Jabir bin Abdullah relates that the Holy Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be with him) said: “Avoid cruelty and injustice, for on the Day of Judgement, the same will turn into several darknesses; and guard yourselves against miserliness; for this has ruined nations that lived before you. Miserliness led them to bloodshed and to treat the unlawful as lawful.”
(Muslim)
This hadīth acquaints the believers that acts of injustice and cruelty are despised as darkness on the Day of Judgement. It also reminds them that miserliness leads to bloodshed, and has ruined earlier nations. A miser also does not hesitate in making a prohibited thing permissible for himself.
Cruelty and injustice assume different forms. The Blessed Messenger said Allah has decried the fire of Hell for a person who usurps the property of a Muslim through false oath. He has warned that “your blood, your belongings and your honour are sacred to each other.” He also said a Muslim is a person who does not harm another Muslim either by his tongue or hands.
The Blessed Messenger has admonished the believers against cruelty not only upon human beings but also animals, birds and even plants. Miserliness is the manifestation of greed, petty-mindedness and stone-heartedness. This inevitably leads one to envy, hatred, illegal means of amassing wealth and not looking after the needy, the poor and the destitute. The have-nots develop a grudge against the haves and wage a class war. The miser becomes a bane of society and when the disease spreads, hatred and enmity results in bloodshed.