Adab al-Mufrad

Benefits and Issues:
➊ Al-Tibi rahimahullah has stated that the literal meaning of *faqr* (poverty) is "to break," and it is derived from *faqār al-ẓahr* (the vertebrae of the back). In technical usage, it is employed in four senses:
• The existence of essential needs: this condition applies to all people as long as they are in this transient world. As Allah the Exalted says:
﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ إِلَى اللَّهِ﴾ (Fāṭir: 15)
“O mankind! You are all in need of Allah.”
• The absence of basic necessities: Allah the Exalted says:
﴿لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الَّذِينَ أُحْصِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ﴾ (al-Baqarah: 273)
“Charity is for the poor and the needy who are restricted for the cause of Allah.”
• Lack of contentment: this is used in contrast to the soul’s richness and independence, because sometimes a person, despite possessing abundant wealth, is still poor, as he lacks contentment.
• Being poor before Allah the Exalted, as in the saying: “Do not make me poor by making me independent of You.” (Faḍlullāh al-Ṣamad)
In the mentioned supplication, refuge is sought from the third condition—that greed and avarice arise within a person and he is deprived of contentment. The second condition is also intended, that is, when there is no patience and no acceptance of Allah’s decree.
➋ By “scarcity” is meant scarcity in good and virtuous deeds, because abundance in worldly matters is not praiseworthy. Some have interpreted it as scarcity of wealth, friends, and patience, and that refuge is sought from being deprived of basic necessities and from being unable to worship Allah.
➌ The meaning of “humiliation” is that a person has no standing before people, is considered insignificant, and is given no importance. However, the more apparent meaning here is the humiliation that results from sin and disobedience, or humiliation before the wealthy due to scarcity.
➍ Whether a person is an oppressor or oppressed, in both cases there is loss for him. If he is an oppressor, he incurs the displeasure of Allah the Exalted; if he is oppressed, then along with worldly humiliation, due to ingratitude and despair, it may become a cause for distance from Allah the Exalted. Among the forms of “the oppression of men” from which refuge is sought, as mentioned in previous pages, this is also one.