What advice do you have for alleviating poverty?

Question: What advice do you have for alleviating poverty, which is a barrier to seeking religious knowledge and acting according to spiritual guidelines?

Answer: We should firstly understand that Allah and His awliya have guaranteed to fulfill the needs of the seekers of religious knowledge (tullab). They have promised us and guaranteed that if we tread on the path of seeking knowledge of religion with sincerity, Allah will not leave us alone and the Ahlulbayt (peace be upon them) will support us in this path.

We have many examples of scholars in our history who received the special attention of Allah. Although they went through hardships, but they had lofty goals to acquire religious knowledge, to understand it and act upon it.

One of the practical aspects of seeking religious knowledge is to trust in Allah and rely on His promises, as well as paying attention to the many virtues of seeking religious knowledge and transferring it to others.

At the same time, one of the ways to avoid poverty is by developing contentment in life; this is one of the ways of reaching asceticism (zuhd). As well as this, duas and prayers to increase sustenance in general have been recommended to us, and these can be found in Mafatih al-Jinan.

Repentance is also very important, and we have been advised to do istighfaar 100 times in the early morning or after the morning prayers. We should also recite the azaan out loud during prayer times. Similarly, it is recommended to seek the intercession of the Ahlulbayt, recite the salah of istighasa for Imam Mahdi (pbuh), and recite the prayer of Jafar e Tayyar. There is also a dua in the ta’qeebaat of morning prayers: “bismillahi wa billahi wa sallallahu ala Muhammad wa aalihi wa ufawwizu amri ilallah”[1]. There are other duas and narrations in this topic, and by having the belief that our sustenance will increase through these, Allah will provide this for us.

[1] Al Kafi, (Al Islamiyah Print), Vol 2, P 547