In general, a Muslim has to believe that Allah, exalted is He, has predetermined for each person his rizq (provision) as well as his life-term. Both rizq and life-term are closely related to one another. When the lifetime of a person comes to an end, this is the very point where his rizq terminates too.
Allah, Exalted be He, has vowed to guarantee rizq for all His creatures provided that they seek its means and take the necessary action, if they are able to do so. He said in this regard: “and in the heaven is your provision, as (also) that which you are promised. Thus, by the Lord of the heaven and the earth this is most surely as true as the fact that you are able to speak.” [51:22-23] This is emphasized by the report narrated by al-Bazzar from Udhayfah that the Messenger of Allah said: “A messenger from the Lord of all the worlds, Gabriel, has infused into my soul that no single soul will die until it receives in full its provision as well as its lifetime. So, be God-fearing and seek (His provision) in a good manner. Do not let your feeling of the lateness of a provision prompt you to seek it through the disobedience of Allah. That which rests with Allah cannot be attained but through obeying Him.”
As this hadith shows, rizq is associated with the term of one’s life. Thus, a person’s dying of hunger is due to the fact that this is the end of his life and also the termination of his provision. Therefore, there is no contradiction between death incidents and the divine guarantee of provision. Starving to death is a cause for ending one’s life just like any other cause. In sum, when a person dies of hunger, this is the end of his life and consequently the end
of his provision.
It cannot be missed in this context to refer to the fact the poverty problem suffered by the third world countries is largely due to the disproportion of wealth distribution, a matter Islam solved preemptively through its oft-repeated commandments to give zakah and sadaqah to those in need.