As-salamu'aleikum, There are ahadith like the following Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "What I am most concerned about is the flourishment and the beauty of thus world will be available to you." and "It is not poverty that I fear for you, but I fear that this world will be opened up with its wealth for you...." In the book "Riadh alSaliheen" a commentary reads: ...Today, the only purpose of our wealth is that we waste it either on foolish customs and ceremonies of marriage or construction of buildings and their decoration.... My questions are: Is going to the park, a restaurant, and other unnecessary outings undesirable and is it better to avoid it? (personally, i feel it is, especially these days when many women go out alone) I'm living in a small house with no paint on the walls, which doesn't really botherme. However, because I have a little money to spend, I've been thinking of painting the walls to make them look a bit more cheerful. is it haram to spend money on this?

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.

The narration which you mentioned in the question is authentic and it is reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim . This narration clarifies that the competition about worldly matters may lead to the destruction of one’s religion. It is for this reason that the narration reported by Muslim reads: ‘‘You would compete with each other, then you would envy each other, then you would be hostile to one another, and then you would hate each other, and so on.’’ Therefore, the narration does not prevent from earning in this worldly life or enjoying its beauty, as these are permissible matters, but they are prohibited if they lead to religious prohibitions, like dispraised extravagancy and so forth.

It should be mentioned that being extravagant differs from one person to another. What can be considered as extravagance in the case of one person may not be considered an extravagance in the case of another person, as we already discussed in Fatwa 82764.

Therefore, it is permissible for you to decorate your house if this does not lead to the dispraised extravagance and the like.

As regards going out to the parks and restaurants, then in principle this is permissible, but it may be disliked for other reasons, like forbidden mixing between men and women, or the fear to be exposed to reasons of temptation or other similar reasons.

Nowadays, the parks include prohibitions, and so it may be that it is better to avoid them and you did well by disliking going there, especially that in principle a woman should abide in her home and not go out except in case there is a need to do so.

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 92001.

Allaah Knows best.