I think it is a quote from Umar (ra) that “Don’t get used to luxury as luxury doesnt last long”

Also , there is one hadith which I heard in a lecture (by anwar al awlaki) that RasoolAllah and some Sahaba were sitting and there was a man with them who just kept on burping ( from overeating). So RasoolAllah (saws) said to him to take his burping away from them because those who fill their stomachs in dunya will be raised hungry on the Day of Resurrection (=50,000yrs long).
I think the lecture was on obesity.

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ameen. BarakaAllah feekum,

Here’s the transliteration: “‘Laa ilaha illallah wahdahu la shareeka lah, lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu yuhyi wa yumeetu wa huwa hayyun laa yamoot, bi yadihil khair, wa huwa ‘ala kulli shayin qadeer’”. You can also hear it being recited here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnkWnpHiFlQ

Assalamu alaikum,
first of all: thank you so much Hafsa and all others for the interesting and useful article and comments: Barakallahu fikum!
As for the point you are making, dear Maya, I hope I understand you correctly. I understand from your comment and the hadith you translated (unfortunatelly I am not able to understand the arabic original) indicates, that it is not commendable to buy luxury article just because somebody is wealthy (i.e. just because he/she can afford it). This seems reasonable to me. On the other hand, in the current economy system (i.e. predominantly: capitalism) it is really hard to rely on the price only to access the article to be purchased. To make my point clear, I am giving the example of buying clothes. In my opinion, I have to aswer two separate questions:
– How many clothes do I actually NEED? As for myself I think, most of us actually need much less as we buy….So this is the point, where we can save some money, simply by limiting the number of items to buy.
– Once this question is answered (e.g. I need a new pair of winter shoos, because it’s snowing and the old ones are worn out): How much will I be paying for this article that I need.
And here the question becomes complicated. Because – from my point of you – nowadays and in our economic system, we as rich western consumers are able to get the items at a really low price. But is it ethical? In many cases I don’t think so. We get e.g. cheap clothes, because these are made in poor countries, by people who barely get paid for their work. It feels to me like profiting from slavery, almost….
Therefore, I have been thinking a lot about the complex of fair trade and I think that as muslims we have to acknowledge our responsibility as consumers. Unfortunatelly, we live in a very unjust economic system.
If you are interested about this, people outside the islamic context have been thinking about this, e.g. see “The story of stuff ” project (e.g. http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/ ) and have been critising many things in the consumerism. I feel we as muslims have to deeply think about all this too, because our islamic ethic does not allow us to profit from other peoples misery. Therefore we have to acknowledge the power we have as consumers and try to deal with it according to islamic principle.
May Allah guide us the straith path in this complicated world…..
Ma’salama
Sabina

i agree