Saturday 26 June 2021

Riba & The strategy of public confrontation




PROPOSAL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ISLAMIC PUBLISHING COMPANY BASED ON MUSHARAKA OR MUDARABA

We propose for the consideration of Muslim entrepreneurs, wherever in the world this book may reach, the establishment of an Islamic Publishing Company which would publish strategic literature on Islam such as books on the prohibition of riba. The establishment, Islamic publishing companies, would be scared to publish Islamic books which reveal the true nature and mission of modem dominant godless European civilization and its war against Islam.

Books on Islam, to be published by this publishing company, would fulfill the following very specific needs:

1. Defending Islam and Muslims against attacks which are increasingly being launched by an essentially godless and largely Jewish-controlled media and publishing industry;

2. Defining Islam authentically and thus protecting Muslims from being misled by revisionist and modernist interpretations of Islam. An excellent book, which performs precisely such a function, is the two-volume work entitled: “The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society” by Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari (may Allah him mercy on him).

3. Articulating Islam to the modem secularly educated world in a manner which would demonstrate Islam's capacity to solve the most serious and dangerous problems facing all of humanity (and in particular families) today;

4. Introducing the Qur’an in a manner which would conclusively demonstrate to non-Muslims as well as to secularized Muslims that it is the Word of Allah the Most High, - indeed, that it cannot be other than the Word of Allah the Most High;

5. Using the city in which the publishing company is located as a base for guiding public opinion to facilitate the effort of protecting the faith of the believers and for restoring the jama'ah and Imam/Ameer who must he obeyed;

Such an Islamic Publishing Company would also perform the crucially important function of providing an avenue for local Islamic scholars to conduct research and to write books which, will be highly relevant to local challenges. No such avenue exists today. Such a publishing company can be established as a commercial venture and should yield a positive return on investment. Local laws should permit such a venture to be established. Eventually, of course, Muslims will no longer have this freedom. But while still the freedom lasts it should be used.

THE STRATEGY OF PUBLIC CONFRONTATION 

After a program of public education has been effected, a mobilization of the latent faith in the bosom of the oppressed masses should be the next goal of the revolutionary Islamic movement. The oppressed have to be roused to participate in a mass struggle for liberation from economic oppression. When that struggle is led by Muslims it will lead to the restoration of the sovereignty of Allah the Most High, over territory and that would be Dar al-Islam, and a rejection of the false claim to sovereignty of the modem secular State.

There is, I believe, much which we can learn from the strategy of mobilizing the oppressed displayed in the success of the call for a million-man march of the oppressed to Washington DC in October 1995. The oppressed responded to the call of Louis Farrakhan because he was perceived to be someone who had established credentials for making such a call. Farrakhan, like Imam Khomeini, stood outside the system and denounced it! He did not form part of the system. No one else in USA could have made the call for a million-man march of the oppressed and succeeded because no one, including the so-called leaders of the Muslims, have worked for or earned such credentials. Fidel Castro succeeded in his struggle against the oppressors in Cuba because the oppressed masses responded to his call. They did because he also did not form part of the system, and he opposed it from outside.

The Islamic movement cannot earn the revolutionary credentials necessary for successfully mobilizing the masses if it functions as part of the political system created and sustained by the oppressors. We have great respect for Maulana Abul 'Ala Maududi (may Allah have mercy on his soul) but we must direct attention to the disastrous mistake which he made when the revolutionary Islamic movement which he created, i.e., the Jamaai-e-lslami (of Pakistan), was registered as apolitical party and then operated within the political system of Pakistan in a futile attempt to bring about revolutionary change to Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami and other such revolutionary Islamic movements as the Tanzeem-e-Islami (led by that outstanding Islamic scholar. Dr. Israr Ahmad), have to earn such credentials as would result in them being perceived by the oppressed masses as fortes which can liberate the oppressed from oppression. Those credentials cannot be earned without the following;

1) Scrupulous adherence in the command of Allah the Most High, in the Qur'an prohibiting relationship of dependency on, and subservience to, Christians and Jews. (Qur’an; al-Mai’da:-5:54). This implies that we, Muslims, must not submit to the dominant Judeo-Christian Western civilization and must carefully guard our independence from their dominance and influence. The monarchy and government in Saudi Arabia committed treason against Islam by talking the Arabian heart-land of Islam into a client State relationship with the Judeo-Christian West. One of the criteria by which we can recognize the true guides and scholars of Islam today is that they unequivocally denounce the treason of the Saudi regime, and of all other such regimes which today control the world of Islam on behalf of their western masters. Western civilization has all but declared war on Islam. Allah, the Most High, responds in the Qur’an by wanting:

Oh you who believe! Take not My enemies and yours as protecting friends, offering them your love, even though they have rejected the Truth which has come to you . . .
(Qur’an: al-Mumtahinah:-60:1)

2) Making the straggle for the liberation of the oppressed their first priority. This can never be achieved if they become part of the system of politics and economic oppression. Islam cannot be accommodated within a system of oppression.

3) Educating the oppressed so that they will understand the nature of the political, economic and religious oppression to which they are subjected. The most important element of this process of education would be education concerning riba.

4) Confronting, denouncing and challenging the oppressors, in particular those engaged in the economic oppression that is riba.

5) Waging an armed struggle for the liberation of the oppressed within the world of Islam (after exhausting all peaceful efforts to achieve that goal).

That armed struggle for the liberation of the oppressed who reside outside the world of Islam cannot be waged until the world of Islam has itself been liberated! And so the strategy for the Islamic movement outside the world of Islam is the same as that which was adopted in Makkah prior to the Hijrah, i.e., passive resistance with the greatest effort possible to ensure that faith in Allah the Most High, is not corrupted and destroyed.

If anyone entertains any doubts concerning the legitimacy of waging an armed struggle for liberation from the oppression of riba, he should recall the very last revelation of the Qur’an, sent down when the Prophet (s) was about to die, and sent down after Allah the Most High, had announced the perfection of religion and the completion of his favor to the believers, in which Allah the Most High, and His Messenger (s) declare war for that very purpose!

to be continued . . . . 

The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) by Imran Hosein



The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) (Q&A) by Imran Hosein



Saturday 19 June 2021

Riba & Specific Proposal




SPECIFIC PROPOSAL

We now wish to propose that workers of Islam around the world should study the strategy of establishing financial institutions named. perhaps. Islamic Business and Investment Companies investors may be invited to invest monthly or lump-sum investments. Our goal should be to bring Muslims and their money together to combine in partnerships (shirkah). An investment would constitute part ownership of the company. Such a partnership. and all other partnerships amongst believers.. will be blessed with having Allah the Most High, Himself as an additional partner Who will stay with them in the partnership so long as no partner cheats the others;

Abu Hurairah traced to the Prophet that Allah, Who is Great and Glorious, said: I make a third with two partners as long as one of them does not cheat the other. but when he cheats him I depart from them (Abu Daud transmitted it and Razin added: and the devil comes).
(Hadith al-Qudsi)

Investments should, eventually be made in dinars rather than dollars, and the dinar should be restored lo what it was at the time of the Prophet (s) i.e. a gold coin minted from gold which was created by Allah the Most High, and which was meant by Allah the Most High, to be used as currency (among other uses):

And there are those who hoard gold and silver and spend not in the Way of Allah . . .
(Qur’an; al-Tauba 9-34)

In order to succeed in offering Muslims an alternative to riba. Islamic Business and Investment Companies must attract large-scale participation by Muslims. There have been many well-intentioned efforts by Muslim's in USA at establishing investment companies which would be free of riba. Such efforts have never succeeded in making any significant impact on the Muslim community because they suffer from a defect in methodology. They have not followed the divine methodology of continuous public education on the subject of riba. Nor have they been successful in reaching out to the community of Muslims as a whole to persuade them to turn away from riba. Nor have they presented the argument that business is the alternative to riba and if business is conducted honestly ii has the capacity to demonstrate its superiority to riba-based capitalism! Some of such companies are, in fact, operating in a manner quite similar to some so-called Islamic Banks which the frightened regimes of some Muslim countries are supporting is an escape valve for the pressure of riba.

Our goal should be to attract mass participation by Muslims in the effort to respond lo riba. It is only if all the Muslims come together as a community that we would have a possibility to deny capital to the banks and raise the capital with which to establish that attractive alternative to riba-based capitalism, i.e. business in a free and fair market!

The economic Sunnah is today the best defense against dajjal and the most effective means of penetrating the hearts of the oppressed in the modern world and winning them for Islam!

Before, however we can even attempt to provide Muslim brothers and sisters with Islamic Business and Investment Companies (IBJC) as an alternative-means of capital formation to riba-based banking system, and to convince them to turn lo that alternative, it is first necessary for us to do the following:

1. Explain to Muslims what is riba, and what are the different forms in which it manifests itself.

2. Inform them of the prohibition of riba in Islam and the punishment which awaits those who indulge in riba,

2. Explain to them, as well as to interested non-Muslims, why riba has been prohibited.

4. Explain to them, the stage-by-stage process through which Allah the Most High, and His Messenger (s) dealt with riba until it was completely eradicated from Muslim society.

5. Warn them that the universal presence of riba today is a sign of the coming of the last day.

When the company is established and the capital has been raised through investments, the company would now engage in business. All the partners will participate in the business. And all will share the profits or loses.

Islamic Business and Investment Communities (IBIC) can also mobilize investment funds to be provided to Muslim businessmen for the purpose of establishing or expanding businesses. Instead of having to borrow from a bank on interest (riba) and assuming all risks (without the bank. sharing any of the risks involved in business), such businessmen can invite IBICs to invest in their businesses with the amount which would otherwise have been borrowed from the bank. The IBIC would share the operation and the risks of the business enterprise with the Muslim businessman. And much of the profits which would otherwise have been used to pay interest (riba) to the bank, would now go to Muslim investors.

In addition, the Muslim businessman would be saved from entering into riba as well as into debt!

The IBIC would serve as the means through which the Muslim community can raise such capital as can be invested in projects which are too large for individual Muslim businessmen, but which represent strategic opportunities for advancing the cause of Islam in America and around the world. Such, for example, would be large-scale projects for food production which would conform with the strict Qur’anic requirement of being permissible (halal) and healthy (tayyib).

Islamic Business and Investment Communities should also be established to provide Muslims with institutions through which they can invest their savings through mudaraba investments (i.e. limited partnerships) and receive a halal profit/income from such investments. There will no longer be any excuse for Muslims who put their savings in Savings Accounts and Fixed Deposits in Banks. or in the speculative transactions of the Stock Market.

to be continued . . . . 

The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) by Imran Hosein



The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) (Q&A) by Imran Hosein