Wastefulness is the careless, excessive, or purposeless use of money, food, water, energy, time, or other resources beyond real need or benefit. Its effect on society is serious because waste increases demand, raises costs, depletes shared resources, and encourages a culture of display and overconsumption. When some people waste food, water, wealth, or luxury goods while others struggle for basic needs, inequality becomes more painful and social resentment grows. The poor are affected most because they already have the least protection from rising prices, shortages, and economic instability.
Islam therefore links responsible use of resources with gratitude and social duty. The message is not that everyone must live without comfort, but that our comfort should not be built upon excess, vanity, or indifference to those in need. A just society uses blessings wisely, avoids unnecessary waste, and remembers that what is saved from extravagance can often become relief for someone else.
Surah Al-Isrāʾ 17:27 gives one of the Qur’an’s strongest condemnations of wastefulness:
إِنَّ الْمُبَذِّرِينَ كَانُوا إِخْوَانَ الشَّيَاطِينِ ۖ وَكَانَ الشَّيْطَانُ لِرَبِّهِ كَفُورًا “Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and Satan has always been extremely ungrateful to his Lord.”
Context: why is such strong language used?
The verse belongs to the larger ethical passage 17:23–39. Immediately before it, Allah commands in 26th verse of Surah Al Isrāʾ:
“Give the relative his due, and the poor and the traveler, and do not squander wastefully.”
Then comes 17:27 explaining why wastefulness is morally serious. Immediately afterward, verses 17:28–29 teach kindness when unable to give and moderation between miserliness and uncontrolled spending.
So the sequence is: Recognize the rights of others → do not squander resources → do not be stingy either → spend responsibly.
The Qur’an is therefore not merely teaching personal budgeting. It is establishing an ethic of stewardship: wealth belongs ultimately to Allah, and what we possess carries responsibilities toward family, society and the needy.
What is tabdhīr?
The important word of the verse is: التَّبْذِير — tabdhīr It is often translated “wastefulness” or “squandering.” It means spending or using resources in a wrongful, pointless or irresponsible manner. It is related to, but not identical with, isrāf, excessive consumption. Tabdhīr particularly suggests throwing wealth away where it brings no legitimate benefit—or using it for wrongdoing. So Islam does not teach that spending money itself is bad. The issue is where, why and how it is spent.
Ibn Kathīr records the famous explanation attributed to early authorities that if someone spent all his wealth in a rightful cause, that would not necessarily constitute tabdhīr, whereas spending even a small amount wrongfully could be wastefulness.
This is a profound distinction. The Qur’anic question is not simply: “How much did you spend?” It is: “What did you spend it on?”
A large donation helping people might be virtuous, while a much smaller expenditure made merely for sinful indulgence or vanity could be blameworthy.
Al-Ṭabarī similarly understands mubadhdhirīn as those who disperse Allah’s blessings in ways inconsistent with obedience and proper purpose.
The expression: “brothers of the devils” does not mean literal brotherhood. It means they resemble and follow Satan's way in misuse, rebellion and ingratitude. That connection becomes explicit in the second half: “Satan was ungrateful to his Lord.”
Wastefulness is therefore ultimately connected to ingratitude. Allah gives a blessing. Instead of appreciating and using it responsibly, a person throws it away.
Maududi stresses the social dimension. Wealth should not be squandered upon ostentation and unnecessary indulgence while relatives, the poor and travelers possess legitimate claims upon society.
That interpretation becomes especially clear when 17:26–29 are read together. A society in which some people spend enormous amounts merely to demonstrate status while others cannot meet basic needs has lost the balance envisioned by these verses.
Ghamdi notes that this is stated because only those people are given the urge and will to spend in the way of God who adopt a balanced attitude in their spending and consider the sustenance they have been given by God a blessing and not a result of their own planning. The reason for this is that a person who does not adopt a balanced attitude about his needs, always remains involved in spending his wealth on his own pastimes and interests, and does not have the time to fulfil the needs of others.
Why does Allah call wasteful people “brothers of Satan”?
Because Satan represents ingratitude toward Allah.
Waste effectively says: “This blessing has so little value to me that I can throw it away.”
Food, water, money, energy and possessions required resources, labour and ultimately Allah’s provision to reach us. To waste them casually is therefore not merely economically foolish; it can reflect a spiritual failure to recognize blessings. That is why the verse ends with كَفُورًا — intensely ungrateful.
17:27 may be even easier to visualize today Consider modern society.
- Huge quantities of edible food are discarded.
- People replace usable clothes because fashions change.
- Phones and electronics are replaced while functioning perfectly.
- Expensive weddings may be organized primarily to display status.
- Restaurants serve portions designed more for appearance than consumption.
- Homes consume unnecessary energy.
- Luxury goods are sometimes purchased principally so that other people will notice them.
Social media intensifies all of this by creating a culture of: “See what I have.”
The Qur’anic principle asks instead: “What responsibility came with what Allah gave me?”
Food waste
Perhaps the clearest application is food. A plate overloaded and then half discarded may appear trivial, but 17:27 teaches us to reconsider the moral significance of waste. (1) Someone else farmed it. (2) Water produced it. (3) Energy transported it. (4) Money purchased it. (5) And someone elsewhere may be hungry.
Gratitude therefore appears partly in how carefully we use blessings.
Weddings and social competition
There is nothing wrong with celebrating a marriage beautifully. But when families borrow heavily merely to compete with relatives, prepare enormous quantities of wasted food or spend beyond their means because “people will talk otherwise,” celebration can become tabdhīr.
The Qur’an asks us to distinguish: (1) celebration from exhibition, (2) comfort from extravagance, (3) generosity from competition.
Consumer culture
Modern advertising frequently tells us: Your present possession is inadequate; buy the newer one.
The Qur’an teaches something almost opposite: Value what Allah has already given you.
The challenge is not to reject modern goods but to resist becoming psychologically dependent upon constant acquisition.
Environmental relevance
17:27 also has an important environmental implication. Wasteful consumption requires:
- more extraction,
- more manufacturing,
- more water,
- more energy,
- more transport,
- and ultimately more waste.
Therefore personal extravagance eventually becomes a collective environmental problem. This connects naturally with 30:41, which warns that corruption has appeared on land and sea through what human hands have earned.
But Islam does not command miserliness
This is crucial. Immediately after condemning wastefulness, Allah says in 17:29: “Do not keep your hand chained to your neck, nor extend it completely…”
The first image represents stinginess. The second represents reckless spending.
The Islamic ideal lies between them:
- generosity without extravagance,
- comfort without arrogance,
- saving without miserliness.
A useful test before spending
17:27 can be turned into four questions:
- Do I genuinely need this?
- Can I afford it without neglecting responsibilities?
- Will it produce real benefit?
- Am I buying it for myself—or mainly so other people will be impressed?
That last question can reveal a great deal.
The deeper lesson
The verse is ultimately not about becoming afraid to spend money. It is about learning to see every blessing as an amanah—a trust.
- Money is a trust.
- Food is a trust.
- Water is a trust.
- Natural resources are a trust.
- Even our ability to consume is a trust.
A believer should therefore neither worship wealth nor throw it away carelessly.
The essence of 17:27 can be expressed simply: Wastefulness is not merely losing resources; it is forgetting the Giver of those resources. Gratitude means using Allah’s blessings purposefully, moderately and responsibly—while remembering the rights of others. And when read with 17:26 and 17:29, the Qur’anic economic principle becomes beautifully balanced:
One sentence conclusion: Give what is due, waste nothing, and do not become miserly.
May Allāh (سبحانه و تعالى) help us understand Qur'ān and follow the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which is embodiment of commandments of Allah contained in the Qur'ān. May Allah help us to be like the ones He loves and let our lives be lived helping others and not making others' lives miserable or unlivable. May all our wrong doings, whether intentional or unintentional, be forgiven before the angel of death knocks on our door.
وَمَا عَلَيۡنَاۤ اِلَّا الۡبَلٰغُ الۡمُبِيۡنُ
(36:17) and our duty is no more than to clearly convey the Message.”
That is Our duty is only to convey to you the message that Allah has entrusted us with. Then it is for you to accept it or reject it. We have not been made responsible for making you accept it forcibly, and if you do not accept it, we shall not be seized in consequence of your disbelief, you will yourselves be answerable for your actions on Day of Resurrection.
May Allah forgive me if my posts ever imply a piety far greater than I possess. I am most in need of guidance.
Reading the Qur'ān should be a daily obligation of a Muslim - Reading it with translation will make it meaningful. But reading its Exegesis / Tafsir will make you understand it fully. It will also help the Muslims to have grasp over social issues and their answers discussed in the Qur'an and other matter related to inter faith so that they are able to discuss issues with non-Muslims with authority based on refences from Qur'an.
Note: When we mention God in our posts, we mean One True God, we call Allah in Islam, with no associates. Allah is the Sole Creator of all things, and that Allah is all-powerful and all-knowing. Allah has no offspring, no race, no gender, no body, and is unaffected by the characteristics of human life.
You may refer to more Selected Verses from Sürah 17. Al-Isra'ʾ (The Night Journey) already published from Sürah 17. Al-Isra'ʾ
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An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs and selected verses of Al-Qurʾān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that the exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi.
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2 comments:
Anwar Butt
Quran is complete code of life and does not left any field un attended..
Quranic teachings on the subject have been explained beautifully. This refreshed my faith. I seek shelter of Allah from this evil. All believers must be careful and not to be the brothers of Satan.
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