Life, Wealth, and Knowledge: Aligning Intention and the Heart
Toward Insight: Reorienting Perception ﷽ In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful Imām ʿAlī (ʿa) said: «المالُ مادَّةُ الشَّهَواتِ» “Wealth is the source of desires.” (Nahj al-Balāghah, Saying 58) Many discussions in society focus on the misuse of wealth, knowledge, or resources, but this is only half the equation. The deeper root — the lack of insight and alignment of the heart and intention — is often overlooked. Without correcting this root, subtle deception persists: people mistake external outcomes, ease, or accumulation for divine favor, while the heart remains unexamined and misaligned. True understanding requires addressing not just how things are used, but how, why, and with what intention they are sought . Wealth, Intention, and the Heart Wealth in itself is neutral, yet it fuels the appetites of the nafs . Desires remain dormant without means; when wealth arrives, imagination and ego find wings. Traditional and academic perspectives focus on how w...