ECONOMIC
RELATIONSHIPS
You as an employer; As an employee; You as a consumer; As investor and creditor; Waqfs
or Continuous Charity
Your right to conduct
economic activity, to own legitimate property and to bequeath it in a legitimate
manner must be respected by other individuals and by the state.
Be careful about the type
of business you run and the dealings you engage in. You may conduct any type of
business provided it does not involve anything which is haraam.
You must be careful with the saying of the Prophet, ‘An honest and decent
businessman will be taken with martyrs and those who love God’. You are not
allowed to deceive or misrepresent, firm in the knowledge that while a person
may attempt to deceive his fellowman, he cannot deceive God. You refrain in
your business life from all forms of fraud and deceit.
You need to use assets
with the aim of benefiting people and without creating harm and injustice to
individuals and society. You are not extravagant or wasteful. On the other
hand, you are not stingy.
You need to pay Zakaat as required and apply the Islamic inheritance laws.
You must realize that the
wealth and property you acquire are not obtained solely by your capability but
by the wish and permission of God. ‘God enlarges livelihood for whom He wills
and reduces it for whom He wills’. (
You know that what you
posses is a trust from God and that everything in the world including man
belongs to God who is the real owner.
You know that the
underprivileged in society, ‘the one who needs to ask and the outcast has a
title or share in your wealth’. (51: 19)
You need to take care of
workers, paying their wages in right amount and punctually and providing them
with contentment. You remember what the Prophet said: ‘There
are three kinds of people whom I shall be against: One of them is the who
didn’t pay the right wages to his workers after their labours’.
You keep workloads of
workers to a moderate and reasonable level remembering the warning of the
Prophet: ‘Do not make them responsible more than their capacities’. (top)
As
an employee
You should attempt to
find the most appropriate job and profession to earn your livelihood according
to your natural and acquired abilities and skills’. You should inspired by the
saying the noble Prophet that every person is a shepherd and is responsible for
his flock or in other words, every person is a steward and is responsible for
his trust. You perform your job to the best of your ability remembering the
saying of the Prophet, ‘You will be responsible for what you have done’.
You recognize the value
of work as apposed to idleness, laziness or begging taking into consideration
the saying of the Prophet, ‘The man who works to support his family is on the
way of God and the man who supports his old father and mother is on the way of
God as well’, and ‘whoever takes a rest after tiring work to obtain decent
gain, rests as forgiven’.
‘Work, and God, the
Prophet and the believers will witness your work’. (9: 105)
You are grateful to God
for your work and income. You are not envious of others’ income nor do you have
a hateful attitude towards your employer.
What if you feel your
employer is unjust or if you feel you merit or need a better salary and
conditions of work? How do you go about changing your situation?
Here is not the place to
go into industrial law and relations. However, in line with the Qur’anic injunction to put down contractual agreements in
writing, it is recommended that you have from you employer a contract of
employment setting down mutual obligations and rights. If you feel that your
employer is not fulfilling his agreed obligations, it is your duty as a Muslim
to help your employer by pointing out any injustice and advising him to refrain
from committing injustice or breach of his Islamic obligations as an employer.
You have a duty to cooperate with others to bring an end to injustice and
exploitation. You may refer your case to an arbitrator, an imam or a judge and
Islam provides for this. In the last resort, you have the option to leave any
employment provided you have fulfilled the terms of your contract and take up
any other work or enterprise. Your freedom to do so should be respected by all.
(top)
You
as a consumer
How, why and where should
you as a Muslim person spend your wealth? There are four possibilities:
1. You may
spend to satisfy needs;
2. If your
income is in excess of your needs, you make savings;
3. You may
hoard your saving as gold, silver, other jewelry, or other liquid assets;
4. You may invest
your savings in production.
As a consumer, your level
of spending for consumption is not only determined by your income, but depends
on other economic, social and moral requirements.
You are not supposed to
spend your income on any things forbidden by the Shari’ah,
for example, on alcoholic beverages, gambling, or illegitimate leisure or
entertainment.
You must refrain from
luxurious and conspicuous consumption:
‘Verily, God does not
love any of those who, full of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner; (nor)
those who are niggardly and bid others to be niggardly, and conceal whatever
God has bestowed upon them out of His bounty…
‘And (God does not love)
those who spend their possessions on others (only) to be seen and praised by
men, the while they believe neither in God nor the Last Day ….’ (4: 36-38)
You should also limit the
level of consumption by quantity and keep away from waste:
‘O children of Adam! Look
to our adornment at every place of worship and eat and drink but be not
extravagant and wasteful. Indeed He does not love those who waste’. (
‘Lo, the squanderers are
brothers of the Satans, and Satan is urgrateful to his Lord’. (
Borrowing and debt
You should try to relate
your consumption to your income remembering the saying of the Prophet, ‘May God
prevents me from sin and borrowing’.
You are not supposed to
borrow unless it is necessary. If it is necessary to borrow, you should make a
written agreement with sincere intention to repay. ‘When you contract a debt
for a fixed term, record it in writing’ (2: 82)
Pay back in right time
for it is unjust to extend the repayment time if you are able to repay a debt
in time. To do so is a blameworthy act. ‘Whoever borrows with pure intention,
God will pay for him; and whoever borrows with the intention of being
extravagant and wasteful, God will ruin him’
Nowadays, it is very easy
for individuals and nations to fall into debt. The availability and widespread
use of credit cards make it very easy for people to run up large shopping bills
and debts. Instead of being a facility credit cards have become a source of
burden and a millstone for many people. Resulting debts create mental strain
and worry and also family and social tension.
‘I seek refuge with Thee
from poverty. And I seek refuge with Thee from the over-powering of debt and
the oppression of men’, is part of an oft-repeated supplication of the Prophet.
Regulating the type and
level of your consumption has several benefits:
·
you do not fall into debt easily;
·
you refrain from provoking the jealousy of the
poor;
·
you will more likely have extra funds either for
increasing investment for economic development, or for giving loans, or for
giving in charity;
·
you therefore help to create
greater prosperity and social balance.
These principles
concerning the type and level of consumption can also be applied to countries,
and make for better international relations. (top)
As investor and
creditor
If your income is in
excess of your needs, what will you do with the excess?
If you intend to hoard
your savings, you will come up against two important Islamic principles: the
prohibition of hoarding and the payment of Zakaat on
that saving. Therefore, if you keep your wealth idle for a long time, your
wealth will progressively decrease with time.
These principles of Islam
thus prevent the idleness of saving and stimulate the transformation of the
waving into economic life. ‘They who hoard up god and silver and spend it not
in the way of God, unto them give tidings, O Muhammad, of a painful doom’ (9:
34).
Since you are prohibited
from hoarding, you may either invest your savings,
give loans, gifts, or set up waqfs or charitable endowments.
If you intend to extend
loans as an economic activity to earn income and not as social assistance, you
will need to bear in mind the important principle of Islam, ‘Prohibition of
gains out of money without having risk of investment’. Under this principle,
you cannot have a legitimate or pure gain out of your money without yourself
working or having shared the risk of investment. Therefore you cannot lend
money to other people or companies or the state or leave it in deposits in a
bank on the conditions that you are guaranteed a return.
You may however enter
into partnerships, or invest your money in businesses or in stock and shares on
condition that:
1.
you agree to share in the profit or loss of such
business;
2.
these business are not involved in any activity
prohibited by Islam such as brewing or distilling, speculating in futures’
market such as buying an orange crop before the fruit is mature;
3.
you do not sell a commodity
that you have not taken possession of.
Lending and Charity
‘The likeness of those
who spends their wealth in God’s way is as the likeness of a grain which grows
seven ears, in every ear is a hundred grains. God gives increase manifold to
whom He wills’. (2: 261)
On the basis of this and many other encouraging advice in the Qur’an
and the Sunnah, you are urged to give loans in need of
help but without economic interest. Such a loan is referred to in the Qur’an as a ‘goodly loan’ or qard
hasan.
Those who give such loans
are expected to deal leniently, ‘If the debtor is in straitened circumstances,
then let there be postponement to (the time of) ease; and that you remit the
debt as charity would be better for you if you did but knows’. (2: 280)
‘He who grants a respite
to one in straightened circumstances or remit his debt will be saved by God
from the anxieties of the Day of Resurrection’, said the noble Prophet.
If you do remit a debt,
you should not feel that your wealth or your capital will be lost or
diminished. Instead, there will be many benefits:
·
you will remove from the borrower the
psychological stress and pain of debt;
·
you will strengthen social harmony and
brotherhood;
·
you will have inner
satisfaction in being able to help a fellow human being.
Such act will help to
realize the Islamic vision of an enterprising, sharing and caring society. More
than this, there is the enduring reward promised by God for all those who do
such good. (top)
One of the best ways of
using excess income is to set up waqfs. These are
charitable endowments or trusts which are set up for specific purposes. This
involves dedicating a sum of money or the proceeds from a business or rental
income from property you own for a specific charitable purpose. There are waqfs for school, libraries, hospitals, orphanages, mosques
and their maintenance, hostels for travelers, the treatment of animals and many
other charitable purposes. Once money, land or building is given as waqfs, it cannot be taken back. It isan
endowment in perpetuity and the rewards from it are continuous, for the noble
Prophet has said,
‘When a person dies, all
his actions come to an end except in respect of three matters which he leaves
behind: a continuing charity; knowledge from which benefit could derived;
righteous offspring who pray for him’.
The value of work, of
seeking a livelihood, the attitude to wealth and its relation to the real
purpose of life are all well caught in the fine balance and tension of the
saying,
‘Work for the world as if
you will live forever;
And work for the eternal
life as if you will die tomorrow’.
If you could attain both
the level of work and enjoyment and the level of God-consciousness and
sacrifice which this saying summons you to, then you would have achieved
fulfillment complete! (top)