Rizq is different to ownership because rizq is a gift [‘atā’]; thus the verb ‘razaqa’ means ‘to give [a’tā]’. As for ownership it is to possess something through any of the mediums permitted by the Sharī’ah whereby wealth can be possessed. Rizq can be lawful [halāl] or unlawful [harām]; all of it is termed rizq. So the money won by a gambler from another in a gambling match is rizq, because it is money that Allah  gives to each person when he pursues any of the situations in which money is obtained.

A view which prevails amongst people is that they are the ones who provide for themselves, and they consider the circumstances in which they earn wealth - that is, money or profit - as the cause of their provision [rizq] even if they say by their tongues that the Razzāq [the one who provides/sustains] is Allah . They think that the employee, who takes home a set wage through his hard work and effort, is the one who provides for himself, and when he exerts every effort or tries through various means to supplement his wage, they see that he was the one who procured this increase. They think that the tradesman, who makes profit as a result of his trade endeavours, is the one who provided for his own sustenance, and the doctor, who treats the ill, is making his own living. In this manner, they see that each person pursues an occupation from which he earns money. He is the one who provides for himself. Thus the causes of provision, for these people, are perceptible and tangible, and they are the circumstances which lead to the procurement of wealth, and the person who commits himself to these circumstances, he is the one who will earn this wealth whether he himself or someone else is the receipient of the provision. People have come to hold this view because they do not grasp the reality of the circumstances [hālāt] from which their provision come. They take them to be the cause because of their inability to differentiate between the cause and the circumstance. The fact is that these means from which the provision comes, are actually circumstances in which the rizq is obtained and not a cause of the rizq. If they were the true causes of rizq then they should not fail at all in producing that rizq, but it can clearly be seen that they do fail. These circumstances may well exist but no provision comes out of it, and rizq may be obtained without such circumstances existing at all. If these circumstances were the cause then the result, namely, rizq, would definitely occur. Since the rizq is not a definite result - it only comes when the circumstances exist or the rizq might fail to materialise despite their presence - this indicates that they are not the causes but only the circumstances under which the rizq is obtained. An employee may work for a whole month but he is prevented from his (expected) income due to the settling of a previous debt, or spending money on those whose maintenance he is obliged to provide for, or by paying taxes. In this case, the circumstance which brings the provision, namely, the employee’s work, was present but the rizq was not obtained since he did not get his wages. There may be someone in his house in al-Quds, to whom the postman brings the news that so-and-so relative of his in America has died, leaving him as the sole inheritor, and that all of his wealth will pass into his hands so he should gain possession of it himself or through a recognised agent. This rizq came to him and he did not even know it was coming. Or a side of his house might collapse and he finds money hidden there, so he takes it. If the circumstances, which derive from human beings, are indeed the cause of rizq then they would not fail; and no rizq would be procured except when these circumstances are present. It is quite apparent that they do fail, which indicates that they are conditions and not causes. The incidents in which rizq has been obtained without any apparent cause are innumerable; incidents of food and travel, and leaving prepared food for another one; and other incidents which indicate that the circumstances in which rizq is usually obtained are, circumstances of (obtaining) rizq and not its causes.