Lecture

Frugality

İktisat — a compilation from the Risale-i Nur

This lecture is drawn almost entirely from the treatise the Risale-i Nur devotes to frugality: the Nineteenth Flash — "on frugality and contentment, wastefulness and prodigality". The treatise consists of seven points (Nükte); selected passages from each are gathered here. The interspersed remarks (Note) serve only as orientation; sources in parentheses: book, chapter, section.

Terms: iktisat — frugality, right measure; israf — wastefulness; kanaat — contentment; hırs — greed; hısset — miserliness; bereket — blessing, plenty.

I. The Command of the Qur'an

كُلُوا وَ اشْرَبُوا وَ لَا تُسْرِفُوا
— "Eat and drink, but waste not." This noble verse gives a most important lesson in wisdom: a decisive command of frugality and an explicit prohibition of wastefulness.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash — the treatise on frugality, preamble)

II. Reverence for the Bounty — Contempt for the Bounty

The All-Compassionate Creator asks for thanks in return for the bounties He gives to humankind. Wastefulness is the opposite of thanks: a loss-laden contempt for the bounty. Frugality, by contrast, is a profitable reverence toward the bounty. Yes, frugality is at once an inward thanksgiving; a respect for the Divine mercy present in the bounties; most certainly a cause of plenty; for the body, like a regimen, a source of health; a cause of dignity that saves from the abasement of inward begging; and a powerful means of sensing the pleasure within the bounty and of tasting the pleasure even in bounties that seem tasteless. Wastefulness, since it runs contrary to these wisdoms, has grievous consequences.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, First Point)

III. The Tongue Is a Doorkeeper

The All-Wise Maker created the human body in the form of a perfect palace and after the likeness of a well-ordered city. … Now since the sense of taste in the mouth is a doorkeeper — and the stomach, as regards the governance of the body, a master and ruler — if the gift that comes to that palace or that city and is presented to the ruler of the palace has a worth of a hundred degrees, then to the doorkeeper, by way of a tip, only some five degrees are fitting, and no more. Lest the doorkeeper grow proud, be led astray, forget his duty, and let into the palace those agitators who pay a larger tip.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Second Point)

IV. Two Morsels

Upon this mystery, let us now suppose two morsels. One morsel of nourishing food such as cheese and egg, worth forty para; the other, of the finest baklava, worth ten kuruş. Before they enter the mouth, there is, as regards the body, no difference between these two morsels — they are equal; and after they pass the throat, they are still equal in nourishing the body; indeed, sometimes the forty-para cheese nourishes better. Only in caressing the sense of taste in the mouth is there the difference of half a minute. For the sake of half a minute, to rise from forty para to ten kuruş — judge for yourself what a senseless and harmful waste that is.

Frugality and contentment are conduct in conformity with the Divine wisdom: they treat the sense of taste as a doorkeeper and tip it accordingly. Wastefulness, acting contrary to that wisdom, is quickly slapped for it: it upsets the stomach and loses the true appetite. Feeding on a false, artificial appetite born of the variety of dishes, it causes indigestion and makes ill.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Second Point)

V. The Taste of the Thankful — and the Lesson of Gavs-ı A'zam

Note — The point refines the rule: for the truly thankful, the sense of taste is an inspector of the kitchens of Mercy. There follows the famous answer of Gavs-ı A'zam Şeyh Geylanî — to the mother who complained that her son, in his training, was eating dry bread while the master ate chicken:

But the sense of taste of the truly thankful, of the people of reality and the people of the heart, is like an overseer and inspector of the kitchens of Divine mercy. … On condition of not wasting, of purely performing the duty of thankfulness and of sensing and recognising the varieties of Divine bounty — and provided it is lawful and leads neither to abasement nor to begging — it may pursue its pleasure.

"Whenever your son's spirit rules his body, his heart rules his self, and his reason rules his stomach — and he desires pleasure for the sake of thankfulness: then let him, too, eat delicious things."

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Third Point)

VI. "He Who Is Frugal Is Not Burdened by His Household"

لَا يَعُولُ مَنِ اقْتَصَدَ — by the mystery of this noble hadith: he who is frugal does not suffer much hardship and toil in maintaining his family. Yes, that frugality is a certain cause of blessing and a source of good livelihood — the decisive proofs of this are beyond count and reckoning.

To those wealthy notables I said: "True, my money is very little; but I have frugality, and I am accustomed to contentment. I am richer than you." … Yes: he who does not practise frugality is a candidate for falling into abasement, inward beggary and misery.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Fourth Point)

VII. True Provision Is Under the Lord's Guarantee

Yes, provision is of two kinds: One is the true provision, by which one lives. By the ruling of the verse, that provision is under the guarantee of the Lord. Unless man's own misuse of choice interferes, he will in any case find that necessary provision — and will not be compelled to sacrifice his religion, his honour or his dignity.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Fourth Point)

VIII. The Poor Man's Bread, the Sultan's Baklava

God Almighty, out of the perfection of His generosity, makes the poorest man sense the pleasure of His bounty like the richest, and the beggar like a sultan. Indeed, the pleasure a poor man draws from a dry piece of black bread, by way of hunger and frugality, is more delicious than the pleasure a sultan or a rich man draws from the finest baklava, eaten with the weariness and lack of appetite that come of wastefulness.

God forbid! Frugality is dignity and generosity. Miserliness and baseness are the inner face of the outwardly manly bearing of the wasteful and the prodigal.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Fifth Point)

IX. Frugality Is Not Miserliness: the Answer of İbn-i Ömer

Note — Abdullah İbn-i Ömer (r.a.) haggles in the market over forty para — and at the doors of his house gives, unnoticed, a gold coin to each of two poor men. To the astonished Companion he replies:

Between frugality and miserliness there is a great difference. As humility is a praiseworthy quality, in essence distinct from the self-abasement that belongs to bad character, and resembling it only in appearance; and as dignity is a praiseworthy quality, in essence distinct from the arrogance that belongs to bad character, and resembling it only in appearance — so frugality, which belongs to the exalted character of the Prophet, indeed is among the pivots of the order of Divine wisdom in the universe, has no kinship whatever with miserliness, which is a compound of baseness, stinginess, covetousness and greed. Only in appearance is there a likeness.

"My conduct in the market came from frugality, from soundness of mind, and from guarding the trust and honesty that are the basis and soul of trade — it was not miserliness. My conduct at my house came from the tenderness of the heart and the perfection of the spirit. Neither was that miserliness, nor is this wastefulness."

The İmam-ı A'zam, pointing to this mystery, said: لَا اِسْرَافَ فِى الْخَيْرِ كَمَا لَا خَيْرَ فِى الْاِسْرَافِ — "There is no waste in good and charity (to those who deserve it), just as there is no good in waste."

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Sixth Point)

X. Wastefulness Begets Greed; Greed Ends in Loss

Wastefulness begets greed. Greed yields three fruits. The first: discontent. And discontent breaks the zeal for effort and work; instead of giving thanks it makes one complain, and casts one into idleness. It abandons the lawful, honest, modest property and seeks property unlawful and effortless — and on that road sacrifices its dignity, even its honour. The second fruit of greed: disappointment and loss — to miss what one sought, to become unwelcome, and to be left without ease and assistance. …

As the innate contentment of trees, which stand in need of provision, makes their provision hasten to them, while the animals, in greed, chase their provision amid toil and want — this shows the great harm of greed and the immense benefit of contentment. And that to all weak young, for the contentment which is the language of their state, a food as delicate as milk flows from an unexpected quarter … proves our case most brilliantly. … اَلْقَنَاعَةُ كَنْزٌ لَا يَفْنٰى — by the mystery of the hadith "Contentment is a treasure that never runs out", contentment is a treasury of good livelihood and ease of life; greed, a mine of loss and misery.

The third fruit: greed breaks sincerity and injures the work for the hereafter. For if a God-fearing man has greed, he desires the regard of the people. And he who courts the regard of the people cannot find perfect sincerity.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Seventh Point)

XI. In Sum

In sum: wastefulness begets discontent. Discontent breaks the zeal of work and casts into idleness; it opens for one's life the door of complaint and makes one complain without end. It breaks sincerity and opens the door of ostentation. It breaks dignity and points the way of begging. Frugality, by contrast, begets contentment. عَزَّ مَنْ قَنَعَ ذَلَّ مَنْ طَمَعَ — by the mystery of the hadith "Honoured is he who is content; abased is he who covets", contentment begets dignity. And it encourages effort and work, increases zeal, and sets one working.

(Lem'alar — The Flashes, Nineteenth Flash, Seventh Point)

The English renderings of the quotations are our own close translations of the original; omissions are marked with "…". For the original wording see the Turkish version of this page.