How would you define israaf?
Can I define and constrain it by the boundaries of a box, or must it remain vague and shapeless? Whats exactly is opulence and decadence? Is it extravagant to have a 6,000 sq. ft home if you have ten kids and a $1.5M salary? What about your car?
If within my local geographical area, the average home price is $400K (as it actually happens to be in the Greater Toronto Area currently) and let’s suppose the decent salary point recommended to support such a house is $80K, then what do you take as defining the social average, the 3urf, so to speak? Do yo look at the $400K price and see what SF you can get in that range? Or do you use the ratio of salary-vs-home price? And since in this case it is 1:5, then if I my total annual compensation including base and bonuses is a million dollars … then am I reasonably justified in buying a $5M house out on Mississauga Road, or even on the Bridle Path?
What about food? Obviously the amount constituting “moderate intake” would be different for a 250-lb quarterback than it would for a 120-lb nerd. But what if you have two guys, each of whom is 200-lbs and similar body structure and BMI, but one has a low metabolic rate while the other has a ridiculously high metabolic rate? In that case, is Senor Speedy Gonzales justified in eating more than his Slow Mo’ counterpart?
What about clothing? Lets say you have two guys who each clear $100K per year. One is a client-facing sales executive. The other is a computer programmer with internal-facing job roles. Is the sales guy justified in buying a $3,500 Harry Rosen custom suit, or even spending more on a bespoke? If you said no, then do your thoughts change when you think of the incident where two companions were rebuked by Umar [ra] on the outskirts of Jerusalem for wearing fine cloaks and mantles? They replied and said it was necessary to gain the respect of the public, who were used to their former Roman overlords wearing the same. After hearing this, Umar [ra] accepted their reasoning.
What about ruminating about such topics at 3am instead of getting some sleep?
Obviously I had too much coke and cheesecake tonight.
Filed under: Miscellany
ok, erm, i wouldn’t advise you on that $5m house just yet; donno about american mortgages, but british ones are haram, and anyhow, i don’t think anyone has that much filoos, to state the obvious.
other than that, yes you evidentally drank too much coke (cheesecake is fine though!). and your fav sa7aabi must be Omar Ibn Ul-Kha66aab (RA)… impressive choice.
yeah this was my brain ejecting some random ballast
coke+cheesecake=cocaine
i think those are good points. maybe you can show this to ur friend who was asking abt what is ‘normal’ in terms of engagement rings… every1 is diff and it depends a lot on the circumstances, upbringing and background of both…
they say you are what you eat.
so you ever hear about that plan of mine to eat a lot of cheesecake until i become one big fat slab of walking cheesecake, and then i’d eat myself into non-existence. What a way to go out eh. The more you diminish, the happier you get ahahaha