Abuja — On Sallah Day last Thursday, a couple of primary school classmates came visiting. As usual with Nigerian banter, the conversation hovered around the laments of the country: PHCN, Etteh, Attorney General, corruption, armed robbers, poverty, the like.

Then, as if out of the blue, one of the friends who hadn't seen me for quite a while commented that I really looked good. He said my face looked like a tomato, a sign of good living, according to him. (Even though I knew it was a complimentary remark, I took exception and was so concerned I had to later ask my wife whether I really looked like a tomato. More on tomato another day). There and then, our discussion turned philosophical about wealth and well-being.

We reflected on the relativity of being wealthy and of being content. We began with the story of a wealthy Lagos-based tycoon (now late) who was said to have once confided to his eldest son that all the trips he used to make to Australia were just so that he could get some sleep. "I had no business in Australia," he was said to have told the son. "When I travel via London to Singapore and then on to Sydney, I was only using the opportunity of such long haul flights to lie flat on the First Class seat/bed and just sleep, and sleep, and sleep. I never get to get such sound sleep otherwise."

We also reminisced on the similar story of another billionaire, this time Kano-based, and also now late. He was said to have had a visitor one day; a childhood but rather poor friend. Before the tycoon could come down from upstairs to meet his visitor, the poor peasant friend had dozed off on the settee he had been cozily seated. And began to snore right away. Settee, air conditioning, wealth, contentment, peace, tomato. Yes?

No! When the wealthy one descended, he was said to have told his visitor that he so envied him: he told him there was no way he could sleep without drugs, even then it had to be flat out, on one side, and even then for only a couple of hours. As a proprietor of some transport equipment, he could never naturally close an eye until all such equipment had been reported safe.

Then we counted all the possible advantages the non-tomato friend could have because he was not 'wealthy', relatively-speaking. He himself went on to list that he had no idea what high blood pressure is (tomato suffers from it); he slept the moment he hit ground (tomato sometimes used valium); he spent most of his non-working spare time with his children (tomato perhaps one-tenth); he has never been armed robbed (tomato twice); 419ners never considered him prey (they have tried on tomato several times: one Zaria man made away with Seven Thousand Naira on a Glo story to be told another day); no parasite (dan maula) would ever visit him and sponge (an everyday matter for tomato).

Then we discussed the world's richest person, Bill Gates. Forbes (www.forbes.com) never fails to remind us that Bill was a Harvard drop out (though he warned that dropping out of school may not make you rich). As a good digression, we discussed how Bill, as a very down-to-earth person, once gave a speech at a High School about the 11 rules young people must learn, and how present-day teaching has created a generation of young people with no concept of reality, and has set them up for failure in the real world.

Bill's 11 Rules are:

1. Life is not fair - get used to it!

2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

10. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Then we went on to discuss another notable person on the Top Ten list of the world's wealthiest people, the Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud. My visiting friends had feasted on the Sallah chicken presented by my wife. They ate all the chicken, and left all the tuwo (no, I am not reporting them). Meat, we all know, is highly correlated to wealth, having-it, tomato-face. But Prince Al Waleed is a vegetarian!

We then went on to discuss the Islamic concept of wealth. Www.islamic-world.net states that "Wealth in Arabic is known as 'al-ghina', which means 'self sufficiency'. 'Wealthy', Al Ghaniy, is one of the attributes of God. In Islam wealth consists of two elements: physical and spiritual. The first dimension depicts the possession of materials which is known as 'Maal' ('amwaal' in its plural form), 'property, assets, etc'. The latter indicates spiritual dimension such as knowledge and virtue that reside in the soul.

"On this, the Prophet, upon whom be peace, used to say, 'any one who wants this worldly life, he should have knowledge, and any one who wants the life of the hereafter, he should have knowledge, and anyone who wants both this life and the next life in the hereafter, he should also have knowledge'. The Fourth Caliph, Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, in comparing the two dimensions of wealth, once remarked, 'knowledge will take care of you, while you will have to take care of your property'."

In the Western concept, Wikipedia.com states that "Wealth comes from the old English word 'weal', which means 'well-being' or 'welfare. The term has come to mean an abundance of items of economic value, or the state of controlling or possessing such items, and encompasses money, real estate and personal property. The opposite of wealth is destitution. The opposite of richness is poverty."

And it must be added here that our Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, used to beseech Allah the Exalted to save him from poverty every day and every night.

Still on the Western concept, there are those who believe one can be wealthy if one put their minds to it. This is conceptualized in the Law of Attraction which, according to Wikipedia, states that "people experience physical and mental manifestations that correspond to their predominant thoughts, feelings, words and actions; and that people have direct control over reality and their lives through thought alone. A person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, beliefs and actions are said to attract corresponding positive and negative experiences."

The Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) once said, "Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you." Margaret Bonnano added, "Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time." Yet another, A. J. Reb Materi said, "So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health."

Let us end then, we this oft-repeated tomato tale: "One day the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from the trip, the father asked his son:

"How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?"

"Oh yeah".

"So, tell me, what have you learned from the trip?"

"I saw that we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches only to the middle of our garden, but they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, but they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches only to the front yard, but they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, but they have fields that go beyond what the eye can see. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are!"

Wealth is about being able to sleep tonight, and tomorrow night. Let us appreciate every single thing we have! On Sallah Day, my two visiting friends left me wealthier, spiritually if not materially.

Barka da Sallah, and may the Almighty Allah have accepted our ibadat devotions during Ramadan.