The High_Fi Syndrome : Are You Suffering from it?

Author: Nisaar Nadiadwala

Some years ago my mother went to attend the wedding of a girl known to us. It was conducted in the compound of the groom’s apartment, in a town a little out of Mumbai. The house was huge and well furnished with new furniture giving an idea to the visitors that the girl is lucky to have found a well settled boy, The people were waiting for the Qadhi to conduct the nikah. At that someone from the society came to the girl’s relative asking for the guardian of the girl an elderly gentleman got up and introduced himself. The man warned the guardian sternly. You are being deceived by your ‘son is law to be’! Neither he owns this house nor has he taken it on rent, even the furniture has been brought on rent!

Many people appear to be richer than they actually are! Some to deceive others while some do it for the pleasure of being taken as a high class celebrity! They do get a good amount of success because ‘where there are greedy, cheaters never go hungry….”

Many people measure richness through the capacity of earning or the amount of wealth collected, where as some judge it by observing the amount of wealth you spend. The last parameter is today’s trend. What remains hidden is that many of these extravagant are turning into ‘a class of debtors’ the tempting advertisements allure more and more people into spending more than they can afford.

From the Islamic financial perspective people can be divided into four broad groups each can have off shoots of sub groups.

1. Those who earn through Halal and spend in halal

2. Those who earn through halal but spend in haram

3. Those who earn through haram but spend in halal

4, Those who earn through haram and spend in haram

Except for the first group, the rest of three are dangerously wrong. In fact extravagance is one of the main reasons of financial depression. A young man gets a good job in a call center and earns money like he never had, so he buys for his family, his wives, his children, his mother and sisters, expensive mobiles, but for them branded clothes takes them to expensive tours…he makes them addicted to luxury and all of a sudden comes a financial recession that make shim looks his job. He can control his expenses but the family now cannot adjust the high fi life they had enjoyed. Experts call is HIGH-FI syndrome. In these cases it seen that the person does not cut down his luxuries but cuts down his necessitous. He refuses to pay for his old and ailing parents…..

Mass Extravagance is quickly becoming an accepted form of civilizations. From Government to common citizens including private sector, we are spending the valuable wealth lavishly. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a huge population belonging to the middle class, with labour class, clerks, sales men, small shopkeepers, government servants…. but look at their sales chart in past five years! Look at their marriages, their furniture, their life styles ….But naturally they are buying beyond their capacity. Most of these items are bought out of loan hoping to use ti today and pay tomorrow

Do you know what the amount of India’s annual food wastage is? Guess! It is 58,000 crore Rupees every year! A nation whose 20 percent of population lives with only one meal a day wastes its 58,000 crores rupees of food every year!

The Qur’an sums up this mentality in Surah Isra Ch, 17, verse 26-27 Do not waste your wealth lile a extravagant. Indeed extravagant are the brothers of Shaytaan, and Indeed Shaytaan is ungrateful to his Lord

In an Islamic financial system, your financial IQ is connected to your spending wisdom. After all a person who has no knowledge is termed as AN IGNORANT but a person who possesses it and yet does not benefit from is a SUPERLATIVE IGNORANT… AM i RIGHT?

________________________________________

Author: Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on Islam and Muslims. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com | www.nisaaryusuf.wordpress.com