 أعوض بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبهي نستعين رسل اللهما على سيدنا ونبينا محمد وأهلبيتها الطيبين الطاهرين قر الله العديم في محكم كتابه الكريم القول كالحق والاستقل قائلين أعوض بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم يا أيها الناس أنتم الفقراء والله والله هو الغني والحمد today across the world we see amongst the greatest social diseases is the problem of poverty in the United States, for instance, we see that 700,000 people live in poverty in the United Kingdom 100,000 people live in poverty and these nations are known as developed nations we have not even taken a look or examined the statistics of countries like India or Pakistan or Iraq or Afghanistan كونتريزيين في الثاني that have been living centuries or at least decades in poverty. Today, when we take a look at this major problem within the world, political candidates, politicians, economists, they all come forth and they try to create a reformation methodology in terms of removing this problem of poverty from society. Yet we see that when we reflect upon the word poverty, the first thing that often comes to our mind is insufficient funds in one's bank account or what we can coin as economic poverty. But when we take a look at the religion of Islam by virtue of the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the narrations of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the Zahir al-Bayt, we see that the term poverty is something far more vast and comprehensive. For instance, we see that poverty is not only limited to financial restraint, but poverty according to the traditions of Ahl al-Bayt is someone who doesn't have anyone to love him. Poverty is someone who is void of affection. Poverty is someone who does not have the ability or the potential to gain in education. Poverty is something that is far more wide and comprehensive than it is termed in the Western definition. We come forth and we see that an individual who fails to gain in knowledge of Allah SWT who fails to have the ability to be spiritual is known as a poor person. When we take a look at the wide and vast teachings of the religion of Islam and the teachings specifically of the Holy Qur'an, we see that they have reconstructed the definition of poverty number one and number two offered us solutions in terms of how we can overcome these problems. But the first step in terms of recognizing this particular disease is to understand what exactly the term justice means because we see that justice itself is the foundation of the purity and progression of community. The Hadith from Amir al-Mu'mineen it states The greatest and the strongest foundation for community for society's justice. If we take a look at the world today, a survey of the elitists within countries, we see that oftentimes the top 1% are those individuals who are the recipients of the majority of the tax breaks for the benefit within a particular nation. Rather, we see that it should be a means and a process where those who are living a life of poverty, those who do not have enough food or drink in their day to day life, people who live in the intensity of the bitter cold without blankets and without warm clothes and those individuals who fail to get a cold cup of water in the intensity of the heat of some of the nations that we take a look at today where poverty is very prevalent, they unfortunately are not the recipients of those benefits that they should be receiving from the political elite from the government for instance. Let's again we go back to understanding what exactly is justice. When we take a look at all of these problems in the world today, we see that it comes down to the fact of injustice and oppression taking place which leads us to having so many economic hurdles and obstacles to overcome in our day-to-day life. We see that there are two different forms of justice. One form of justice is what is known as external justice and the second form is what is known as internal justice. And what we are trying to state is that an individual or a community that has not won has not created an environment for internal justice within his own heart, he is never going to be able to find justice apparently. What do we mean? That today when we have political leaders, when we have community leaders, when we have individuals who they themselves have not overcome the injustice that is taking place within their own heart. Meaning that they are constantly transgressing the boundaries of Allah SWT, constantly in sin, constantly performing acts of immorality and decency, they can never be the flag bearers for justice in the world today. Only once we have individuals who have won the internal battle, meaning those individuals who perform actions solely for Allah SWT, have no longer wronged their own hearts and their own souls and their own selves as we recite in دعاكم الالهي ذرم تونفسي أو الله I have wronged, I have oppressed my own selves who are understanding what Allah SWT is trying to demonstrate towards us that He, at the greatest level of creation, He is an individual who is the best of words Allah SWT And when you have a leader like Ali Ibn bell Eba Talib, Aliis Assalam, who demonstrates of course, not the fact that he is a sinner, but in order to demonstrate how humble he is in front of Allah that you see that his leadership أولاً أصدقائيين أن يتعرفون في العلوة وهذا هو why we take a look for instance at the government of Rasool Allah صلى الله عليه و عليه وسلم and it's 11 years in Medina or if we take a look for instance at the 4 years in the 9 months of the governorship of Ariy ibn Abi Talib in Kufa we find that economic poverty is not present we find that everyone they come forth and they live their life in equity and injustice and in with opportunity many of you might be wondering how about that story of that one Christian man that Amir al-Mu'mineen is walking in the streets of Kufa and as he's passing by he states what is this and directing toward this one Christian beggar on the streets of Kufa when we take a look without getting into the details of that story we take a look and we reflect and we see that for centuries there has been animosity toward Ariy ibn Abi Talib عليه صلى الله عليه وسلم where historians and theologians and philosophers and people of all different avenues they've all attempted to reconstruct the life of Ariy ibn Abi Talib and present flaws in order to demonstrate that he is not the man of merit and virtue that the followers of Ariy ibn Abi Talib often preach we know this yet we find that we can only find one anecdote where there was poverty under the government of Amir al-Mu'mineen عليه صلى الله عليه وسلم and it is that one story in which Amir al-Mu'mineen immediately reconciles within the community how does Ariy ibn Abi Talib عليه صلى الله عليه وسلم remove economic poverty from community and what are some lessons that we can learn today and the one as we mentioned is that Amir al-Mu'mineen عليه صلى الله عليه وسلم he removes the problem of economic poverty and economic injustice in the community because he himself no longer performs the injustice of his own heart and of his own fault meaning that we as human beings need to make our very best effort to do things for Allah سبحانه وتعالى when we devote ourselves to Allah we see that God with his divine support will aid us in terms of removing any sort of social diseases that take place within community this is step number one on a very basic understanding number two we come forth and we see that Amir al-Mu'mineen عليه صلى الله عليه وسلم he frees up all of the natural resources within society and doesn't keep it in the hands of the government but rather it is redistributed toward the public what do we mean that today we take a look at the social construct political construct that we're living in the world today and we see that wealth by means of oil and by means of gas and by means of coal and by means of water and all of the other natural resources that are present within the world today they are all in the hands of the government they are all in the hands of the authorities of the particular nation or region yet we find that under the islamic government the true islamic government the government of رسول الله the government of Amir al-Mu'mineen the government of Ahlu al-Bayt عليه الصلام in terms of their construct what do we see we see that they free up all of these resources they are not in the hands of the government but they are for everyone we take a look and we see that land is something that if it's open if no one is living on a particular piece of land if no individual for instance has settled on a particular piece of land it's for anyone to go and attempt to build upon that yet we find that the government although is that body which helps to aid in this process of building of infrastructure and so on and so forth for instance an oil which is an extremely obviously popular natural resource today and runs our economy for lack of a better understanding of the nuances of oil and the way that it impacts the economic world today we come forth and we see that it is in the hands of particular groups and particular governmental organizations where they provide tax these important natural resources which every human being needs we find that under the government under the government of the holy prophet we come forth and we see that every prophet that that particular region gains from any of these natural resources that wealth is to be redistributed back toward the community which is why for instance about the stories of the followers of Amir al-Mu'mineen receiving wealth from the public treasury or the bayt al-mal it's not just handouts that everyone receives but there's a philosophy and there's a methodology behind that and that is the fact that the natural resources within a particular community they're in the hands of the government but only to be redistributed for the success and for the progression in terms of removing economic injustices and rectifying the problem of poverty today is the fact that the people of the bayt would stress the importance of freeing up natural resources by giving the land and by giving the resources within that land back toward the people it is not supposed to be in the hands of the government but every individual within community within society they should be able to reap the benefits of the God given blessings that Allah has offered toward us and finally number 3 what Amir al-Mu'mineen in order to eradicate the problem of economic poverty within community is the fact that would stress about the importance of being careful with the way that we managed our wealth within the community and specifically within government we find that one day Amir al-Mu'mineen he writes a letter to one of his governors and in this letter he writes this line he states ادقوا اقلامكم oh my companion oh my governor when you're writing when you take those scrolls that they used to have in the olden days or they used to write on leaves whatever it was they write nice with your pens meaning he continues وقاربو بين سطوركم he says when you're writing make sure you don't leave really massive lines in between your sentences meaning save paper and write small save ink when you have a leader like this we find that that influence trickles down to everyone and we find that Amir al-Mu'mineen when he stresses a point like this and he leads like this and we find that everyone who surrounds him they have to follow suit this is one example and another example in the famous story that many of us have heard طالحة الزبهر they come to visit عمير المؤمنين عري صرات وصرام عري ابن أبطارب is doing his work sitting in the public treasury at that moment they come toward عمير المؤمنين and they say we have some personal business to discuss with you he blows out that candle he said that candle was purchased with the money from the public treasury and this money since you came to speak with me about personal business I purchased this candle with my own money again when you have leaders like this when you have individuals who rule and lead like this we find that absolutely there is the potential to eradicate the problem of poverty today because when we take a look at the flip side we see governmental organizations in politicians and again the political elite oftentimes in nations what do they do they hoard the money the wealth they increase their own salaries as they wish they spend public money when that money should be redistributed to people who don't have blankets in the midst of the intensity of the winter of the western nations or the eastern nations we see we come forth and we see that عمير المؤمنين عري صرات وصرام عمير المؤمنين عري صرات وصرام ونرمو الناس من المؤمن اميجيطي if he felt that they were performing any acts of injustice when we take a look and when we examine this problem of poverty or of economic poverty across the world today we take a look and we see that every individual has a responsibility to follow suit and to follow the path of the the path of the world and the path of the world and the path of the world and the responsibility to follow suit and reflect upon the teachings of عمير المؤمنين عري صرات وصرام of the religion of Islam in terms of this particular problem that today we see that followers of the اهر البيت عري صرام in places like Iraq and in Pakistan and in Afghanistan and in East Africa and really all across the world today even in the western nations they are encountering this problem of economic poverty we have to go ahead and reflect and see what responsibilities do we have toward these individuals we have to take a look at our own accounts see the way that we spend money and it's not only about giving but it's about raising awareness about people and about communities who are overcoming these particular problems but very briefly let me just mention this point that economic poverty as we mentioned according to the theory of اهر البيت عري صرام is only one form of poverty that we find within the Islamic construct but we find that poverty is something far more comprehensive and far more vast as we mentioned earlier we see for instance that another form of poverty that اهر البيت عري صرام they reflect upon and they stress upon in reality is a problem of intellectual poverty individuals who fail to have knowledge who fail to be able to read and write of illiteracy for instance in many countries again even amongst followers of اهر البيت عري صرام is something that needs to impact us is something that needs to pain us we have to make our best efforts to not only encourage people in terms of basic necessities of reading and writing but presenting people the teachings of اهر البيت عري صرام an individual who fails to have you know الرويات of اهر البيت who fail to have a copy of نهج البلاغة and fail to have the توفيق to read the اهديث of الكافي they are poor it becomes our responsibilities as ambassadors of اهر البيت عري صرام to remove this intellectual poverty that is also taking place where people are absent toward the teachings of the اهر البيت عري صرام that's the form of poverty itself a third form of poverty in addition to economic poverty and intellectual or educational poverty individuals who fail to know and to understand الله سبحانه وتعالى what are they missing? if they fail to gain in the معرفة اهر البيت عري صرام what are they missing? they're missing everything when we take a look and we see individuals walking on the street and sitting in their religious congregations or even in their Islamic centers but they don't know about the greatness of the message of امام الحسين we should feel bad for them and we should make our very best effort to enrich them to enrich them of the glory that we have within our school the glory of the teachings of the اهر البيت عري صرام let's come and we have to take a look at the problem of poverty in a more comprehensive and in a more wider perspective that number one we have the problem of economic poverty like we mentioned and we can take lessons from those the teachings of امير الممين the teachings of the religion of Islam in order to reconcile these problems and these diseases of economic poverty within our community and within our society by demanding that the political elite for instance that they make an effort in order to free up rational resources for instance or at the very least we need to become amongst those communities who come toward their support number two intellectual poverty as we mentioned the fact that people about the Quran and number three spiritual poverty and we need to become amongst those who hold the flag of اهر البيت عري صرام and present it toward the world because their hearts are dark and their hearts are poor without the knowledge of اهر البيت without the knowledge of امام الهسين عري صراته وصرام and the imams that come from his progeny he states in the verse that I began with اوههو الغني والحميد اوه هماناتي اوهو بُرأيب من العيز واشيه هو العالم وبالتالي وحبهو المشاكل المأكس that every one of us are absent toward receiving the bounties and the blessings of اللّه سبحانه و تعالى because we always need to constantly be striving to attain closeness to him that we become enriched by his mercy and by his bounty و الحمد لله رب العالمين وسل الله هم على سيدنا و نبينا محمد وأهلبيتها الطيبين الطاهرين