Peace be upon you all my dear readers,
Its been a while since i’ve penned my thoughts. I seriously wanted a break to feel free and do things apart from being disciplined
. Alhamdulillah, He has given me the sense to come back to what i presume doing best. Insha Allah, i will be posting articles addressing different areas like family improvement, mu’amalat, fiqh, aqeeda, tafseer, hadeeth, stories and things that have positive impact on the hearts (insha Allah). The objective is to educate in the simplest manner possible.
There have been many comments about my first blog and my dearest people have been telling me to continue. Insha Allah, i will continue doing my best. Hope you all enjoyed the ‘shaky’ intial blog. Jazaakumullah khairan (may Allah increase you all in goodness).
The title of this post, ‘The Power of Sharing’ can be thought in many applications. The one i’m going to address is in mu’amalat. Ok, mu’amalat is for every day actions.
Narrated Ibn ‘Umar:
The Prophet decreed that one should not eat two dates together at a time unless he gets the permission from his companions (sharing the meal with him). [Bukhari]
On the authority of Abu Harayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace be upon him), who said: Allah (mighty and sublime be He) said: “Spend (on charity), O son of Adam, and I shall spend on you.”[Bukhari and Muslim]
Now, coming to Sharing, its not always about charity but Justice in ones actions. And Justice should be only for good and not evil.
Anas b. Malik reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Neither nurse mutual hatred, nor jealousy, nor enmity, and become as fellow brothers and servants of Allah. It is not lawful for a Muslim that he should keep his relations estranged with his brother beyond three days. [Muslim]
How can we uphold this if we don’t share our time and efforts justly fearing Allah?
The moment one gets into dealing in an unjust manner, the consequences piles up faster than one could imagine. And after this, its very difficult to bring back the good will. For this being one of the reasons, Allah has allowed trade and the honors of honest traders are too good to be missed. And the honest trader always shares justly with people who work with him.
I’ve seen lot of people who wants to eat only the halal, masha Allah. But when it comes to trade, they love to be ignorant to do mistakes or forget what sharing with justice is all about. Not only the halalness of the meat should be of concern but the money with which it is brought also counts equally.
People who are having riba’ based bank accounts feel that banks are dealing justly by giving them riba’. Loads of people just throw blindness over themselves while using that money.
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, “A time will come when one will not care how one gains one’s money, legally or illegally.”[Bukhari]
Use of current accounts is recommended even though the bank may be using it, you make sure your savings remain halal and for those who have excess, i mean ‘e-x-c-e-s-s’, invest it with entrepreneurs for profit sharing (mudaraba) or enter into musharaka (sharing) venture. This goes without saying, “In any benefit lies a liability (Al-kharaju bid-daman)” [a qawaid]
Mudaraba is profit-sharing for trade financing. In Mudaraba the rabb al-mal, or sleeping partner entrusts
money to the mudarib or managing trustee. The mudarib is to use the funds in an agreed manner and then return to
the rabb al-mal the principal and a pre-agreed share of the profits, over an agreed period of time. The mudarib is
not allowed to guarantee either the capital or the profits.
Musharaka is profit-loss sharing venture where profit is to be distributed according to the agreement but loss is to be borne in proportion to capital contribution. Capital guarantee is not allowed in any business based on the legal maxim stated above and others explained well by scholars.
The above explanations are crude and needs to be studied deeper to understand as to what has been structured and the reasons behind it.
And this Sharing of excess leads to economic activity with capital ploughed in to make profit with the risk of loss being the element in business. Since there is no guarantee, there is no exploitation of people. All the other type of transactions, if put into practice as per norms (shari’ah), will bring about a harmonious upbringing of the society and will nurture individuals with value as the system will demand itself.
PEACE in Islam is not only what the dictionary means. Its a situation when a child will play with snakes and it will not bite and a lion will play with zebra and it will not be scared. To achieve this kind of PEACE there needs to be Justice. And remember, two groups who will rejoice the shade of the Throne on the Day of Judgment are the just ruler and the honest trader. All this and many many more petty things with ‘The Power of Sharing’.