It is essential for us to earn our livelihood.

It is essential for us to earn our livelihood.” The gist of Ali’s talk is that he said: There is no conflict between the earning of provision in this world and in making a provision for the Hereafter and if you say, ‘I am greedy’ then I say you are not helpless.[^1] I do not say that you should not earn a livelihood, but do it within limits. Do not be greedy. Think of the Hereafter also. Do not drown yourself in worldly affairs to such an extent that your behavior with God suffers.

If you have a chance for doing a good deed, do it. Join someone’s funeral, visit an ailing person, help a believer by fulfilling his need, repay loan of an indebted person. Do all the good deeds. But if you say that ‘I want to earn more and more greedily’ then I must say you are not helpless. Do not forget Allah; be thankful to Him One picks up a piece of bread from his dining mat and before eating says: Praise be to Allah (I am grateful to God). O Allah! What a bounty You have granted me.

You gave protection and safety to me. You saved me. Woe unto the unfortunate fellow who puts wine bottles on his dining table. It is unlawful to place wine on a dining table. Even if one does not drink it, it is prohibited to sit over there. Eating from that table is unlawful as it is like putting a bottle of dirty urine along with nice food articles. You must thank God. Woe unto the ungrateful fellow! Who has created this wheat bread? Who has made arrangements whereby it reached you?

The cloud, the wind, the sun, the moon and the sky are functioning continuously so that you may get bread and may not eat it negligently. Everything is obeying God’s commands for your sake. It is not justice on your part to disobey Him. (Persian couplets) Not only you disobey; curse on you because you also indulged in sinning. You are sinning on your dining table. Before putting any morsel in mouth say: In the name of Allah. Then say: Praise be to Allah. What I mean is to be thankful to God.

Muslims must be advised to remain awake from one Friday to another by remaining constantly grateful to God. It should not be so that, seeing any difficulty or undesired thing, you may forget all the bounties of the Lord. The Shariah has prohibited uttering a single word when the Friday preacher is delivering the sermon. All must be in a state of full attentiveness.