Prohibition of Miserliness

باب النهى عن البخل والشح

This brief chapter is the dark mirror of the one before it. Where generosity expands the soul, stinginess (shuhh, a grasping greed) shrinks and corrupts it. The Prophet ties miserliness directly to ruin, recalling how it destroyed entire peoples who came before.

Notice that the warning pairs stinginess with oppression, both described as bringing darkness on the Day of Resurrection. The chapter wants you to see greed not as a harmless habit but as a force that, left unchecked, leads people to spill blood and trample what is sacred.

Hadith 562

Jabir bin 'Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:

وعن جابر رضي الله عنه أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال‏:‏ اتقوا الظلم فإن الظلم ظلمات يوم القيامة واتقوا الشح فإن الشح أهلك من كان قبلكم حملهم على أن سفكوا دماءهم واستحلوا محارمهم” ‏(‏‏(‏رواه مسلم‏)‏‏)‏‏.‏

Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Beware of oppression, for oppression will be darkness on the Day of Resurrection; and beware of stinginess because it destroyed those who were before you. It incited them to shed their blood and deem unlawful as lawful." [Muslim].

In plain words

Beware of wronging others, for it brings darkness on the Day of Resurrection, and beware of greed, which destroyed earlier peoples by driving them to bloodshed and to treating the forbidden as allowed.

Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 562 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 562