Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

wa-lā tubadhdhir tabdhīrā
—don’t spend frivolously, and don’t
go out of your way to spend wastefully. Let me explain these words a little bit:
the first thing that comes out of the ground is called 
al-badhr
. In other words,
when a farmer plants a seed and a plant starts coming out, they have to wait a
long time before it’s fully grown. If it’s just come out a little bit, it’s premature.
It’s not ready, if you cut it right now, there’s no benefit. Similarly there are some
people, as soon as some money comes into their hand, they spend it. As soon as
they get their pay cheque, they have to get a new pair of Jordans, or they have to
get a big screen TV, or they have to go to a really expensive restaurant. They
spend all their money, every chance they get. Also some linguists comment on
the idea of 
tabdhīr
as 
tafrīq al-māl bi-lā muḥāsabah, yaʿnī isrāfuhū
—you just
spread your money in every direction, without any concern. ‘Money ain’t a thing
bro. I got this. It’s not a problem.’ You walk into an electronics superstore, ‘I
want the biggest TV you got’. ‘That one is $8000.’ ‘I don’t care, put it in. I got
this.’ You just don’t care about how you spend your money.
Now, here it’s important that Allah adds: 
wa-lā tubadhdhir tabdhīrā
—please
listen to this carefully— Allah did not just say, don’t spend your money
wastefully. He said: don’t go out of your way to spend money wastefully. This is
the incredible 
ḥikmah
of the Qur’an. To some extent, all of us will waste some
money, it’s inevitable. Taking this to an extreme, for example, Eid comes and
you think of buying your wife a new dress or something. She picks out this dress
but you’re like,’
 wa-lā tubadhdhir tabdhīrā
. No, no, no, we’re not going to buy
that dress’. Or you’re about to buy your kids some toys, or get a present for
somebody, and you’re like, ‘No we’re not going to do 
tabdhīr’
. Or you’re about
to get a new car and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to do 
tabdhīr
. I’ll get a 1978
Cutlass Ciera. Anything more than that, I don’t need it, it still has four wheels

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and still goes from point A to point B’. So you’re just going to buy yourself a
donkey and a cart behind it and that’s how you’re going to live your life, even if
the highway authority has a problem with that.
No, no, no, that’s not what the idea of 
tabdhīr
is. The idea of 
tabdhīr
is that
you don’t 
constantly
go over in spending more than you need to, in things that
you need and things you don’t need, without any discrimination, all the time. If
you develop that habit of constantly spending money without any consideration,
any sense of financial responsibility, and you know why this is the case? And, by
the way, this is the same 
āyah
we haven’t even gone to another 
āyah
yet.
Because if you keep spending your money like that, what are you going to give
to your family? What are you going to give to the 
miskīn
? What are you going to
give to the one that is in a homeless situation, or the traveller? What are you
going to give to them? You’ve got nothing left to give because it all goes into
your obsession, into your collection.
It’s okay to redecorate your house, it’s no problem. It’s okay to get a new
carpet, no problem. But if you’re constantly doing that! 
Wa-lā tubadhdhir
tabdhīrā
—this is why in the next 
āyah
Allah does not say: 
Inna alladhīna
yubadhdhirūn
—He says: