However, one of the main reasons why Allah has warned us of spending extravagantly is that we undoubtedly become excessively attached to the materialistic pleasures and satisfactions of this world to the extent that it tampers with our faith. Imam Ali al-Hadi (peace be upon him) has warned us that people are respected in this world for possessing wealth and in the Hereafter for possessing righteous deeds.

In the midst of those shopping sprees, we often lose track of or sadly rearrange our Islamic priorities in life. This becomes a problem when we own several houses but as a community, we fail to generate enough funds for a proper place of worship, we’ve got houses with home theatres at the expense of prayer rooms, we go for vacation around the world instead of going for Hajj even once, we’ve got women who own more gold than their ears can carry and literally enough Bollywood/Hollywood outfits to dress all the women in a poor village somewhere in South Asia. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has said, “The destruction of my female followers lies in two things – gold and immodest clothes. And the destruction of my male followers is in abandoning knowledge and compiling wealth.” This is exactly what Israaf is doing to so many of us today.

“And eat and drink, but waste not in extravagance. Certainly, He (Allah) likes not those who waste in extravagance.” (7:31)

Extravagance (Israaf) is one of those types of sins that most of us often indulge in without really realizing. And that’s because there is no uniform reason or way of spending “excessively”. Some of us are extravagant in the attempt to achieve self-satisfaction and temporary happiness in this world, while for others, the drive is unconstrained greed and pride.