Islamic Economics Series: Adi Setia Part 5

INDUSTRY, BEGGARY & THE LIMITS OF CHARITY

I am publishing a series of articles written by the renowned Islamic scholar Adi Setia. There is so much talk about steering government towards an Islamic state. However, what is lacking is discussion about Islamic economics.

To encourage more understanding and interest in Islamic economics this series will be posted.

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By Adi Setia

O people who believe! 

Give provisions from out of the wholesome things that you have earned,

and out of  what We have brought out of the earth for you.

(al-Baqarah, 2: 267)

In respect of this topic we can do well to cite this very interesting hadith (Prophetic saying):

A man from among the Helpers (Al-Anṣār) came to the Messenger of Allah—Allah bless him and give him peace—asking him for a handout. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and give him peace—said to him,

“Do you not have anything in your house?”

He said, "Yes, O Messenger of Allah, a saddle blanket that is a garment that we wear a part of and spread out a part of, and a bowl we drink from.”

The Prophet said, “Bring both of them to me,” and so he brought them.

The Messenger of Allah—Allah bless him and give him peace—took the two items in his hands and said to the people around him, “Who will buy these two things?”

               A man said, “I’ll take them for one dirham, O Messenger of Allah.”

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and give him peace, then said again, “Who will pay two or three times more than a dirham?”

Another man said, “I'll take them for two dirhams, O Messenger of Allah,” and so he sold the items to him.

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace, then took the two dirhams and gave them to the Helper, and said to him, “Buy food with one of these and hand it over to your family, and with the other buy an adz (qaddūm) and bring it to me.”

He then brought the adz to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and give him peace, who fixed to it a cane with his own hands and then said, “Go and gather firewood and sell it, and I shall not be seeing you for fifteen days.”

He did accordingly and then came back having acquired ten dirhams in the interim. With some of the money he bought food and with some of it he bought clothes. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and give him peace, then said to him, “This is better for you than the habit of beggary scarring your face on the Day of Resurrection.”

This interesting hadith provides one with much food for profound thought respecting Islam’s general attitude towards working for a living (kasb). The poor are not to resort to beggary (suʾāl) if they are physically fit and able to work for their livelihoods by pursuing a craft, trading, farming, hunting, foraging, working for a wage, and so on.

Instead of simply giving handouts to the poor, one is to first ascertain their capacity to work or trade and advise them accordingly, for they may not be really poor but only conditioned into thinking they are poor. The general idea here is trade not aid, industry not beggary.

The poor, so long as they are sound of body and mind, are generally able to help themselves out of demeaning poverty and beggary (or dependency) into dignified self-reliance and self-sufficiency, if they are given even half a chance to engage in wholesome earning and right livelihood (kasb ṭayyib), or guided and trained to do so. If one has capacity for moral agency and creative work, along with a certain degree of socio-economic opportunity, then one is not really poor, but can actually work himself or herself out of material deprivation.

The verse in the Qurʾan cited in the epigraph above shows quite clearly that provisioning (infāq) for ourselves and the community in general is by way of earning (kasb, iktisab, ʿamal, takassub), and not by way of beggary or dependency on handouts (suʾāl).

Any doubt about the priority of earning over beggary is dispelled when we see the Migrants (muhājirūn) refusing charity from the Helpers (anṣār) but rather opting to work and earn, even though many of the former had become destitute after having been compelled to leave their property and wealth behind in Makkah when they opted to emigrate to Madinah.

Originally, after the Migrants had arrived in Madinah, the Helpers asked the Prophet—Allah bless him and give him peace—to divide the date-palm trees between them and their brethren from Makkah, which he nevertheless disapproved of. Then they all found accord in that the Helpers divide their properties with the Migrants on the condition that the latter would give the former half of the fruit they harvested from the orchards every year, and that  they would in return recompense the Helpers by working with them and putting in labor.

This situation continued for several years and it was a good arrangement subsequent to the conquest of Khaybar in the seventh year when all the Migrants economically became virtually self-sufficient. A famous companion, ‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Awf, has shed some light on the nature of these positive socio-economic developments impacting on the new Muslim community in Madinah in the wake of the Hijrah (emigration).

He said, “When we came to Madinah as emigrants, the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—established a bond of brotherhood between me and Saʿd b. al-Rabiʿ.

Sa‘d b. al-Rabiʿ said to me, “I am the richest among the Helpers, so I will give you half of my wealth and you may look at my two wives and whichever of the two you may choose I will divorce her, and when she has completed her prescribed period (before marriage), you may then marry her.”

ʿAbd al-Rahman replied: “I am not in need of all that. Is there a market-place here where trade is practiced?”

Saʿd replied: “The market of the (the Jewish tribe) Banū Qaynuqāʿ.”

‘Abd al-Rahman went to that market the following day. He continued going there regularly, and few days later he came having traces of yellow (scent) on his body.

The Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—asked him whether he had got married and ‘Abd al- Rahman replied in the affirmative.

Then the Prophet—Allah bless him and grant him peace—instructed him to hold a wedding reception (walīmah) even if was held with a sheep for the feast.

‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Awf eventually became as one of the wealthiest of Prophet’s companions, dubbed alongside such as were like him as khuzzān Allāh (Allah’s treasurers).

The best charity we can give to the poor is not to reactively give hand-outs to them now and then, but to proactively and systematically educate and train them to regain their dignity, to recover their capacity for creative work and thereby to help them to create for themselves their own honorable means of flourishing and thriving.

The word “charity” means to hold dear, to show care, to desire for others the very good we desire for ourselves. And among the very highest of these goods are a sense of self-worth, dignity, and self-respect, and the capacity for moral agency and good work grounded in autonomy, independence and the freedom to choose what is best for oneself, for one’s family and for one’s community. And such was the Prophet’s care for that young man described in the hadith above.

Dr Adi Setia

Dr Adi Setia is currently Director, Institute for Regenerative Livelihoods (IRL), www.irleconomy.org

He was formerly Associate Professor of Islamic Science and Islamic Economics at the Center for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science & Civilization (CASIS), University of Technology Malaysia (UTM).

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