(55) Chapter: Excellence of Leading an Ascetic Life, and Virtues of Simple Life

An-Nu'man bin Bashir (May Allah be pleased with them) reported:
'Umar bin Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) spoke at length regarding the worldly prosperity that people had achieved and said: "I saw that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would pass his days in hunger and could not get even degraded dates to fill his stomach".

[Muslim].

Commentary: During the reign of `Umar (May Allah be pleased with him), when people became more prosperous on account of frequent victories, he asked them to remember the early period of Islam in which they were poor and faced very difficult circumstances, to the extent that even the Prophet (PBUH) was placed in the situation mentioned in this Hadith. The purpose of mentioning it was to warn the people against the evils of abundance of wealth and luxuries. They were exhorted to beware of the love of the world which could make them forget about Al-akhirah (Afterlife).