DO NOT BE WASTEFUL

According to one narration, the Prophet of Islam (ﷺ) said: “It is wasteful to eat everything you crave” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 3352). Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, expressed the same idea in these words: “It is enough wastefulness for a person that he eats everything he desires” (Al-Zuhd wa al-Raqa’iq by Ibn al-Mubarak, Report No. 769).

The terms saraf and israf literally mean wastefulness—that is, spending one’s wealth on what is unnecessary, driven by desire rather than genuine need. Every person lives between two forces: need and desire. To spend in line with one’s needs is lawful, but to spend merely to satisfy desire is something for which a person will be answerable in the Hereafter.