The Sufi Sheikhs who prefer wealth to poverty do not use the term “wealth” in its popular sense. What they intend is not acquisition of a benefit but acquisition of the “Benefactor”
At one occasion this question was discussed by Junayd and Ibn Ata. The later maintained the superiority of the rich. He argued that at the Resurrection they would be called to account for their wealth, and that such an account (hisab) entails the hearing of the Divine words, without any mediation, in the form of reproach (itab): and the reproach is addressed by the Beloved to the Lover. Junayd answered: If He will call the rich to account, He will ask the poor for their excuse; and asking for an excuse is better than calling to account. A very subtle point.
In True love excuse is “otherness” (beganagi) and reproach is contrary to unity (Yaganagi). Lovers regards both these things as a blemish, because excuse is made for some disobedience to the command of the Beloved and reproach is made on the same score; but both are impossible in true love, for then neither does the Beloved require an expiation from the Lover nor does the lover neglect to perform the will of the Beloved.
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