Extravagance varies according to richness and poverty
30-1-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
What is the ruling on buying expensive mobile phones?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
Allaah Almighty Permits good things for His slaves and Forbids bad things. Allaah Almighty Says (what means): {Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel, who enjoins upon them what is right and forbids them what is wrong and makes lawful for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil and relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they – who have believed in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him – it is those who will be the successful.} [Quran 7:157]
There is a general Sharee‘ah rule which states that all beneficial items are lawful in principle, unless there is a text proving their unlawfulness. This rule is based on the verse in which Allaah Almighty Says (what means): {It is He who created for you all of that which is on the earth.} [Quran 2:29]
Hence, in principle it is permissible to use mobile phones, unless it is proven that they seriously harm the body because there should be no harm or malice. If there is no harm involved in using them, then it is permissible to use, buy and sell them.
We bring to your attention that moderateness in spending is the Islamic approach and it was the Sunnah of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. There should be neither extravagance nor stinginess. Everyone knows his conditions well. So, it is impermissible to exceed the limits in spending, otherwise, it would be unlawful extravagance. It should be known that the degree of extravagance varies from one person to another, according to the degree of richness and poverty. Perhaps spending a sum of money by a person is considered extravagance, whereas it is not considered so when it is spent by another person.
Allaah Knows best.