The Exhortation To Trade, Industry And Work

This is an English translation and study of a brief handbook of 128 reports on the Sunniness of work, the work ethic, frugality, the maintenance of property, financial independence through halal income, and true reliance on Allah according to the Imam of jurisprudence Ahmad b. Hanbal (164-241/781-855) and his predecessors and contemporaries as reported from his direct students by the earliest chronicler of his school, Ahmad al-Khallal. The book highlights the latter's emphasis on the Prophetic recommendation that one should strive to eat and economise from the fruit of one's labour, especially through trade, handiwork or agriculture, rather than resort to handouts as mistakenly practised by dervishes, and rather than sufficing oneself - and alone - with the bare minimum required for living. The whole edifice of this endeavour is the pursuit of lawful sustenance (rizq halal) in the twin sense of food and income.