Part 8:
Economic Outlook, This Life and the Next
(i) ECONOMIC OUTLOOK:- Religion in general is
supposed to be averse, if not hostile, to material progress, and such is really
the spirit of some well-known religions of the world so that their followers
have to make a clear choice between piety and prosperity. Islam on the other
hand, makes this worldly life the very opportunity to attain religious culture,
and to make spiritual progress. So much so, that marriage, which is the real
tie with true world, has been strictly enjoined by the Prophet, upon all
Muslims, to the extent of threatening noncompliance with expulsion from grace
and favour. The attitude of Islam towards the world is not shy and rejective,
but bold and acceptant. As it were, It does not forbid one to enter water, it
does not permit one to drown, but it teaches how to find the balance and swim.
So
Islam calls upon man to make the fullest and best use of the objects of Nature,
and to make his life worth living well. It only checks selfish waste and
excess, which always forebodes ruin. More over Islam aims at many amenities of
higher life, which for lack of knowledge or courage, many neglect to acquire.
Its vista of hope and effort is longer than what many can imagine. 20 : 31.
“Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah, which He has brought forth for
His servants, and the good provisions?..”32:7.
The
prohibition laws of Islam regarding pork, wine and intoxicants are well-known,
and have been, for considerations of health and morals, adopted more or less
everywhere. They have also found a place in the statues of some reforming
governments.
Islam
is openly opposed to the regime of Capitalism in the sense of securing
predetermined unearned incomes and increments. So it forbids usury and disfavors
interest. It however fully permits business partnership and approves profits.-
Lending
and borrowing is an indispensable function of human society. Islam urges the
well-to-do to help the needy with the debt of honour and allows the borrower to
offer something to the lender, in addition to the original loan, in gratitude,
provided there has been no binding understanding to the said effect, at the
initiation of the loan. Islam makes it a matter of sympathy and gratitude, and
thereby secures social peace and goodwill. Many prominent thinkers, even
admitting its immediate advantages, find the interest system ultimately harmful
to social peace and stability. As the inequalities of distribution of wealth
are in-ordinate, we are today faced with the puzzle of poverty in plenty,
generating a universal spirit of uneasiness and resentment, manifesting itself
into so many ‘isms’ like Socialism, Communism and Bolshevism.
Individualism
and Communism stand face to face, opposed to each other. The merits of one are faults
of the other. Islam provides for both in the laws of property, So as to get the
best out of them. There is neither a joint family system nor primogeniture custom,
but it steers a middle course, so as to let everyone live an individualistic
life, and enjoy the fruits of his labor, and then subjects his property to
communistic principles so as to distribute it widely in the whole family by
laws of inheritance. It looks upon property like the sea, its waves rising high
for the time, and then sinking down and spreading over neighboring surface.
That
modern civilization is fast approaching a perplexing crisis, is evident to all
thinkers. Qur’aan has also put up a
red light on the line, and the description of development from start to finish
is simply miraculous. The following passage is really a summary of the story of
western civilization from the middle ages down to the present, with
unmistakable portents for the future. Let those reflect who will, and let those
beware who, know. States Qur’aan:-
“And
certainly we sent messengers to nations before you; then we seized them with
distress and affliction, in order that they might humble themselves.”
“Yet,
why did they not, when our punishment came to them, humble themselves? But
their hearts hardened and Satan made what they did fair-seeming to them.”
“But
when they neglected that, with which they had been admonished, we opened for
them the gates of all things until, when they rejoiced in what they were given,
we seized them suddenly, and lo! They were in utter despair.”
“So the
roots of the people, who were unjust and aggressive, were cut off. Praise be to
Allah. Lord of the worlds.” Vide 42,25 :6.
(j)THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT:- Islam is
very positive about life after death, and gives any amount of details about the
features of the next life. In brief, it would be much more magnified in pain
and pleasure and in Divine association. Islam does not in the least underrate
or discount the present life, but when it is compared with the next in
magnitude, it does sink into insignificance by contrast. Still it is the
present life which prepares us for the next; so it has an importance of its
own, which cannot be too much emphasized. Vide 72.18 to 21 : 17, 15 ,16 : 11,
103 to 108: 18. Etc. How is life in appearance and in consequence,20 :57.
RECAPITULATION:- The
teachings of Islam have been wonderfully condensed in the very first Surah of the Qur’aan, called ‘Fatiha’
or the opening:-
Now,
how to follow the right path, and how to attain the Divine Favor: “And whoever
obeys Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), these are with those, upon whom Allah
has bestowed favors, from among the Prophets and the Truthful and the Martyrs
and the Good. And they are very good companions (indeed). The Grace is from
Allah, and Sufficient is Allah as the Knower.” 6 :4.
No God but Allah, Muhammad is Messenger of Allah
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