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 . . . .
