All of us want to have a good level of income and to accumulate wealth because we associate it with being happy. That’s the human condition, it’s the way we have been created, and it’s not a bad thing generally speaking.

The truth is that Islam encourages Muslims to have and seek out wealth in the right ways. The challenge is, sometimes, because of the lack of wealth, or having a lower income compared to others you know, the desire for it becomes so strong that we’ll do whatever it takes to get more wealth. This is made worse when you seeing others who have it and flaunt it.

We find in the Quran and the Sunnah that Muslims are encouraged to seek out ways to increase their wealth, their health and their strength. And it’s perfectly understandable as this is tantamount to the well-being of any human.

Allah swt says:

فَإِذَا قُضِيَتِ الصَّلَاةُ فَانتَشِرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَابْتَغُوا مِن فَضْلِ اللَّـهِ وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّـهَ كَثِيرًا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ 

“And when the prayers have been concluded, disperse in the land and seek out the bounties of Allah, and remember Allah a lot so that you may be successful.”

Surat Al Jumuah, 10

Allah tells you to seek the bounties of Allah and remember him so that you will attain success. So, Allah is encouraging you to seek wealth because it will suffice your desires for more. He, The Most Generous (Al-Kareem) wants you to have more and wants you to be in a good state in your life. But this verse began with worship, “when the Salah is concluded”, and then ends with “and remember Allah a lot”.

Watch The Quranic Life Lesson on Wealth Accumulation:

This is significant because it teaches us that the priority in life is fulfilling your purpose, to worship Allah in the best possible way, and connect to Allah as your priority over accumulating wealth.

Then Allah says, seek out whatever wealth you want and remember this wealth, all of it is from the bounties of Allah.

Then Allah swt finishes off by telling you to remember Allah a lot. This is being in a state of connection to Allah through your remembrance. It will help you to stay away from the haram, because the Shaytan will be on your path, ready to lead you to all sorts of illegal opportunities. However, if you are remembering Allah as you live day to day whilst seeking to earn your income, then you will always be cautious about doing anything Haram, anything that is going to displease Allah.

That’s the key to success because Allah swt finishes this Ayat by saying “remember Allah a lot so that you will be successful”.

Success is found in the obedience of Allah when seeking wealth. Shaytan will make you feel as though you can’t earn the income or make a profitable business without doing something Haram. But Allah tells you that success is in remembering Allah as you earn your income or trade in your business.

It’s interesting that Allah would say this because often we find ourselves trying everything not to remember Allah when we are about to do something sinful. You know, that if you think about Allah as you’re committing a sin, your conscience will give you a hard time. Allah knows this as He created us. Hence Allah shows you how you can avoid falling into this problem by remembering Him a lot.

The problem you face is when that desire for increasing your wealth leads you to do something that is bad for you or bad for those around you. Allah makes all of these ways impermissible (Haram) so that you are protected from your own excess desires.

So, how can you increase your wealth and income (Rizq) in a lawful way? where you can attain as much as you like and do it in a way that creates happiness for you now in this Dunya and also in the hereafter.

There are 7 ways that we will look at in this article, that Allah teaches us in the Quran and the Sunnah on how to increase your wealth and overall well-being in life so that you succeed in both worlds.

1. Acknowledge the Wealth you have already

Acknowledging the wealth that we already have, is the most important step because that is what will create true happiness for you right now. Most of us find ourselves in the situation, where we get stressed out and fall into a state of panic because of the constant comparing yourself with other people.

To increase in wealth, you have to start from a place of abundance in your mind. If you believe there is never enough, then no matter how much you accumulate you’ll always think it’s not enough.

The best way to start is by looking at what you have in your life, to begin with. Do you have a moderately healthy body? If you do, then know this is the greatest wealth you could ever have. Do you have enough wealth to purchase the food, clothing and shelter for the week, month or year?  Do you have a mobile phone, TV entertainment packages, a car or vehicle of transportation that you use regularly and you can afford to pay for?

Everyone has different things they, but it’s important to understand that if your basics needs are covered and you are in a good state of health, then you have been blessed with abundance.

So, the first thing, to begin with, is to be grateful for all that you have now. If you are grateful every day, and you acknowledge all of these blessings in your life already, then you will start your journey to increasing wealth from a place of abundance and not a place of scarcity. The biggest problem that so many of us have is that we don’t acknowledge the blessings that we have already.

Allah says:

إِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ 

Indeed, Allah is the Bestower of bounties upon the people, but most of the people are not thankful.

Surah Ghafir,61.

Allah tells us in this verse that he is forever bestowing his mercy by providing for us with abundance, yet we humans we end up being ungrateful because we don’t thank Allah for what we have.

You see the problem with not recognising the blessings that you already have is, that if that becomes your habit, where you never acknowledging what you have already, then regardless of how much Allah blesses you, no matter how much wealth you have, you‘ll never be happy. The more your wealth increases, the more you will look at others who have more than you.

Acknowledging how much you have already, is what will create happiness for you right now. You may have less of some things but you still have more than so many millions of people in the world.

I mention this first because this is by far one of the greatest causes of unhappiness. The perception of poverty. If you want to be happy, you have to change this and start being grateful every day.

2. Increase Wealth with daily Istighfar

There’s a famous story from one of the early generations of the Muslims, a great scholar of Islam, Hassan Al-Basri. Being a scholar of his stature, he was approached one time by 3 different people. The first person complained that they had no rain and so he told them him to seek forgiveness from Allah. Another complaint about poverty and then another came to complain about his wife being unable to bear children. To all 3 of these people, he gave the same advice, turn and ask your Lord for forgiveness.

Those that were present, then asked him “why did you give all of these people, the same advice even though they had different problems?”, to which he responded, have you not heard the verse of Allah, where he says:

“And, ask forgiveness of your Lord, indeed he is a perpetual forgiver. He will rain down from the skies in abundance, and increased you in wealth and children, and make for you gardens and rivers.”

Surah An-Nuh, 10-11

This is a famous story which teaches us that whenever you want anything in life, an increase in wealth, or health, or children, or even rain, the best solution and the one that the Creator of the heavens and the earth has given us, is to turn to Him and ask for forgiveness.

When you turn to Allah, constantly seeking his pardon for the errors that you make in your life, Allah loves this and loves for you to turn back to him after you have made mistakes. He the Most Generous will enrich your life with all of those bounties, wealth, income and children, all of this and more.

In this verse, Allah says that he will send down from the heavens an abundance. This is not an impractical way as shaytan would have you believe. It’s very real because wealth comes from Allah. If you are pleasing Allah by turning back to him when you make your mistakes in life, Allah is telling you He will give you in abundance.

This is a level of worship that the sinner should take advantage of, because it leads to wealth. Who of us doesn’t fall into sin? The Prophet (saw) who was sinless would seek forgiveness from Allah more than 70 times a day, so what about us? We should do AT LEAST that.

3. Make Dua for wealth

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us a specific Dua that will give you three types of wealth, knowledge, Rizq (sustenance) and accepted deeds.

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ عِلْمًا نَافِعًا، وَرِزْقًا طَيِّبًا، وَعَمَلًا مُتَقَبَّلًا

“Oh Allah, I ask for the beneficial knowledge, good wealth, and accepted deeds (actions). “

In this Hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us to be smart, kill three birds with one stone. Ask Allah for knowledge that will benefit you and wealth that you will benefit from. You see, without knowledge, gaining wealth is very difficult, you have to know how to gain. That knowledge has to benefit you so that you gain the right wealth and not the wrong wealth. If you gain wealth in an unlawful manner, then, this wealth won’t benefit you. It’s as they say ‘easy come, easy go’. And lastly, we are taught to ask for excepted deeds or actions. There is no good in wealth or knowledge that does not lead you to take good actions in your life.

On a side note, when you make the Dua, call upon Allah with his most beautiful names, for example, if you want an increase in wealth, call upon Allah using his name Razak.

4. Give more, and Allah will give you more

Allah says:

مَّن ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّـهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرَةً ۚ وَاللَّـهُ يَقْبِضُ وَيَبْسُطُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُون

Whoever gives a goodly loan to Allah, he will multiply it for them abundantly, Allah is the one who withholds and gives, and to him is your final return.

Surah Al Baqarah 145

This is the way or the method of Allah. The Sunnah of Allah is that whoever gives will receive. If you look around you see that this is something of a universal law that Allah has established on the earth, just like what goes up must come down.

The more you give, the more Allah will give you. Allah tells us in this verse that whoever gives a goodly loan to Allah, then he will give to them back in abundance. You and I cannot loan anything to Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. What is meant by a goodly loan has been explained by the scholars of Quranic tafsir as, whoever gives in charity, Allah will increase them in their wealth?

You see, you can never lose from giving in charity and helping others as Allah equates that as you giving your money to Allah as a Loan, and He will be the one paying you back my multiplying the initial amount you gave in charity. Of course, when you give that charity, it should be to please Allah, and not the people watching.

You see this is such a universal Law that Allah gives to anyone who is charitable, regardless of whether they believe or not. Which demonstrates how much Allah loves this act. If you want more, give more.

5. Turn to Allah, in Tahajjud (Night Prayer)

Turn to Allah at the most optimum part of the night. You see, if you want to increase your wealth as most people do, you’ll find that people get up earlier and start working when everyone else’s sleeping because the early bird is the one that gets the worms.

In today’s culture, they call it ‘Hussle’. What they mean is that you have to work all hours of day and night to increase your wealth.

This is another natural law of Allah, but what’s unnatural is that most people turn to the world looking for what they want when the Creator and the Sustainer of the world is waiting to be asked. Allah, Ar-Razaak is waiting for you to ask so that He may give you.

So, if you get up in the third-party of the night, the early hours of the morning before Salat Al-Fajr, and you ask Allah for whatever you want, Allah swt will give it to you.  There is no better time to ask Allah for what you want, except at that time.

6. Stay away from the Haram

Everything that Allah has prohibited, made unlawful / Haram, is bad for you. Sometimes we see that we can make a quick profit by doing something which is displeasing to Allah. But that thing is never going to bring you success. Doing things that are forbidden in Islam will cause poverty in your life.

Poverty starts in the mind before it reaches your hand. You could have the whole world in your hand, but if poverty is before your eyes, then you will never see the wealth that you have. When you chase wealth, don’t chase those things that are Haram because they will only bring you poverty.

And it’s important to understand that Allah would never put the keys of success, wealth, and happiness in something that he has made impermissible. An example of this, which is widespread today is Riba (Usury or interest). People want to feel like they have security and so they take interest-based loans to purchase cars and homes.

But this is something that Allah has made impermissible. And just like the car that will erode, everything else in life will get old and lose it’s value to you and it will never bring success in the long-term. In the short-term, you may enjoy it for a short time, but in the long-term, it will bring disaster.

Look, I understand it’s a difficult situation when there seems to be no alternative. Being able to resist such a temptation requires you to be connected to Allah at a level where you feel as though you are secure just by being connected to Allah who will provide for you. It’s important to find alternative ways, there are always alternative ways of making money. Allah says in the Quran:

And I have made lawful for you, trade and business, and made unlawful for you dealing and interest.

Surah Al Baqarah

So, if you want to make money, turn to a business and do all of the things above that we’ve talked about here in this article, and Insha’Allah, you will find the success that you’re looking for. Trust Allah.

7. Seek out Halal ways to Increase Wealth and then take action.

It’s not good enough just to make Dua and Istighfar and then wait for wealth to come to you. You have to do the means and take steps towards increasing your wealth. If you make Dua, and you make Istighfar, you’re grateful for what you have in your life already, then you will be in a pretty good state of mind. And that’s 80% of the way to success. You feel blessed, you feel like there is always an opportunity for more, and then you take action. You need to take action, create goals and plans and look for ways to establish for yourself in a business or something that will help you to obtain the end goals that you are after.

I understand doing business can be scary, but let’s be very real about this. Look at the many rich people in the world that you know of, I would suggest most if not all are doing some sort of business.

You can do it, you just have to take steps to make it happen. Keep it Halal.

I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to increase your wealth. Now you might be thinking this is all spiritual and about the state of mind. If you are thinking that, then you’d be right. Look if you recall we began this article by saying that people seek wealth for a sense of happiness.

Happiness is a state of Mind. If you can be happy within, then you will always be happy no matter how much wealth you have. However, don’t underestimate the advice here, Allah says that if you ask, He will give. So Dua is the greatest tool in increasing your wealth. Doing Halal will please Allah, and He will reward you with more.

The best thing about seeking an increase in wealth and income using this method is that this is a continuous journey in life. While experiencing the joys and happiness of the journey due to your sound state of mind, you will take practical steps and action towards increasing your wealth. And the end result will always be that Allah swt will increase you, because he promises that.

I have no doubt in my mind that you can do this, and you will do this, and I pray that Allah gives you the greatest success in your life.