Security, Health and Daily Bread: Possessing the Whole World

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 30 March 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Glory be to Allah, how wondrous are the ḥadīths of Muhammad ﷺ! He, peace and blessings be upon him, said: «مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْكُمْ آمِنًا فِي سِرْبِهِ، مُعَافًى فِي بَدَنِهِ، عِنْدَهُ قُوتُ يَوْمِهِ، فَكَأَنَّمَا حِيزَتْ لَهُ الدُّنْيَا بِحَذَافِيرِهَا» (“Whoever among you wakes up secure in his dwelling, healthy in his body, with his food for the day, it is as though the world has been gathered for him in its entirety”).^[1]

A Prophetic Comparison Between What Is in the Hand and What Is in the Heart

That is the sum of the matter, for we do not want more from the world than that. And this is the comparison the Prophet ﷺ made: a person who owns nothing but his food for the day, something little in the eyes of onlookers and by the counting of fingers, who has very simple things; yet in terms of the psychological and heartfelt valuation of these possessions, he literally owns the world. That is because the spoils of the life of this world are merely self-sufficiency for one day, hoping for no more than that in life. Then the sum of the world is that you feel intimacy with those around you and those among whom you are.

The One Who Spends the Night Carrying the Worry of His Morning

And you see how many problems occur between fathers and children, and between husbands and wives, and what goes on between them of dialogues, arguments, quarrels and cases. So you can imagine a person who spends the night carrying the worry of the morning that will come upon him, because he does not know what will come of the continuation of the hostilities between him and the other party. One waits for the morning to go to court, and stand before the judge, and his wife who used to stand before him at home stands on the other side, and each of them divulges the secrets of the other and brings out the burdens of the home, and children look at this one and that one.

Or there is hostility between a man and his brother and they are neighbors, so he fears that his brother will attack him in the night and kill him or take him off to some place. A man who does not feel safe to sleep because he is not safe from the harms of his neighbor. So you can also imagine a person who is not healthy in his body, but has a severe, powerful illness, awaiting relief from Allah that He ease for him a medicine that he does not know from where it will come.

The Order of the Ḥadīth and the System of Priorities

And reflect on the gradation in the ḥadīth: the Prophet ﷺ said: «مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْكُمْ آمِنًا…» (“Whoever among you wakes up secure…”). Imagine: as long as a person is secure, this feeling of security in itself gives him rest. Then health, glory be to Allah; then food, even if little: the food of a day.

So whoever wakes up secure in his dwelling, healthy in his body, then whoever is healthy in his body has the ability to earn money, to travel the earth and strive in it, to make a living, to communicate with people, and other things. So it is as though the Prophet ﷺ made for us the system of priorities, and gave us the methodology of intellectual construction in the life of the Muslim person: security, health, and food.

We are not talking about numbers in the thousands or the millions, but about the strength of the day that I may obtain from my brother; he gives me a plate that suffices me until the end of the day. I have no numbers, glory be to Him, the Most High, and praise be to Allah.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Reported by al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah with a similar wording (in which they have «في جسده» in place of «في بدنه»), and it is ḥasan; the wording in the body text is as the speaker uttered it. The transcription ended with a truncated supplication («I ask Allah that…») which was not included, just as a truncated supplication at the beginning of the transcription was deleted.