Islam stands for circulation of wealth in an economy. This is a basic tenet based on which Islamic approach towards wealth may be understood. An in-depth study of Islamic moral teachings and provisions of the Islamic law (Shari’ah) shows that the objective of circulation of wealth has been ensured and adhered to. We shall glance through some of the moral teachings and the legal provisions of Islam in search of this particular aspect.
PROHIBITION OF RIBA
Interest leads to accumulation of wealth in some hands. It drains out wealth from poor nations to the rich nations and from under-developed countries to developed countries. Similarly, savings and hard earned money of poor people get sucked in favour of better placed individuals and groups.
It is interesting to note that one of the functions of interest described in conventional economics is that it is a tool of creation of wealth that ensures that savings are brought in the economy and production activities are activated resulting in overall benefits to the society. But in practice the benefit of wealth creation does not percolate to the masses and the fruits of developments are limited to the upper echelon of the society. The masses remain toiling and their miseries go in increasing day by day.
The reason behind this treason, if searched properly, will be the interest based economic system that takes care that the debtor gets his assured and cumulative return irrespective of the extent of return in the real production activity. He gets his reward even when the return is negative. This charge on economy to necessarily perform beyond a particular level takes heavy tolls and the underprivileged are forced to suffer.
Islam leaves no scope for this backdoor drainage in its economic system by abolishing riba (interest). Islam cannot compromise with the interest based system and so the malaises associated therewith will not surface. Flow of money and wealth in the economy is ensured through natural production activities.
TEACHINGS OF ISLAM
Moral teachings and legal provisions of Islam are geared towards circulation of wealth. Payments of ushr and zakat are obligatory on agricultural produce and non-agricultural savings respectively and the system takes care that the beneficiaries are disadvantaged members of the society. This is done by taking wealth from the rich and distributing the same to the poor and the needy. This is a conscious and well designed effort for circulation of wealth.
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) while sending his companion Muaz ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) to Yemen taught him to present the teachings of Islam to the people of Yemen in a systematic and gradual manner. That is a very important tradition of the Prophet and therein he mentioned the rationale of zakat in these words, “Tell them that Allah has made zakat obligatory for them that will be collected from their wealthy persons and distributed to their poor persons.” [Bukhari and Muslim, related by Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them].
Similarly, non-obligatory charity (sadaqua) is encouraged which turns the flow of wealth from haves to have-nots. The blessed Prophet has taught that whenever a person does something wrong he should give sadaqua to please Allah. This concept of atonement for sins and wrongs done in the form of relief to the poor and the needy may be noticed in the case of several commandments of the Qur’ān. We are noting hereunder some of the provisions.
For a person who misses the obligatory fasting the atonement is a ransom: “the feeding of a man in need.” [The Qur’ān 2:184]
For non-performance of oath the atonement is “the feeding of the ten of the needy” with the average of that the person feeds his own folk. [The Qur’ān 5:89]
For killing wild game while on pilgrimage to Ka’aba the atonement is to feed poor persons. [The Qur’ān 5:95]
For putting away wives (by saying that they are their mothers) the atonement is to feed sixty needy persons. [The Qur’ān 58:4]
These are some examples. In fact, the Islamic teaching is that wealth of a person has definite share of poor people. So the amount paid or service done is simply a case of giving another person what actually belonged to him.
APPLICATION OF INCOME OF BAITULMA’AL
A major source of revenue of the government should be spent on supporting the poor classes of society. This is evident from the teachings of the Qur’ān regarding fai {the wealth coming back and restored to the baitulma’al (exchequer)}. Its major part is set aside for the poor. The Qur’ānic commandment regarding the fai is contained in Surah Hashr [59:7] as translated hereunder:
“Whatever (from the possessions of the town’s people) Allah has bestowed on His Messenger belongs to Allah, and to the Messenger, and to his kinsfolk, and to the orphans, and to the needy, and to the wayfarer so that it may not merely circulate between the rich among you. So accept whatever the Messenger gives you, and refrain from whatever he forbids you. And fear Allah: verily Allah is Most Stern in retribution.”
The possessions as referred to in the above commandment of the Qur’ān were the movable and immovable properties left by a tribe named Bani an-Nadr when they were banished from Madinah for their treacheries and other crimes. The highlighted portion of the commandment in the bold, above, is noteworthy. It describes the purpose of the distribution of the properties in a manner that it (the wealth) may not merely circulate between the rich. The properties were restored to the baitulma’al (the exchequer) without any war or war-like operation and the question of their distribution had arisen because prior to this event war booties were distributed among the members of the army after taking out one-fifth for the baitulma’al. Such war booties were invariably of movable type like weapons, cattle, food items, etc. That system of distribution of the wealth to the warriors in such big quantities, both movable and immovable, would have made these circulate between the few beneficiaries. The system that the above mentioned commandment enshrined made the wealth circulate in the society. The orphans, the needy and the wayfarers were made the ultimate beneficiaries.
LAW OF INHERITANCE
Islam permits savings and encourages investments that may in turn increase the wealth. A portion of the accumulated wealth is compulsorily required to be taken out as ushr or zakat. The rest can genuinely and legally be possessed. The wealth so amassed shall be distributed to the inheritors of the person after his death. The Qur’ān and the traditions of the blessed Prophet have provided elaborate law of inheritance whereby a person can leave a will for one-third share of his property. The rest shall be distributed according to the law of inheritance of Islam. Thus wealth accumulated ultimately gets circulated.