الْغَنِيُّ

قال الزجّاجي: الغنيُّ في كلام العرب الذي ليس بمحتاجٍ إلى غيره، وكذلك الله ليس بمحتاجٍ إلى أحد؛ وإنما سُمّي ذو اليسار والمال غنيًّا لاستغنائه بالمال الذي عنده عن غيره، وهذا مجاز، وليس في العالم أحدٌ غنيًّا في الحقيقة، لأنّ بكلّ من فيه حاجةً إلى غيره؛ فليس الغنيُّ على الحقيقة غيرَ الله. وقال الزجّاج: هو الغنيّ المستغني عن الخلق بقدرته وعزّ سلطانه، والخلقُ فقراء إلى تطوّله وإحسانه. وقال الخطّابي: هو الذي استغنى عن الخلق وعن نصرتهم وتأييدهم لملكه، فليست به حاجةٌ إليهم، وهم إليه فقراء محتاجون.

Az-Zajjājī says: al-ghanī in the speech of the Arabs is one who does not need another; and so Allah needs no one. A man of means and wealth is called ghanī because his wealth spares him the need of others — but that is a figure of speech: no one in the world is truly ghanī, for everyone in it has some need of another. So none is truly al-Ghanī but Allah. Az-Zajjāj says: He is al-Ghanī, who has no need of creation by His power and the might of His dominion, while creation is poor before His bounty and kindness. Al-Khaṭṭābī says: He is the One who has no need of creation, nor of their help and support for His kingdom; He has no need of them, and they are poor and in need of Him.

قال الغزالي: الغنيُّ هو الذي لا تعلّق له بغيره، لا في ذاته ولا في صفات ذاته، بل يكون منزّهًا عن العلاقة مع الأغيار؛ فمن تتعلّق ذاتُه أو صفاتُ ذاته بأمرٍ خارجٍ من ذاته يتوقّف عليه وجودُه أو كمالُه فهو فقيرٌ محتاج، ولا يُتصوّر ذلك إلا لله. وقال القشيري في لطائفه على آية محمد: غناه كونُه لا تتقيّد مراداته؛ أمّا العبد فهو فقيرٌ بنفسه، لأنه لا يستغني عن مولاه في الابتداء منذ خلقه إلى الانتهاء. وفي الحديث أعلاه أنّ الخلق لو كانوا على أتقى قلب رجلٍ ما زاد ذلك في ملكه شيئًا، ولو كانوا على أفجر قلب رجلٍ ما نقص من ملكه شيئًا؛ فطاعةُ المطيعين لهم، ومعصيةُ العاصين عليهم، وهو الغنيُّ عنهما جميعًا.

Al-Ghazālī says: al-Ghanī is the One who is tied to nothing besides Himself, neither in His Essence nor in the attributes of His Essence, but is free of all dependence on others. Whoever’s essence or attributes are tied to something outside himself, on which his existence or perfection depends, is poor and in need — and this can be conceived of none but Allah. Al-Qushayrī says in his Laṭāʾif on the verse of Muḥammad: His independence is that His will is bound by nothing; as for the servant, he is poor in himself, for he cannot do without his Master from the beginning, since He created him, to the end. In the ḥadīth above, were all creatures as the most God-fearing heart of one man, that would add nothing to His dominion; and were they as the most wicked heart of one man, that would take nothing from it. The obedience of the obedient is for them, the disobedience of the disobedient is against them, and He is free of need of both.

قال الغزالي: الغنيُّ الحقيقيّ هو الذي لا حاجةَ له إلى أحدٍ أصلًا، والذي يحتاج ومعه ما يحتاج إليه فهو غنيٌّ بالمجاز؛ ولكن إذا لم يبقَ للعبد حاجةٌ إلا إلى الله تعالى سُمّي غنيًّا. وقال سيّدُنا رسول الله ﷺ: «ليس الغنى عن كثرة العَرَض، ولكنّ الغنى غنى النفس» كما في الصحيحين. وقال القشيري: الفقيرُ الصادق من يشهد افتقاره إلى الله؛ ومن افتقر إلى الله استغنى بالله، ومن افتقر إلى غير الله وقع في الذلّ والهوان. فحظُّ العبد من هذا الاسم أن يُفرد فقرَه لربّه، فيستغني به عمّن سواه، ولا يرى لنفسه غنًى إلا به.

Al-Ghazālī says: the truly Ghanī is One who needs no one at all; one who is in need and has what he needs is ghanī only in a figurative sense; but when a servant is left with no need except for Allah, exalted is He, he is called ghanī. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Wealth is not in the abundance of goods; wealth is the wealth of the soul,” as in the two Ṣaḥīḥs. Al-Qushayrī says: the true poor man is one who witnesses his poverty before Allah; whoever is poor before Allah is rich through Allah, and whoever is poor before other than Allah falls into lowness and humiliation. The servant’s share in this name is to give his poverty to his Lord alone, so that he is rich through Him and needs no one else, and sees no wealth for himself except in Him.

في آية محمد المذكورة أعلاه دعا الله عباده إلى الإنفاق، ثم أخبر أنه الغنيّ وأنهم الفقراء؛ فليس دعاؤه إلى البذل لحاجته، بل لحاجتهم، وفي الآية نفسها: «ومن يبخل فإنما يبخل عن نفسه». وقال الزجّاجي: ولذلك قيل: الغنيُّ غنيُّ النفس؛ وربّ معدمٍ استغنى عن موسرٍ بصرف طمعه عمّا لديه، فصار الموسرُ هو المحتاج. ومن ذاق هذا عرف أنّ الفقر إلى الله هو الغنى كلُّه، وأنّ الغنى عن الله هو الفقر كلُّه؛ فأغنى الناس أفقرُهم إلى ربّه.

In the verse of Muḥammad above, Allah calls His servants to spend, and then tells them that He is the Free of need and they are the needy: His call to give is not for His need but for theirs, and in the same verse, “whoever withholds only withholds from himself”. Az-Zajjājī says: so it is said, wealth is the wealth of the soul; many a penniless man has no need of a man of means, once he has turned his greed from what the other holds — and then it is the man of means who is in need. Whoever tastes this knows that poverty towards Allah is all wealth, and doing without Allah is all poverty: the richest of people is the one poorest before his Lord.