Spiritual Poverty in Islam (1): Its Harms from the Perspective of the Holy Qur’an and Hadiths

The current era, despite the many advances in communication, technology, scientific and economic development that has taken place in it, not only has not brought security and mental and spiritual peace for human beings; rather, it has added to the mental pressures, worries, anxieties, and inseparable material and worldly attachments. Some people in this period have neglected their origin and have become confused. If a person neglects the spiritual dimension of his existence and forgets the truth of his existence and his originality, he will suffer from spiritual poverty. Spiritual poverty with its harmful damages has many adverse effects on the spiritual life of man and causes anxiety, worry and stress for him and endangers his mental and psychological security. According to the teachings of religion and Islam, the source of all these psychological anomalies and disturbed memories is cutting off from God Almighty and unbelief. Some people spend all their purpose and motivation on physical affairs and they are unaware of their spiritual knowledge and spiritual dimension. This means that if a person does not communicate with his Creator, he will experience turmoil in his life, inner worries and mental illnesses. The present article, using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on Qur’anic and narrative documents, while explaining the concept of spiritual poverty, has analyzed its most important harms. The research findings indicate that the most important harms of spiritual poverty include: feelings of emptiness and depression, aimlessness and meaninglessness, anxiety, despair and hopelessness and torment in the hereafter.