Here are my entire life’s savings.” So saying, an
elderly scholar, who had spent his whole life
reading and writing, in the utmost simplicity placed
a cheque for Rs. 10,000 in the hands of his newlywed
daughter and son-in-law. He explained that he
had been able to save this amount out of his meagre
income by living frugally and never wasting
anything. “I could have spent all this on lavish
wedding celebrations,” he added, “but I preferred
to hand it over to you young people so that you
could make a good beginning in life.”
The young couple were extremely grateful for this
decision and lost no time in investing the money in
a small business. To begin with they had to work
very hard to make a success of it, and passed
through various difficult stages. But they never lost
courage, and a time eventually came when they had
considerably increased their profits and were able
to live a happy, comfortable life. Knowing, too, that
their children’s future was assured. But without the
scholar’s initial providence, foresight and courage
in resisting public opinion, they might never have
had the wherewithal to make a start in life at all and
might well have ended their days in penury.
One’s wedding is a very serious event in life, not
just an occasion for senseless showing off. It is
rather a day to shoulder life’s responsibilities as
mature, grown-up people and future parents. It is a
day for a man and a woman to enter into a ‘firm
contract’ (Qur’an, 4:21), not just an opportunity to
impress friends, neighbours and relatives with
one’s spending ability. It is at all events advisable
that the marriage ceremony should be simple and
straightforward, thereby avoiding pointless
expenditure. Before anyone spends his entire life’s
savings, on gaudy displays—for money, after all is
hard earned and difficult to accumulate—he should
reflect seriously on the above-mentioned incident.
All things considered, would it not be better to
avoid ostentation altogether and to think of how
best one can help the young couple concerned? If
this practice were to become widely adopted, it
would not only benefit young people in general, but
would actually make a positive contribution to
national construction. The millions of rupees which
are habitually lavished on short-lived magnificence
could then be channelized into areas of the national
economy which are at present unfairly neglected,
thus creating favourable conditions for general
economic uplift.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - The Moral Vision)
