Profligacy is reckless wastefulness and extravagance while niggardliness is reprehensively excessive frugality. The ideal is to follow the middle path. This is the way to keep the natural balance. Yet, the great majority of men try to overturn the balance.
… Allah loveth not the wasters. (6/141)
… eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters. (7/31)
Reckless spending and squandering are loathed by God. Such profligates are to be severely punished.
GIFTS ARE MEANT FOR MAN
Say: Who hath forbidden the beautiful (gifts) of Allah, which He hath produced for His servants, and the things, clean and pure, (which He hath provided) for sustenance? Say: They are, in the life of this world, for those who believe, (and) purely for them on the Day of Judgment. Thus do We explain the signs in detail for those who understand. (7/32)
Do ye not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made his bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen?... (31/20)
God has bestowed on man all sorts of gifts and desired that he makes use of them frugally. Man should not squander them, nor be avaricious in the use of them.
OBEY NOT THE PROFLIGATE
"And follow not the bidding of those who are extravagant,- (26/151)
Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (39/53)
Keeping company with the squanderer is wrong. One should not forget that whatever exists is the result of a balance. Wasting means stealing the share of one's fellow men.
BE GENEROUS
And let not those who covetously withhold of the gifts which Allah Hath given them of His Grace, think that it is good for them: Nay, it will be the worse for them: soon shall the things which they covetously withheld be tied to their necks Like a twisted collar, on the Day of Judgment (3/180)
(Nor) those who are niggardly or enjoin niggardliness on others, or hide the bounties which Allah hath bestowed on them; for We have prepared, for those who resist Faith, a punishment that steeps them in contempt;- (4/37)
The close-fisted believes that God has favored them exclusively and abstains from sharing their assets with their fellow men. Unaware of the fact that wealth has been granted them as a trial, they advise others to follow their example. "If ye had control of the Treasures of the Mercy of my Lord, behold, ye would keep them back, for fear of spending them: for man is (every) niggardly!" The liberality in giving is the key to happiness. … And those saved from the covetousness of their own souls,- they are the ones that achieve prosperity (59/9).
WASTE AND STINGINESS CONDEMNED
Make not thy hand tied (like a niggard's) to thy neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach, so that thou become blameworthy and destitute. (17/29)
Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those (extremes); (25/67)
God's gifts to man have been granted in due proportion; those who disturb the balance transgress the limits foreseen. The close-fisted hoard the wealth that belongs to the community and disrupt the balance.
THE DIVINE DESIGN