Islam and poverty
Peaking whilst in the Middle Ages, the religion of Islam has a tenuous relationship with the idea of voluntary poverty. While Sufism has encouraged the renunciation of material wealth, Sunni and Shi'ite scholars have traditionally held that self-denial is inconsistent with the Quran's admonition against those who would forbid the good that God has put in this world for his people to enjoy. Some scholars have suggested that Islam began with the message of "sharing with the poor and...the necessity of sacrificing worldly possessions", but following the Hijra flight from Mecca, morphed into a political character extolling conquest. As scholars began to venerate those who abandoned material wealth in order to pursue full-time worship of God, the idealization of poverty grew to such a point that it began to colour Islamic ideas about the nature of poverty. Early Muslims Muhammad's wife Aisha was noted to have adopted voluntary poverty. Some traditions relate her actions to a hadith which claims Muhammad told her "A'isha if you want to be joined with me, take of this world as little as a rider's provisions, beware of associating with the rich, and do not deem a garment worn out until you have patched it".<ref