Author: Mohammad Esmayil Alizahi
Islamic Economy (1st Part)
Financial policy during the time of the Holy Prophet
Will Durant, in his book History of Civilization, writes about the state of wealth and its amount in Arabia, on the threshold of the establishment of the Islamic State: Arabia, three-fourths (3/4) of which was without water and grass, was considered the life field of primitive tribes, all of their wealth, for It was enough to decorate a building like the Church of Santa Sophia.
In such a situation, the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) founded the Islamic government in Medina. At the beginning of the rise of Islam in Mecca, the Muslim community was very small and there was no need to collect taxes. After the conquest of Mecca, the position of the Islamic State was stabilized. The Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) sent tax officials to collect zakat to all the Arab tribes, with the exception of one or two cases. to receive the demands.
Even though the collection of land tax had started during the lifetime of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace. But its amount was very small and it was only received in two ways to share crops from a Jewish tribe. Jizya collection also started during the time of the Prophet. However, this tax was not regulated in terms of the amount, time and method of collection and with simple and small-scale methods.
Despite the simplicity of the financial structure, an important point was the heavy emphasis on monetization of the economy. Arab commercial transactions before Islam were conducted using coins of other nations, mostly Eastern Roman dinars and Iranian dirhams.
The Arabs had their own monetary weighing method, and they weighed these coins according to their method and calculated the value of the money. It means that they are not coins. The weights of gold and silver were called dirhams and dinars respectively. The weight of seven dinars was equal to ten dirhams. The weight of each dinar was equal to seventy-two grains of oats of a certain size.
Since this monetary method did not create any problem for collecting zakat, it was approved by the Prophet, peace be upon him. Later caliphs, may God be pleased with them, tried to create a more accurate monetary unit.
Some financial sources and their collection and distribution method in Sadr Islam are as follows:
A) Khums of spoils
b) Jizya (capita tax)
c) tribute (land tax)
Islamic financial policies during the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, as reported in the Qur’an. Except for collecting and spending it, it has not been in the way of public benefits and poverty alleviation.
The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, took possession of zakat and other alms and financial incomes such as Anfal and Fa, which is mentioned in Surah Hashr, verse 7. where it says: « مَّآ أَفَآءَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِۦ مِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْقُرَىٰ فَلِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ وَلِذِى ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ وَٱلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ كَىْ لَا يَكُونَ دُولَةًۢ بَيْنَ ٱلْأَغْنِيَآءِ مِنكُمْ ۚ وَمَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمُ ٱلرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَىٰكُمْ عَنْهُ فَٱنتَهُوا۟ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ شَدِيدُ ٱلْعِقَابِ » [سوره حشر: آیه٧] Translation: “What God returned to His Messenger from the people of these settlements belongs to God, the Messenger, his relatives, the orphans, the poor, and those on the way, so that (these huge properties) do not change hands among your rich people!”
Take (and implement) what the Messenger of God brought you and refrain from what he forbade. And avoid (opposing) God, for God’s punishment is severe!” He designed his policies in such a way that the sources of wealth and production are properly distributed and do not remain in the hands of a limited number of capitalists.
In fact, the macro-financial policies of the Prophet’s government, peace and blessings be upon him, were based on the divine decree on the free circulation of capital among citizens and the nation. In such a way that it does not remain only in the hands of a wealthy group and does not circulate among them.
Since in the Qur’anic vision and attitude, cultural poverty (which is considered in the design and decision-making of economic policies) is the reason for the promotion and stability of authoritarian governments (the meaning of a part of Surah Zakharf: verse 54), this divine book defines the cultural policies of the society in a way It is designed so that everyone is not only familiar with the laws (in the Qur’anic term, the book), but also with education and training (which is the real education) in such a way that the citizens are aware and self-made to deal with authoritarian and tyrannical governments and rulers. They did not cooperate and even stood up against them.
Incentive policies
To direct savings in the right direction, you do two things:
A) Sanctioning and blocking the deviant ways of savings flow, which was realized by sanctioning interest, usury, money-to-money transactions, etc.
b) Creating the right ways for the flow of savings, as well as encouraging and persuading the owners of savings to invest in these matters, which was achieved by providing ways and encouraging Muslims to do so and placing those actions in the ranks of worship.
In the following, some of these ways, for which many rewards and rewards are considered in the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, encouraged Muslims to do them, have been mentioned:
Qarz Hasanah: Many verses of the Holy Qur’an interpret this good deed as giving in the way of God as a kind of loan and mention many rewards and rewards for it. In many hadiths, Muslims have been encouraged to do this and even this loan has been preferred over charity. It seems that in order to eliminate usury, which was common before Islam, Qarz al-Hasna was introduced as an alternative method.
These encouragements caused the owners of savings to give loans to producers and consumers, as a result of which both the productivity of production works and the well-being of the consumer and the usefulness of the borrower increased; Because although the lender may not have received a worldly profit from the point of view of the usual economy, but from the point of view of Islam, this is an activity for Muslims that will have multiple returns.
The discussion about benefits, especially from the point of view of Islam and in Islamic societies, requires a new opinion and an independent review that is not included in this article, but at least it can be said that the benefits from the point of view of Islam are not limited to mere material affairs. Worshiping the divine nature of Qarz-Hasna and its spiritual efficiency, causes Muslims to dedicate their savings to this cause to achieve this gift, as a result of which the overall well-being increases.
Spending income: Due to the extraordinary rewards and rewards mentioned in the Holy Quran and the words of the Messenger of God, Muslims have had and still have a great desire for it, in such a way that some people made sacrifices and were hard on themselves, while other Muslims had to suffer.
Do not suffer The Holy Quran considers giving as a kind of investment that has seven hundred times return. It is stated in Surah Baqarah verse 261: “The likeness of those who spend their wealth in the way of God is like a seed that grows seven clusters from one seed and each cluster contains a hundred seeds – so that one seed becomes seven hundred – and God Also Whoever wants to add.” Alms is normally paid from cash and non-cash savings, and Muslims are obliged to provide for themselves and their families in the first stage, and then start alms.
Endowment of wealth: Endowment is one of the things that Muslims were strongly encouraged to do during the time of the Holy Prophet. Waqf is often done in the form of public benefit investments such as schools, mosques, hospitals, bridges, etc., or placing accumulated savings in the form of houses, farms, and gardens at the disposal of the public.
Waqf was one of the things that during the time of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, many economic problems of Muslims were solved by means of it. Of course, the endowment is divided into various types according to the characteristics and conditions of the waqf, the waqf, and also according to the existing problems, each of which has solved a part of the existing problems. For example, in order to solve the problem of housing through endowment, there are three different types with their own conditions – residence, life, and competition – which have been discussed in detail in hadiths and jurisprudence books.
In general, endowment, as one of the effective and efficient incentive policies, can be used in the economy of Islamic societies; Therefore, the discussion of utility in economics should be carefully re-examined and a definition of it should be given that is effective for Islamic societies and explains these huge and undeniable observations.
Continues…
