Friday Sermon: Takathur: Piling Up Worldly Possessions

By Babatunde Jose

The Quran says: Al haaku mut Takathur; Competition in worldly increase diverts you. Takathur, or Piling Up. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things), Until ye visit the graves. But nay, ye soon shall know (the reality). Again, ye soon shall know! Nay, were ye to know with certainty of mind, (ye would beware!) Ye shall certainly see Hellfire! Again, ye shall see it with certainty of sight! Then, shall ye be questioned that Day about joy (ye indulged in!)  (Quran 102:1-8)

This Sura warned of the evil consequences of worshipping worldly possessions which leads to greed and avariciousness and increases the propensity to acquire more and more of worldly material benefits and pleasures, position, and power. This one pursuit has so occupied men that they are left with no time or opportunity for pursuing the higher things in life. They mortgage their soul on the altar of acquisitiveness.

The Quran says: “These blessings which you are amassing and enjoying thoughtlessly, are not mere blessings but are also a means of your trial. For each one of these blessings and comforts you will surely be called to account in the Hereafter.”

In his Tafsir of the above Sura, Sayyid Qutb, the ‘Martyr’ says of the men who pursue the higher things of life thoughtlessly: You drunken and confused lot! You who take delight and indulge in rivalry for wealth, children, and the pleasures of this life, from which you are sure to depart! You who are absorbed with what you have, unaware of what comes afterwards! You who will leave the object of this rivalry, and what you seek pride in, and go to a narrow hole where there is no rivalry or pride! Wake up and look around, all of you! For indeed, “you are preoccupied by greed for more and more, until you go down to your graves.” (Verses 1-2)

The passion for piling up more and more has made people heedless of God, of the Hereafter, of the moral bounds and moral responsibilities, of the rights of others and of their own obligations to render those rights. They desire to have more and are overwhelmed by this greed; they have become wholly insensitive as to the ultimate end of this way of living. In the course of their pursuit, they fill God’s earth with tyranny and wickedness and  destroy humanity itself.

It is rather unfortunate that the thieves among us lack contentment; no amount of stealing can satiate their lust for the juicy morsel. As an anonymous commentator puts it: “they lack the grace to stand up from the dining table and look away from the food tray when their belly is full.”

No doubt, excessive stealing becomes tantamount to malady. If not, how do we term the case of that NDDC acting managing director that fainted in court. He was a made man, a professor of medicine. Yet he and his ‘band of merry-men’ robbed the corporation blind. Truly, the case of the Niger Delta is disheartening. Every effort to turn around the region from its legendary deprivation is squandered on the altar of individuals’ greed. Since 1999, an estimated N16 trillion, an amount that could build three cities like Dubai, has been squandered with nothing to show. What is sad about the situation is that indigenes of the region have been fingered as architects of the mismanagement of the NDDC and other allied agencies including a ministry created to develop the Niger Delta region. What became of the NNDC scandal? Hmmmn!

Another avaricious serial raider of the national coffer was the lady with the ‘diamond bra’ who had no reason to dip her filthy hands into the cookie-jar. A trained architect and former executive director of Shell before being appointed Petroleum Minister, she failed the test. She is today a fugitive offender.

The rivalry for wealth does not even recognize age, if not, how do we account for a grandfather like ex-NECO Registrar, a professor, that stole almost a billion. He was detained and charged to court for stealing money he would never need.

They say people steal government funds because they fear falling into the poverty trap. But how do you explain allegations of corruption levelled against men of standing who were corporate titans before becoming governors who allegedly stole their state blind?

With ₦100 billion you can build a brand-new town, local government area, of 15, 000 low-cost housing units complete with roads, schools, hospitals. ₦100 billion would build a new ten – faculty university, that can accommodate 20,000 undergraduates and graduate students. But an accountant allegedly stole such a staggering sum. A fellow of ICAN. A distinguished member of a privileged elite group. Haba!

Remember the case of the banking Amazon who received a sentence of eighteen months after a plea bargain. The list of her thievery would fill a primary school A4 exercise book. According to the press release of the CBN of October 8, 2010, the first lady of banking’s “assets forfeited include 94 choice properties around the world (USA, Dubai and Nigeria) and shares in 100 Companies, 80 of which are listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, while 20 of them are non-listed, all valued at the sum of N191.4bn.” Kilode?

The elite are the ones destroying the social architecture of our nation with their unbridled hedonism and their greed for piling up of worldly possessions. Our political elite, despite their jejune certificates, lack the intellectual capacity to solve our economic problems, and worse, they lack the contemplation of the right philosophy of public service. 

No living person needs a billion. What for? God didn’t create us to be excessive. Every extra gift, talent, grace, money, and wealth we have, is not totally for us. But for society. We are to give, give and give, for humanity, and posterity. Although nature and law permit optimal material rewards and compensation for our efforts. That is why the Accountant General of a Federation, Governor, Senator is well remunerated above others.

We are under the delusion that the abundance of worldly goods and surpassing others in it, is real progress and success, whereas the opposite is the case. Soon you will know its evil end and you will realize that it was a stupendous error in which you remained involved throughout your life.

In several Hadiths it has been reported from the Holy Prophet that the believers and the disbelievers, both will have to account for the blessings granted by Allah.

The Holy Prophet in Ahadith makes it explicit that not only the disbelievers but the righteous believers too will be questioned. As for the blessings which Allah has bestowed on man, they are unlimited and countless:

And He giveth you of all that ye ask for. But if ye count the favors of Allah, never will ye be able to number them. Verily, man is given up to injustice and ingratitude. (Quran 14: 34).

About the blessings that accrue to man in consequence of his own labor and skill, he will have to render an account as to how he acquired them and in what ways he expended them. In respect of the blessings directly bestowed by Allah, he will have to give an account as to how he used them. And in respect of all the blessings, overall, he will have to tell whether he had acknowledged that those blessings had been granted by Allah and whether he had expressed gratitude for them to Allah with his heart, and by word and deed.

The Prophet said (If the Son of Adam had a valley of gold, he would desire another like it…). The case of a Nigerian Senator whose 40 properties have been forfeited by a court injunction exemplifies the Prophet’s saying. EFCC told the court that the landed properties, 10 of which are situated at Enugu, three in the United States of America, two in the United Kingdom, one in Lagos, nine in Dubai, and 15 located in the Federal Capital Territory, are suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of crime.

The servant says “My wealth, my wealth.” Yet he only gets three (benefits) from his wealth: that which he eats and finishes, that which he wears until it is worn out, or that which he gives in charity and it is spent”.

Bukhari reports, on the authority of Anas Ibn Malik that The Messenger of Allah said:“ Three things follow the deceased person, and two of them return while one returns behind with him: The things which follow him are: his family, his wealth and his actions; his family and his wealth return while his actions remain.” (i.e. of those three things, the only one which benefit him is his actions).

Then, shall ye be questioned that Day about joy (ye indulged in!) (Quran 102:8)

Meaning, on the Day of Resurrection, you all will be questioned concerning your gratitude towards the favors that Allah blessed you with, such as health, safety, sustenance and other things.

Bukhari, At-Tirmizi, An-Nasa’i and Ibn Majah narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that the Messenger of Allah said: “There are two blessings of which many people are deceived (i.e. about which they wrong or deceive themselves): Health and leisure time.” That is, they are slack, or negligent in giving thanks for them, neither making full use of them nor fulfilling their obligations regarding them.”

This Surah reminds one of the story of the rich man in late Yusuf Olatunji’s native ballad ‘Oba Oluwa loni dede’. The narrative exemplifies the fact that “We come with nothing and will go with nothing.”

O Allah we thank thee for all You have blessed us with. We recognize that it is not by our power but by Your Grace.

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.