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Islamic Economics :Personal Property


Towards Eradicating Oppression
Allah, the Creator of all, knows that people love to gather material
possessions, and that much of their efforts are for the sake of gathering the
various material means of the world. As such, Islam does not oppose human
nature, as it was fashioned by Allah, and allows for personal possessions though
they may be a great deal of all the wealth in the world.

Islam is more concerned with ensuring the rights of others’ personal property,
and preventing all forms of stealing, usurpation, and extortion. In fact, the
severity of the Islamic punishment for stealing, when certain conditions are met
and certain extenuating circumstances cannot be found, is an example of Islam’s
strong concern with eradicating such forms of oppression completely from
society.

The Islamic ideal is based upon absolute justice on the personal as well as the
societal level. If a person strives hard and earns wealth that is subsequently
stolen by another or usurped by the state, this is the ultimate in injustice.
Furthermore, if such arbitrary seizures of private property are pervasive in
society, they will remove the incentive for people to work for personal
financial advancement, undermining the basis of material societal development
itself. For these reasons, the Islamic model is highly concerned with preventing
injustice by protecting the rights of people to their personal property.
The true Muslim realizes that the wealth in his or her possession is in
actuality in the possession of Allah. The Muslim is merely a temporary agent who
manages the property and who will be held accountable for how he or she disposes
of it. If one uses it for good ends, such as the rectification of the self, of
others, or of society, one will be rewarded in this world and in the next. On
the other hand, if one uses it for less noble ends, one will either be punished
in the next world or by being denied blessings in the fruits of one’s labors in
this world.

The Islamic system has established fundamental rules governing work and
inheritance, the two main means of acquiring wealth. It stipulates that a
worker’s wages should be paid before the sweat has dried from his body – a law
applied in a general sense to eradicate oppression against the lower classes.
Islam has also made unlawful the monopolization of things necessary for the
functioning of society. Wells and other sources of water, for instance, are
unlawful to use and monopolize as personal property, thereby eliminating another
potential for oppression. It is also considered a great act of charity to dig a
well, or even plant a tree for public benefit.

Islam does not look favorably upon a situation in which a society’s wealth is
concentrated in the hands of a select few. Thus, it seeks to facilitate the
trickling down of money from the rich to those below them. In addition to the
yearly mandatory zakah, there exist numerous Prophetic Hadiths that strongly
encourage additional, voluntary charity by the affluent.

When the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came to Medina, he
encouraged the wealthier supporters to financially aid the poor Emigrants. Then,
when war booty fell to the lot of the Muslims, he would divide the wealth
according to economic condition – the poor segments of the Muslims would receive
larger portions. Through such measures, he sought to reduce the gap between rich
and poor.
Islamic inheritance laws aim to distribute the deceased person’s money
throughout a family, thereby limiting the potential of powerful family dynasties
to oppress those they disfavor by denying them a portion of the estate.
Children, spouses, grandchildren, siblings, and more distantly related men and
women alike are all potentially eligible to receive shares of the inheritance,
though their portions differ depending on their proximity to the deceased and
the identity of the other heirs.
For more information about Islam:
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http://www.geocities.com/al7arth1/1.html
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