Allah is the Creator of man, all other beings and things, animate or inanimate, in fact the entire universe. But what is the distinction between the creation of man and that of other animate or living beings (let’s set aside inanimate things for the time being)? The distinction lies in man’s power of reasoning, his ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, virtue from vice, permissible from impermissible, dos from don’ts, etc. Those who realise this distinction know for certain wherefrom to earn money and wherefrom not to, and where to spend the hard-earned money and where not to. This is so because Allah has created man in ‘the best of moulds’ (the Qur’ān, 95:4), blessing him with all these and such other powers and abilities.
But the question is whether man realises the powers and abilities he has been blessed with. Does he make good use of them? Does he reflect on them and thank Allah, in words and deeds, for all the blessings and bounties? A cursory glance on the world around tells us that only a few people who believe in the Oneness of God and His teachings are able to do so. Otherwise, the large segments of masses are deeply immersed in mundane pleasures, being quite indifferent to divine teachings. The result is that they are nothing but the slaves of their wishes and ambitions, whether or not they behove them being human.
On December 31, 2022, a report said that a Japanese man spent around 3,000,000 yen (`18.85 lakhs) to get an ultra-realistic wolf costume designed for him. For this he hired a professional company known as Zeppet. But why did he do so? On the condition of anonymity, he reportedly stated, “Because of my love for animals since childhood and some realistic animal suits appearing on TV, I dreamed of ‘being one someday’.”
The December 31 report also reminds the readers that some time ago a Japanese named Toco, also a Zeppet customer, had spent almost 2 million yen (`12.17 lakhs) “to build a one-of-a-kind collie costume for him to finally realise his long-time dream of dressing up as a dog”.
The stories of these two Japanese reveal that they did so only because they had lost the God-given human ability to judge where to spend the hard-earned money and where not to. Their such spendings are sheer wastage of wealth and breach of the trust God has bestowed upon us.
The Lord Creator has said that whatever we have is a trust of God with us. We can spend it on the necessities of our life and also on the poor and needy, of course in each case thanking God for blessing these bounties.
If we pine for loving someone, we should love one who is immortal; a dog or a wolf is of course mortal. Likewise, if we dream of something, our dream should be humanly lofty and sublime.