//wa alatheena ithaa anfaqoo lam yusrifoo wa lam yaqturoo wa kana baina thalika qawman//
Dr: Today we will start by looking at the meaning of waste and being wasteful.
A little grammar first - in the ayah, the verb is in the third person plural (يسرفوا)but you will notice that the ending is with the letters 'waw' and 'alif' rather than 'nun'. This is because of the negative particle before the verb - 'lam' (لم). This particle is of the "haroof al-jazm" so the verbs that come afterwards are in the present form with a sukoon ending. For verbs in 3rd person plural, the rule is the delete the nun - 'hathf an-nun". So just in case you were wondering why the verb is taking this shape, that is the reason.
Stranger: In English this is referred to as jussive mood. Those who studied European languages or Latin will be familiar with this term.
Dr: That is a bit confusing - jussive - just remember if there is a lam negative particle before a verb, the verb afterwards is in the present form with a sukoon - no sound on the end, and for the 3rd person plural (they) the nun is deleted and an alif added.
Being wasteful is buying, or using more than we need, of money, electricity, petrol, paper - anything that we use or consume.
Allah commands us not to waste and He hates those who waste extravagantly. Here is an ayah where Allah the Most Merciful mentions his hate for waste.
Stranger: One of the things I see as being a severe source of waste is the constantly changing fashions and trends. Those who follow these are constantly buying new clothes, or updating their phone when the previous phone was still fine or in richer people, buying a new car every year in order to have the latest model. Of course we don't see this too much in Yemen because most people are poor, but I do see the phone trend.
Dr: The phone trend - not like you with your $20 phone with the screen in dot matrix.
Stranger: It calls people and even receives calls! and no one ever wants to steal it!
Dr: Ahsan but I want to clarify that buying an expensive item when there are cheaper ones is not waste - I personally have Samsung 3. It is not waste as I use it, and you know the 4 is out. It would be waste if I bought it when my 3 is still in perfect order. Also buying a quality item that is more expensive is not waste. Just buying what you don't need is, as well as buying things that are haram - like the obvious things - pig meat would be waste, or alcohol, as well as buying music, yes, music is haram and spending money on it is haram and waste.
la khair fi israf wa la israf fi khair - there is no good in waste and no waste in good.
On the other end of the scale is being miserly by not spending or consuming even when that thing is necessary of beneficial. Allah commands us to take the middle path - even in spending.
Having your hand tied to your neck implies stinginess and having in completely extending implies wastefulness so we must be in between and keep our commitments to our family and sadaqa and so on.
In the famous story of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (raa) when he gave away his entire wealth to sadaqa in the way of Allah, He said that he has left his family with Allah and His Messenger. Abu Bakr's giving away of all his wealth was not waste as it was in good - khair. However for most people it is not recommended to give away your entire wealth, but to leave some for taking care of family and commitments. Abu Bakr (raa) was on a much higher level of iman and so too were his family.
The final word in the ayah (qawman) means to take a middle way between two extremes. So in this case the two extremes are wasteful spending and miserliness. A scholar said, "the hasan (good) is between two evils"
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