The Nineteenth Flash

On Frugality

[This treatise is about frugality and contentment, and wastefulness and extravagance.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Eat and drink, but waste not by excess.(7:31)

This verse gives most important and wise instruction in the form of categorically commanding  frugality  and  clearly  prohibiting  wastefulness.  The  matter  contains seven points.

FIRST POINT

The All-Compassionate Creator desires THANKS in return for the bounties He bestows on mankind, while wastefulness is contrary to thanks, and slights the bounty and causes loss. Frugality, however, shows respect for the  bounty and is profitable. Yes, frugality is both a sort of thanks, and shows respect towards the divine mercy manifested in the bounties, and  most definitely is the cause of plenty. So too, like abstinence, it  is health-giving for the  body, and since it  saves a person from the degradation of  what  is  in  effect  begging,  is  a  cause  of self-respect.  It  is  also  a powerful means of experiencing the pleasure to be found in bounties, and tasting that pleasure in bounties which apparently afford no pleasure. As for wastefulness, since it is opposed to these instances of wisdom, it has grave consequences.

SECOND POINT

The All-Wise Maker created the human body in the form of a wonderful palace and  resembling a well-ordered city. The sense of taste in the mouth is like a door- keeper, and the nerves and blood vessels like telephone and telegraph wires; they are the means by which the sense of taste communi cates with the stomach, which is at the centre of the body, and informs it of the food that   enters   the  mouth.  If  the  body  and  stomach  have  no  use  for  it,  it  says: “Forbidden!”, and expels it. And sometimes the food is harmful and bitter as well as not being beneficial for the body, and it spits it out immediately.

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