Earning one's living is not an obstacle to acquiring knowledge
6-4-2010 | IslamWeb
Question:
My question is regarding settling uneasiness and confusion that is troubling me for some time due to a contradiction I am trying to work out in my heart.
I am having challenges in my work and business, in that most of my efforts have been very unproductive and fraught with complete failure. It has been a few years now so it was quite extended, however I am fully understanding that success and failure is first and foremost from Allah swt and have no qualms about that.
My contradiction is coming from the fact that I am very good at gaining Islamic knowledge, and enjoy greatly learning more and more about Islam and gaining scholarly learning from sheikhs and lectures, and I wish nothing out of this World nowadays and want to dedicate myself to do every possible thing to build for the eternal afterlife that awaits us. Every time I feel a work task is coming up, and especially that over the past couple of years that I have found my efforts and work to be very unproductive and almost does not add anything to my or my family's income (which has suffered severely due to the lack of progress or success), I feel completely unmotivated towards leaving my studies or reading to do it. I am told I need to find a balance between working for today and working for the afterlife, but in the middle of this constant ineffectiveness I feel miserable to waste any moment in constant seemingly futile attempts at securing a business deal here or a trade deal there when the books and worship are calling me.
What should we as muslims be doing? Should we strive for worldly matters EVEN when apparently God is not meaning for them to materialize, because it is our duty to struggle, or should I enroll in further dedicated Islamic studies, and focus on the afterlife, while "letting go" believing that if God has taken the success away, then He will provide for our needs?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is Islamically required to endeavor to earn one’s living; Allaah Says (what means): {It is He who made the earth tame for you, so walk among its slopes and eat of His provision and to Him is the resurrection.}[Quran 67:15] Therefore, a Muslim should endeavor to earn his living and the living of the people whom he is obliged to spend on. The Prophet said: “It is enough a sin for a person not to provide means of sustenance to those whom he is obliged to support.” [Ahmad and Abu Daawood]
Therefore, if you do not have what is sufficient for you and for the people whom you are obliged to spend on, like your wife, your parents and your children, then it is not permissible for you to abandon work. Abandoning work on the pretext that Allaah would fulfill the person’s need is a kind of absolving one’s self of responsibility on the pretext of relying on Allaah, because Allaah ordered us to take the proper means and endeavor to earn one’s living as we previously clarified.
Hence, we advise you to be moderate: you should endeavor to earn your living while striving to avoid making it an obstacle to acquiring knowledge. Indeed, Al-Bukhari 
entitled a chapter: “Seeking Knowledge by Turns” and he mentioned in it the story of ‘Umar 
with his neighbor from the Ansaar as they sought knowledge from the Prophet by turns, by one of them seeking knowledge by attending the study circles with the Prophet and then benefiting his neighbor who was busy in earning his living at that time. This proves that the Salaf (righteous predecessors) were moderate.
Moreover, you should not restrict yourself to one field of work; rather, you should search an alternative. If you fail in one kind of business, then you should try another business, or any other work than business. If you fail in doing business with your money, then you should look for another trustworthy and keen person as he might succeed in doing business with you money. If you have no money, then you should work as a hired person [employee] and so forth, as the earth of Allaah is vast and the provision of Allaah is abundant.
Allaah Knows best.