A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said, "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?” they asked. " No", she said. "He is out." "Then we cannot come in," they replied. In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. "Go tell them I am home and invite them in!" The woman went out and invited the men in. "We do not go into a House together," they replied. "Why is that?" she wanted to know. One of the old men whose name is Wealth, pointed at his friends and said He is Success, and this is faith. Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!" he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!" His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?" Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!" "Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife. "Go out and invite faith to be our guest." The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is faith? Please come in and be our guest."

Faith got up and started walking towards the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited faith, why are you coming in?" The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited faith, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is faith, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!"

The prophet of Allah peace be upon him, said in the Hadeeth: "the believer will be tested (with hardships) according to his faith, the stronger the faith, the harder the test”. He also said in another Hadeeth, “Those who are afflicted by the hardest of tests are the prophets, followed by the best of the believers (AL-Amthal) and so on. "

Certainly, faith brings success and brings wealth, but they just don't come without a price, which can be a test or series of tests of hardships. Eventually, when a believer reaches a high level of faith, and if success and wealth come to him, they won't make him feel superior. On the contrary, they will humble him down further, because at that stage of purification he or she will understand that the true meaning of success and wealth is Allah’s reward in the hereafter for those who performed good deeds in this life.

This is the kind of faith that won't make the believer feel sad or frustrated if he or she one day loses that wealth or that success. In other words, if the believer has wealth or success, He or she knows that this is Allah's fate; and If he or she loses one or both of them at any time, it is equally the same; Allah's fate.

Just like Imam Ahmad Ebn-Hanbal said, when asked can a believer be wealthy and at the same time be (Zahid), he replied, of course, he can; because, if he loses that wealth, he won't feel sad about it, because whatever wealth he has, is in his hands, and NOT in his heart.