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Is the Prophetic Hadith: "We have sent down wealth as a servant and religion as that which is to be served," authentic? And what is the intent behind seeking provision?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The hadith "Allah made wealth a means to His obedience" was not reported with this wording. Rather, it was reported with the wording "Indeed, We have sent down wealth for the establishment of prayer and the giving of zakat," and this is an authentic hadith. When seeking provision, a Muslim should intend to use it to uphold the religion, to spend on himself, and to draw closer to Allah through various financial acts of worship. Whoever intends good will find good. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentioned that the world is for four types of people: a man to whom Allah has given wealth and knowledge, so he maintains ties of kinship with it and recognizes Allah’s right in it; a man to whom Allah has given knowledge but no wealth, so he intends to do good with it; a man to whom Allah has given wealth but no knowledge, so he squanders his wealth; and a man to whom Allah has given neither wealth nor knowledge, so he intends to do evil with it.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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