The Dangers of Demanding More: A Lesson in Halal Earnings from Ḥasan al-Baṣri

How a Wife’s Influence Can Lead to Ḥaram Earnings: A Cautionary Tale

Demanding more (worldy matters) can lead the husband to Ḥaram earnings

Narrated Ḥasan al-Baṣri raḥimahullāh: 

“I went to a cloth merchant in Madinah to buy a thawb. He started praising his products and making (false) oaths. And so I left him and said to myself I shouldn’t buy from such a person. And I bought it from someone else. Two years later I made Hajj and went to that merchant, but this time I did not hear him praising his products or making oaths. I said to him: Aren’t you the man to whom I came to two years ago? He said: Yes. I said: And what made you leave doing what I saw you doing back then? Now I don’t see you praising your products or making oaths! He said: I had a wife, and whenever I came to her with less, she would look down on me and whenever I came to her with much, she considered it to be little. Then Allah looked at me (meaning: He had mercy on me) and she passed away and I married again. Whenever I wanted to go to the market (to earn my livelihood), she used to grab me by the collar of my garment and say: O So-and-so! Fear Allah and do not feed us except with the pure (halal earnings). If you come to us with less, we will add to it. And if we receive nothing, we will support you in our home (by making handicrafts and selling them, wa Allahu a’lam)

[Al-Mujālasah wal Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm, Aḥmad Ibn Marwān Ibn Muḥammad al-Daynūri rahimahullah]