الطَّمَعُ

GREED

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2– The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Verily greed is a slippery fluid on which the feet of knowledgeable men never become firmly rooted.’
[Tanbih al-Khawatir, v. 1, p. 49]

3– The Prophet (SAWA) said, ‘Beware of greed for it is ready poverty.’
[Kanz al-`Ummal, no. 8852]

4– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Greed is an eternal slavery.’
[Nahj al-Balagha, Saying 180]

5– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Whoever wishes to spend the days of his life as a free man must not allow greed to abide in his heart.’
[Tanbih al-Khawatir, v. 1, p. 49]

6– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘The greedy person is shackled in disgrace.’
[Sharhe Nahj al-Balagha li Ibn Abi al-Hadid, v. 19, p. 50]

7– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘The person most neglectful of his own soul is the one who is full of greed.’
[Sharhe Nahj al-Balagha li Ibn Abi al-Hadid, v. 18, p. 84]

8– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘No one is more despicable than a greedy person.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 10593]

9– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘The intellects are most often destroyed as a result of their subservience to bursts of avid desires.’
[Sharhe Nahj al-Balagha li Ibn Abi al-Hadid, v. 19, p. 41]

10– Imam Ali (AS) said, ‘Piety and greed can never come together.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 10578]

11– Imam al-Baqir (AS) said, ‘How wretched the servant who is a slave of his own greed, which controls him.’
[al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 320, no. 2]

12– Imam al-Kazim (AS) said to Hashim, exhorting him, ‘You must beware of greed, and despair of acquiring anything in the possession of others. Suppress the greed in others for verily greed is the key to disgrace, it exploits the intellect, fabricates valorous qualities for itself, tarnishes one’s reputation, and does away with one’s knowledge.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 78, p. 315, no. 1]

13– Imam al-Hadi (AS) said, ‘Greed is an evil characteristic.’
[al-Durra al-Bahira, p. 42]

14– Imam al-`Aaskari (AS) said, ‘How revolting it is for the believer to have an avid desire that disgraces him.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 78, p. 374, no. 35]

15– Imam Zayn al-Abidin (AS) said in one of his supplications, ‘When I consider my sins my Lord, I am horrified
[at them], and when I consider Your pardon, I am avidly eager
[for it].’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 98, p. 83, no. 2]

16– Imam Zayn al-Abidin (AS) said in another one of his supplications, ‘For indeed I ask You because of my eternal hope in You and because of the great desire that I entertain about You; which is the graciousness and mercy that You have made obligatory upon Yourself.’
[Iqbal al-A`amal, v. 1, p. 168]

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* Translator’s Note: Since ‘greed’ is a word that has intrinsically negative implications, in this sub-section outlining its positive and praiseworthy aspects, we will proceed to refer to it as ‘avidity.’