{"id":18209,"date":"2015-07-23T09:36:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T09:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=18209"},"modified":"2015-07-23T09:36:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T09:36:58","slug":"waste-not-want-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/waste-not-want-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste Not, Want Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOMCA\u2019s survey of 1,000 respondents in 2013 finds that 37% of young Malaysians are living beyond their means, while 47% used more than one-third of their monthly incomes to settle debts. No wonder that almost 25,000 Malaysians below the age of 35 have become bankrupts from 2010 to 2014 (The Star<\/em>, 22 June 2015).<\/p>\n

The English proverb \u201cwaste not, want not\u201d sums up the importance of using one\u2019s resources wisely so that one will be kept from poverty or bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

If we do not waste what we have, we will still have it in the future and will not lack (want) it. Indeed, if we do not waste anything, we will always have enough. A more alliterative variant of the proverb articulates thus: \u201cwillful waste makes woeful want.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no ethical merit to spend merely out of bravado on the spur of the moment. It is symptomatic of an intention for idle show, mere display, impressing other people of one\u2019s lavish lifestyle, or expending thoughtlessly.<\/p>\n

While every person should live within his means, and should not spend more than he can afford, or more than occasion demands, we observe that some people from the very beginning ruin their lives by extravagant expenses at their weddings for example.<\/p>\n

God says in the Qur\u2019an, \u201cDo not waste your wealth senselessly. Surely, the wasters are brothers of satans, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Lord\u201d (al-Isra\u2019<\/em>, 17:26-27).<\/p>\n

To understand why wasters are evil, it is important to observe what magnificent resources God provides in nature for the sustenance of all His creatures.<\/p>\n

Although the all-encompassing divine provision shows us that God loves all His creatures, each and every individual must be grateful and enjoy resources in moderation and justice, observing His strict warning against all excess and waste, which are two sides of the same coin that must be avoided.<\/p>\n

To commit excess and waste means to be selfish, by taking away resources from other creatures and thus creating unsustainable future; and God would not like selfishness.<\/p>\n

It implies an utter lack of gratitude for the gift of sustenance bestowed by God upon humanity at large. The squanderers or misusers of God\u2019s gift are ungrateful to Him, hence being described as brothers of satans, the evil ones.<\/p>\n

God says in the Qur\u2019an, \u201cO children of Adam! Beautify yourselves for every act of worship, and eat and drink, but do not waste: indeed He does not love the wasteful ones\u201d (al-A\u2018raf<\/em>, 7:31). In another verse: \u201cEat of their fruit when it comes to fruition, and give [to the needy] their due when you harvest it. And do not waste: verily, He does not love the wasters!\u201d (al-An\u2018am<\/em>, 6:141).<\/p>\n

We read with dismay that 270,000 tonnes of food go to waste during the fasting month of Ramadan, a 30% increase mostly due to over-preparation of food by eateries and hotels for buffet spreads (The Star<\/em>, 19 June 2015).<\/p>\n

Wastefulness or the excess of lavishness is a tragic moral defect, just as much as miserliness is a vice.<\/p>\n

The divine command is to keep always to the happy medium in matters concerning private property and personal consumption. We must keep a just measure between the capacity of our economic resources and our necessities, needs and wants.<\/p>\n

In the Qur\u2019an, the wasters who are brothers of satans are contrasted with the true servants of the merciful God: \u201cThe true servants of the merciful God are…those who, whenever they spend, are neither wasteful nor miserly, but take a proper stand between those two extremes\u201d (al-Furqan<\/em>, 25:67).<\/p>\n

The term used in the Qur\u2019an is tabdhir<\/em>, which relates to the purpose of one\u2019s spending. Waste is \u201cspending without a righteous purpose\u201d or \u201cspending in a frivolous cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the interpreters of the Qur\u2019an, Abu al-Hajjaj Mujahid (d. 722) illustrated this principle by stating that \u201cif a man were to spend all that he possesses in a righteous cause [as the occasion demands], it could not be termed wasteful spending; but if he spends even a small amount in a frivolous cause, it is squandering.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the words of the theologian Sharif al-Murtada, \u201cA man of true generosity is he who spends his wealth in God\u2019s way [and thus in public welfare]. The expending of one\u2019s wealth deserves the divine reward only when it is accompanied by the wish to seek after God\u2019s countenance: to worship Him, to obey Him [and not to selfishness]. When it is not accompanied by all this, the person who spends does not deserve any divine reward by his spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another term used in the Qur\u2019an for committing waste is israf<\/em>, which means \u201cbeing immoderate\u201d, \u201ctransgressing the right measure\u201d, or \u201cgoing beyond the due limits\u201d of God. The same term is employed to refer to the acts of eating and drinking immoderately as well as to the custom of sodomy, spreading corruption in the land, ascribing partners to Allah, and committing excesses in revolt against His explicit prohibition (7:81, 26:151-152, 40:42-43, 5:32).<\/p>\n

Indeed, if one is prone to commit excess and waste in eating and drinking, then one is more likely to seek the gratification of other passions and emotions in an overpermissive demeanour.<\/p>\n

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FOMCA\u2019s survey of 1,000 respondents in 2013 finds that 37% of young Malaysians are living beyond their means, while 47% used more than one-third of their monthly incomes to settle debts. No wonder that almost 25,000 Malaysians below the age of 35 have become bankrupts from 2010 to 2014 (The Star, 22 June 2015). The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-star","category-220","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}