(179) It is related by Mahmud bin Labeed that the Apostle of God said: “There are two things a man dislikes [while there is a lot of good in them for him]: one is death, though death is better for him than mischief, and the other is poverty, though lack of wealth is going to shorten [for him] the Reckoning of the Hereafter.”
-Musnad-i-Ahmad
Commentary.-Everyone fears death and poverty and wants to evade them, though death is a great blessing in the sense that when a person dies, he becomes safe from the faith-consuming mischiefs of the world and the want of worldly possessions is a great blessing because the poor and the indigent will have to render a very brief account on the Day of Judgement and they will quickly pass through the ordeal.
Sayings like these can be a source of treat relief to us when we are poverty-stricken or suffer a bereavement.

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