In a Hadith, the Holy Prophet ﷺ once asked the Sahabah, “Tell me, who is truly destitute?” The Sahaba replied, “O’ Prophet of Allah ﷺ! We consider that person destitute, who has no money.” The Holy Prophet ﷺ replied, “The true destitute is not the person who does not have any money. The true destitute is the person, who will present before Allah Ta’alah on the Day of Qiyamat, having many Salah, many fasts, numerous Tasbeehat and Nawafil in his balance sheet, but on the other hand, he would have usurped someone’s property unlawfully, he would have deceived someone, he would have hurt someone’s feelings, he would have harmed someone, and in this manner, would have violated rights of many human beings.

On the Day of Qiyamat, all these people whose rights had been violated, would protest to Allah Ta’alah, “O’ Allah! This person had violated our rights in the earlier life. Please make him pay back our rights.” On that day, dollars and dinars wouldn’t be acceptable as currency. The currency of that day, would be good deeds. Someone would be given his Salah as compensation, someone his fasts, and someone his Tasbeehat and other good deeds. This way, he will eventually run out of good deeds, but there would still remain some people, whose rights he had violated. Then Allah Ta’alah would order, that since his good deeds have run out, now, put the sins of those people whose rights he violated, in his account, to compensate for the hurt he caused them. So, this person would have come with a great wealth of good deeds, but will end up with a great number of sins. He is the one who is truly destitute.”