She came to him and said: Shaykhanā, this dunya has no value to us, it is very small in our eyes. We gave everything for Allah, for the Prophet, for the Ahlul Bayt, for Islam. We are not people to ask and to extend our hands. But there is only one thing I want — I just want a blanket at night, because it is wintertime. Can you imagine? A mother who gave her sons as shuhadā, reduced to asking for a blanket.

So we must have some self-awareness. I am not saying we should all eat barley bread today. I am saying: during a cost of living crisis, the believers should not flaunt their wealth. If Allah gave you wealth, why must you parade it? Why tell the world how fancy your car and your food are? Keep it to yourself. Instead of spending your time telling the world how wealthy you are, go down into sujūd and say alhamdulillah, and ask Allah for the tawfīq to help these people. We have to come back to reality.

🤲 Do Business With Allah — Give

This may sound counterintuitive. You would think that in a cost of living crisis I must hold on to every dollar and give nothing away. Ask a secular financial advisor and the answer is: Do not spend. Save, save, save.

But what does Amir al-Mu'minin (ʿalayhis salām) say?

إِذَا أَمْلَقْتُمْ فَتَاجِرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ بِٱلصَّدَقَةِ
Idhā amlaqtum fa-tājirullāha biṣ-ṣadaqah.
"When you become poor, do business with Allah through charity."

When you are struggling financially, do business with Allah — and you trade with Him by giving charity. Give, even when you are poor; in fact, especially when you are poor. Allah will open doors for you and expand your sustenance.

And especially in these times, think of your relatives. The Prophet said:

لَا صَدَقَةَ وَذُو رَحِمٍ مُحْتَاجٌ
Lā ṣadaqata wa dhū raḥimin muḥtāj.
"There is no charity while a relative is in need."

When we see a chance to give, we almost instinctively think of strangers — as though sadaqa belongs to people we don't know, so that we may earn reward. But the Prophet teaches that if you have relatives in need — an aunt, an uncle, a cousin, a sibling who is struggling — they have the priority. You may not want to; you may prefer to give to this or that organisation. But Islam means submission to Allah. It is not about giving where I please, but about giving in the way that pleases Him. Look after your needy relatives first; then give to others. Better still, do both.

Believe me — if everyone followed this single instruction, there would be no poverty. The trouble is that we neglect al-aqrabūn, the near of kin, and give only to strangers. Do not think like the secularist, whose only instinct in hardship is to save. Allah has His own economic law: when you are struggling, do business with Him by giving.

🤝 An Ummah That Lifts Itself

Surviving the cost of living crisis is not something an individual can do alone. It must be addressed not by the individual but by the community — because that is what it means to be an ummah. We look after one another. We must reject the idea that everyone simply fends for himself.

What we need to revive — especially as Shia of Ahlul Bayt — is building institutions that give us financial independence. It is a sad thing that when a Shi'i wants to start a business, he has to go to non-Muslims to get a loan. In Medina, Rasulullah (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa ālihi) created a culture in which believers helped one another with interest-free loans. We have enough wealth in our communities to establish institutions that do exactly this.

And we can start very small. Imagine just 100 people, each giving $2,500 qurbatan ilallāh. That is already a quarter of a million dollars in a community fund. We organise it so that anyone who wants, say, a $10,000 interest-free business loan submits an application; we review it, and they have 18 months to repay. Is that not far better than people taking on debt and paying interest to outsiders? This can begin tomorrow in this very community. As more people join, the fund grows — until we reach tens of millions, and any follower of Ahlul Bayt who wants to be financially independent can at least get a leg up.

And the reward of the interest-free loan (qarḍ) is immense in the sight of Allah. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa ālihi) said that on the night of his ascension he saw written upon one of the gates of Paradise:

ٱلصَّدَقَةُ بِعَشْرِ أَمْثَالِهَا وَٱلْقَرْضُ بِثَمَانِيَةَ عَشَرَ
Aṣ-ṣadaqatu bi-ʿashri amthālihā wal-qarḍu bi-thamāniyata ʿashar.
"Charity is rewarded tenfold, and the loan eighteenfold."

The one who gives charity is given ten rewards; the one who gives an interest-free loan, eighteen. The lender's thawāb is greater than the giver's. So the Prophet asked Jibrā'īl: Why is a loan more rewarding than charity? And Jibrā'īl answered: because some who ask for charity are not truly in need and ask anyway — but no one seeks a loan unless he is genuinely in need. When you give sadaqa you help one person; but when you give a loan, you help that person, the money returns, and you help another — it circulates through the community and stimulates the whole economy.

🕊 Lend With Mercy, Borrow With Sincerity

Greater still is the reward for the lender who is lenient. Because things happen; circumstances change. (They joke that the surest way to get rid of someone who keeps bothering you is to give them a loan — you'll never see them again.) Imam al-Sadiq said:

مَنْ أَقْرَضَ مُؤْمِنًا قَرْضًا يُنْظِرُهُ بِهِ إِلَىٰ مَيْسَرَةٍ كَانَ مَالُهُ فِي زَكَاةٍ
Man aqraḍa muʾminan qarḍan yunẓiruhu bihi ilā maysarah kāna māluhu fī zakāh.
"Whoever lends a believer and grants him respite until ease — his wealth is counted as zakat."

If you give an interest-free loan and are lenient — you set a six-month or one-year term, and when you see the borrower struggling you extend it by three months — then for that whole grace period, while your money is still with them, Allah rewards you as though you were paying zakat, every single day. And every day that money remains with the borrower beyond the deadline, the angels make duʿā' for you, praying for your maghfira. See how the Ahlul Bayt teach us: give — but be compassionate. Do not be aggressive, especially with someone who is genuinely trying.

But the Ahlul Bayt also warned the borrower. Imam al-Sadiq (ʿalayhis salām), in narrations found in Wasā'il al-Shīʿa, taught that whoever takes a loan with the sincere intention of repaying it — and you must form that intention; do not take a loan and merely shrug, inshāllāh khayr — Allah will send him two angels to help him repay. But if you change that intention, if you slacken your effort to pay it back, Allah reduces His help in exact proportion to how much you weakened your resolve.

So when you take a loan, hold a genuine intention to repay, and Allah will help you. Do not be afraid. If you truly believe you can start a business and lift your family out of poverty — take the loan, have a plan, make the intention to repay, and Allah will make it easier for you.

🩸 The Companions Who Settled Their Debts

When we come to Imam al-Husayn — tonight we commemorate his noble companions. There is a narration that when Imam al-Husayn was with his aṣḥāb, he had them called together and said: If there is anyone among you who has an outstanding debt, you are not permitted to fight with me.

Look at how seriously they take the amāna. If you owe someone a debt, I do not give you permission to die with me as a shahīd — because if you are martyred, that person's right will be lost. Go and settle your debts before you join me. For the Prophet taught that if a person dies owing a debt, the debt is taken from his good deeds. Allah does not neglect the rights of others. On the Day of Judgment, Allah in His mercy may ask the creditor, Will you forgive this debt? If you do, I will raise your rank in Jannah. But if the creditor insists — No, I want what I am owed — then it is taken from the ḥasanāt of the debtor. Astonishing, that some will still cling to money even on that Day.

This shows us that being financially responsible is itself part of our faith. Imam al-Husayn would not let any companion remain with him while a debt was unsettled. And those who were martyred at his side were pure-hearted, pious, and had never trampled the rights of anyone.

And so Imam al-Husayn praised his companions as no other Imam ever praised his:

وَٱللَّهِ إِنِّي لَا أَعْلَمُ أَصْحَابًا أَوْفَىٰ وَلَا خَيْرًا مِنْ أَصْحَابِي
Wallāhi innī lā aʿlamu aṣḥāban awfā wa lā khayran min aṣḥābī.
"By Allah, I know of no companions more loyal or more virtuous than my companions."

And it is as though the aṣḥāb of al-Husayn and al-Husayn became one. When you visit Amir al-Mu'minin, you do not send salam to the Imam and his companions; when you go to Medina, you do not say salam to Rasulullah and his aṣḥāb. But with Imam al-Husayn, whenever you send salam to him, you must send salam to his companions too — as if they had become one family, one body.

🌑 The Night Before Ashura

It is said that on the eve of Ashura, on a dark night, Abā ʿAbdillāh al-Husayn was walking among the tents, sword in hand, removing the thorns from the sand around them. His companion Nāfiʿ ibn Hilāl came to him: Sayyidī, why are you roaming alone at night? I fear for your safety — we are surrounded by treacherous people. What are you doing? The Imam answered: I am clearing the thorns, because tomorrow my children will be running here.

Then the Imam looked toward the plain and saw the flickering campfires of a vast army of thirty thousand or more. Nāfiʿ, do you see this army? They want only one person. They want me. They do not want you. Do you see those two hills in the distance? Go, save yourself — I give you permission to leave. I fear that if you stay you will be killed as collateral; as long as they kill me, they will be satisfied. Go back to your family.

Nāfiʿ replied: Yā Abā ʿAbdillāh, life has no value after you. How can we abandon you? If I ever flee from you, I ask Allah to send the wild beasts to devour me. We will never leave you alone. One by one the companions said the same: You are asking us to leave — wallāhi, even if we were killed a thousand times and our bodies burned a thousand times, we would never abandon you. Our blood is with your blood. Our families are sacrificed for you. How could we face Rasulullah? How could we face your mother Fatima on the Day of Judgment? We will never abandon you.

🛡 Sa'id ibn Abdillah — The Living Shield

On the Day of Ashura, at the time of Dhuhr, the companion Abū Thumāmah al-Ṣāʿidī came to the Imam in the very middle of the battle: Sayyidī, the time of prayer has come. And what did Imam al-Husayn say? Not, We are in the middle of a battle, this is not the time. He looked up at the sky, saw the sun directly overhead, and said: Yes — this is the beginning of the time of salah. Then he made duʿā' for Abū Thumāmah — that Allah make him among those who establish the prayer and remember Him. So pray your salah on time, that the Imam's duʿā' may reach you too.

The army of Omar ibn Sa'ad was so wicked that they would not halt their attack even for prayer. So the Imam resolved to pray salat al-khawf — the prayer of fear — and asked: Is there anyone who will stand before us as a shield? Zuhayr ibn al-Qayn rose: Sayyidī, I will stand and absorb the arrows. Sa'id ibn Abdillah al-Hanafi rose too: Sayyidī, I will stand before you.

This companion stood before Imam al-Husayn like armour, like a shield. The moment the Imam pronounced the takbīrat al-iḥrām — Allāhu Akbar — the arrows began to rain down, aimed at al-Husayn. When an arrow is shot at you, it is instinctual to duck, to dodge. But Sa'id ibn Abdillah al-Hanafi caught the arrows with his chest, his neck, his face, to keep them from reaching the Imam. One arrow struck him — he did not fall. A second struck him. Imagine his pain — yet he held himself upright, until thirteen arrows had pierced his body. And still he stood.

He waited — he would not fall until Imam al-Husayn had finished his salah. Only when he heard the Imam's taslīm — as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatullāh — did he collapse onto the plains of Karbala. He looked up at the Imam: Awafaytu yā Abā ʿAbdillāh? Was I loyal to you? Did I fulfil my duty? The Imam answered: Naʿam, anta amāmī fil-jannah — yes, you will be with me in Paradise. And Sa'id said: Sayyidī, ablugh nabiyyaka minnis-salām — send my salam to Rasulullah. And tell him of what I suffered — tell my grandfather of the arrows, tell him of my wounds. I did all of this for the pleasure of Allah.

🌹 The Boy and His Mother

On the Day of Ashura there was a young boy, Amr ibn Junādah al-Ansari — barely of age. He came to Imam al-Husayn: Sayyidī, do you give me permission to enter the battlefield? The Imam looked at his companions — the boy's father had already been martyred earlier that day — and said: I do not want to bring a second tragedy upon his mother. So he told the boy: Go back. You are young, you have your whole life ahead of you. You are too young to fight. The boy replied: Sayyidī, my mother is the one who sent me — she is the one who told me to seek your permission. Still the Imam refused: Go back to your mother. I do not want to break her heart. She has only you left; she has already lost her husband.

The boy returned to his mother heartbroken: Mother, I begged Imam al-Husayn, I begged him, but he would not give me permission to fight. The mother took her son by the hand: Come with me, my son. Let us go back to Imam al-Husayn. She came before the Imam: Yā Abā ʿAbdillāh — your own mother Fatima sacrificed her son; will you not let me sacrifice mine? Give my son permission. And the Imam, reluctantly, gave his permission.

On the Day of Ashura, when a fighter went into the field, he would announce his lineage — I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so. Look at how this mother raised her son, and how he introduced himself as he went to the field. He fought bravely, valiantly, until he was surrounded and overwhelmed by the enemy — a young boy. They killed him, they slaughtered him, they cut off his head and threw it back toward the camp of Imam al-Husayn. And who sees the head? The mother. She takes the head of her son — she who had been speaking to him only minutes before — and now sees his severed head. She holds it, she embraces it, she kisses it: Yā surūr — I am so proud of you. You have made your mother proud. Then she takes a tent pole, and she herself walks into the battlefield.

🌙 The Reckoning We Forget

This majlis began with a question about money and ends at the side of a mother holding her son's head. That is not a detour — it is the whole point. Every lesson of this lecture turns on a single truth that the Ahlul Bayt never let us forget: this dunya is short, and nothing of it is truly ours. Our wealth is an amāna. The rich are tested through the poor. Haram money carries no baraka and becomes food in the Fire. The believer gives even in hardship, lends with mercy, borrows with sincerity, and settles every debt — because financial responsibility is part of faith itself, and even a martyrdom will not erase a right we owe.

And when this dunya was placed against Imam al-Husayn, his companions and the mothers of Karbala weighed it and found it worth nothing at all. This dunya has no value to us — the same words a mother of the shuhadā still speaks today. The cost of living crisis is real, and the pressure is heavy. But the believer survives it not by clutching tighter to a world that is leaving, but by holding to Allah, lifting one another as an ummah, and keeping our eyes on the express lane — the reckoning where the one who gave, who lent, who shielded, and who sacrificed for the pleasure of Allah will pass through, and never wish he had been rich.