The Censure of Poverty

The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Poverty is almost infidelity.

The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘O Allah I seek refuge in You from infidelity and poverty. A person asked, ‘Are these two equivalent? He said, ‘Yes.

The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘If it was not for my Lord's mercy on the poor of my community, poverty would just about be infidelity.

The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Poverty is blackness of the face in the two worlds.

The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Poverty is worse than killing.

Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Poverty is the greater death.

Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Poverty silences the sagacious from his proof, and a poor person is a foreigner in his own country.

Imam Ali (AS), speaking to his son Imam Hasan (AS), said, ‘Do not blame a person who tries to seek his ration, for he who does not have a ration, his mistakes increase. O son, a poor person is humiliated, his words are not heard, and his status is not recognized. If a poor person speaks the truth, they call him a liar, and if he is an ascetic, they call him ignorant. O son, those who are tried with poverty are tested in four things: weakness in their certainty, deficiency in their intellect, fragility in their devotion, and lack of shame on their face. So, we seek refuge in Allah from poverty.

Imam Ali (AS), speaking to his son Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, said, ‘O son, I fear for you because of poverty, so seek refuge in Allah from it, for poverty brings diminishment in ones faith, confusion to the intellect and a motive for hatred.

Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Poverty in ones homeland is like being foreign in it.