ALLAH WANTS YOU TO BE RICH: FOUNDATIONS OF MUSLIM CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN AL-GHAZĀLĪ'S IḤYĀ’ ‘ULŪM AL-DĪN

Abstract

While Muslims comprise about a quarter of the world population,
they control far less than 25% of global wealth. With few exceptions,
Muslim countries are among the poorest in the world. To make
things worse, Muslim preachers tend to justify this status quo by
teaching that Allah prefers Muslims to be poor. Al-Ghazali’s views
are often invoked in justifying this assertion. This paper argues that
Allah wants to see His servants wealthy and that al-Ghazali’s
emphasis on poverty was an educational strategy. Otherwise, a
careful reading of his magnum opus, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din shows that
not possessing material wealth is not the ideal situation of a Muslim.
The ideal is to have one’s soul focused on being mindful of Allah and
detached from material possessions, thereby giving them away
without hesitation whenever need arises. We end by highlighting the
implications of this understanding of al-Ghazali’s work on the career
development of Muslims in school and beyond.