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Honesty in commercial dealings is more strictly enjoined by
Islam than by any other religion. It is because Islam is a
religion which regulates and directs life in all its
departments. It is not to be regarded, like the modern man's
religion. as a personal, private affair, which has nothing to
do with his economic and political life. It is not merely a
body of dogmas or a bundle of rites and rituals; it is a
practical code which governs life in all its spheres. Its laws
are as effectively operative in our commerce and politics as
in our domestic life and social relations. Islam censures
political chicanery and economic exploitation as strongly as
social excesses and individual dishonesty. Indeed, a true
Islamic society is based upon honesty, justice and fraternity,
and is absolutely intolerant of dishonesty in all its various
forms. That is the reason why perfect honesty in business and
truthfulness in trade are much emphasised by the Holy Prophet
(may peace be upon him). It will not be an exaggeration to say
that absolute honesty in business and commerce is really an
Islamic concept. The Hindus and Jews were (and still, are)
worshippers of the Mammon. Both of them have been mercenary
nations, notorious for their greed. The pre-Islamic
Christians. too, did not possess any high standard of business
morality. It was Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) who,
on the one hand, urged his followers to adopt trade as their
profession, and, on the other band, exhorted them to observe
truthfulness and honesty in their business transactions.
Islam lays the greatest emphasis on Qat Haldl (food earned
through lawful means). The pious among us believe that just as
nasty food spolis our physical health, similarly. food earned
through unlawful means spoils our spiritual and moral health.
A man who liver on income derived through illicit means and
fraudulent practices cannot be morally advanced and
spiritually elevated. If we try to comprehend the exact,
implications of the term Haram (unlawful) we can form an idea
of the high standard of morality on which Islam wants us to
conduct our business. And, if business is conducted strictly
in accordance with the Islamic principles of commerce, there
can be absolutely no scope for any kind of commercial
dishonesty varying from the simplest and most glaring type of
business fraud to the most cunning and subtle type of
profiteering which is often masked under a semblance of
honesty.
Islam is most vehement in its condemnation of commercial
dishonesty. It denounced, in the strongest possible terms, all
sorts of deceitful dealings and illegal profits. It has
disallowed all transactions not based upon justice and
fairplay The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him), while
reprimanding the dishonest dealer, said:" Laisa minna man
gashshdna" (Whosoever deceives us is not one of us).
According to Imam Ghazali, a Muslim who makes up his mind
to adopt trade as a profession or to set up his own business
should first acquire a thorough understanding of the rules of
business transactions codified in the Islamic Shari'ah.
Without such understanding he will go astray and fail into
serious lapses making his earning unlawful. No people in the
world have ever attached so much importance to lawful trading
as did the early Muslims, nor has any other nation evinced
such a dread of unlawful trading as they did. That is why al-Ghazali
said stress on a clear understanding of the rules and laws
governing business transactions as a necessary prerequisite to
adopting trade or business as a profession.
The Holy Qur'an has stressed the importance of fairness in
business:" And, O my people, give full measure and weight
justly, and defraud not men of their things, and act not
corruptly in the land making mischief. What remains with Allah
is better for you, if you are believers" (xi. 85-86).
In these words addressed by Hadrat Shu'aib to his people,
the Holy Qur'an enunciates the fundamental principles of
commerce as follows
To give just measure and weight.
Not to withhold from the people the things that are their
due.
Not to commit evil on the earth with the intent of doing
mischief.
To be contented with the profit that is left with us by God
after we have paid other people their due.
We are told in these verses that commerce can flourish
under conditions of peace and security. The people are,
therefore, warned not to disturb the peace of the land so that
there is a free and untrammelled trade between different parts
of the world. In commercial relations we are expected to be
absolutely just and honest, liberally giving other people
their due. We are not to be guilty of selfish greed and not to
indulge in profiteering; and we are told that the lawful
profit which has God's blessings is the one that we are able
to make through perfectly honest dealings with others. The
injunctions contained in these Qur'anic verses and found
elsewhere in the Holy Book close the door of all dishonest and
unjust transactions. We should not forget that justice is a
master virtue. If we give others just measure and just weight
that tantamounts to saying that we should be fair and just in
our dealings.
A careful study of" Kitab al-Buyu`" (the book
pertaining to business transactions) will reveal the fact that
the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) based business
dealings strictly on truth and justice. He has strongly
disapproved all transactions which involve any kind of
injustice or hardship to the buyer or the seller. He wanted
that both, the buyer and the seller, should be truly
sympathetic and considerate towards each other. One should not
take undue advantage of the simplicity or ignorance of the
other. The seller should not think that he has unrestricted
liberty to extort as much as possible from the buyer. He has
to be just; he should take his own due and give the buyer what
is his.
Islam, which condemns every kind of injustice and
exploitation in human relations, wants its followers to
conduct business in a sublime spirit of justice tempered with
human kindness. The conduct of the seller in a transaction
should be characterised not only by Insaf (justice), but also
by Ihsan (magnanimity)." God will forgive the sins of a
Muslim who absolves a fellow-Muslim from a sale-contract not
liked by the latter," says the Holy Prophet (may peace be
upon him).
All transactions should be based on the fundamental
principle of" Ta'auanu ala birri wa't-taqwa" (mutual
co-operation for the cause of goodness or piety). A
transaction not based upon this sound principle is not lawful.
Unlawful transactions are motivated by lust for money and an
ignoble desire to build up prestige. Islam strikes at the root
of the passion for money and suggests a different yardstick to
measure the prestige of a person. The Holy Qur'an, on the one
hand, condemns hoarding and the excessive love for wealth,
and, on the other, declares virtue and piety to be the
criterion for determining a person's worth." Inna
akramakum `ind-Allahi atqakum" (The noblest in the eyes
of God is the most pious among you). Thus does Islam minimise
in every possible way the temptation to illegal trade and
traffic. Let us now take note of the forms of business
transactions which have been prohibited in Islam. The Holy
Prophet (may peace be upon him) has not only disapproved of
certain forms of business transactions, but has also laid down
some basic conditions that should be fulfilled in every
transaction if it is to be lawful.
The following are some of these basic conditions:
Things sold and money offered as their price to be lawfully
acquired. The things sold and the money to be offered as their
price should both be lawfully acquired and clearly specified.
This condition demands that the goods sold should have been
lawfully obtained. One has no business to sell goods which one
has stolen or which one has acquired in a fraudulent manner.
nor should one purchase anything with the money which one has
accepted as illegal gratification or has aceuired in some
other deceitful way. This condition holds the buyer and the
seller responsible for lawful possession of the goods on the
partof one and of the money on the part of other.
Goods not to be sold before obtaining their possession. The
Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) has warned the Muslims
against indulging in forward transactions which means selling
goods before obtaining their possession." Whoever buys
cereals shall not tell them until he has obtained their
possession," says the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon
him). According to Ibn 'Abbas, what applies to cereals also
applies to other categories of goods. On another occasion the
Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) has said:" Bargain
not about that which is not with you."
Goods to be bought in the open market. Goods and
commodities for sale should go into the open market, and the
seller or his agents must be aware of the state of the market
before proposals are made for the purchase by the buyers. The
seller should not be taken unawares lest the buyers should
take undue advantage of his ignorance of the conditions and
prices prevailing in the market.
No trade and traffic in things, the use of which is
prohibited by Islam. A Muslim can trade in those goods and
commodities only the use of which has been declared to be
Halal (lawful). There can be no trade and traffic in things
the use of which is proliibited by Islam. For example, there
can be no trade in wine, swine, dead bodies of animals and
idols. A devout Muslim merchant would not even traffic in thin
and transparent stuff for ladies because the use of such stuff
by ladies is unlawful. One cannot sell the carcass of an
animal. He can, however, flay its skin which can be used for
making shoes and which can therefore, be sold, but not the
flesh of the dead animal. What is true of the usable skin of
animals is also true of the tusks of an elephant.
Prohibited forms of Business
Monopoly business. As monopoly means concentration of
supply in one hand, it leads to exploitation of the consumers
and the workers, it has, therefore, been declared unlawful by
the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him). Gigantic trusts.
cartels and monopolies should not exist in the Islamic
society. The monopoly-dominated economic order betrays lack of
harmony between private and social good and is, thus, a
negation of the principle of maximum social advantage which
the Islamic society sets out to achieve.
Speculative business basd on selfish interest. Speculation
means buying something cheap in bulk at a time and selling it
dear at another and, thus, controlling the whole market to
achieve personal gains. A close observation will reveal that
speculators are primarily interested in private gains
regardless of the larger interest of the society. These
speculators try to create artificial scarcity of goods and
commodities and thereby create an inflationary pressure on the
economy. As the poor masses have to pay for this. Islam has
condemned such speculative business.
Interest transactions. All transactions involving interest
are forbidden in Islam. Some people find it hard to submit to
the injunction prohibiting interest, because they think
interest and profit earned in trade are similar. Capital
invested in trade brings an excess called profit; invested in
banking it brings interest. Why should one excess be
considered lawful and the other unlawful? They fail to take
note of the basic difference between the two. Trade involves
risk of loss. Also in its case, it is not only the capital
invested that brings profit which is equally the result of
initiative, enterprise and efficiency of the entrepreneur.
Hence its rate cannot be predetermined and fixed. Moreover,
trade is productive. A person reaps a benefit after undergoing
labour and hardship. It creates conditions of full employment
and economic growth. It will also be noted that trade acts as
one of the dominant factors in the process of building up
civilisation through co-operation and mutual exchange of
ideas. The spread of Islam and Islamic civilisation In the Far
East has been mostly due to the efforts of Muslim traders.
Interest has no redeeming feature at all. The fixed rate of
profit which a person gets from a financial investment without
any risk of loss and without augmenting it with human labour
creates in man the undesirable weakness of miserliness and
Shylockian selfishness and lack of sympathy. In the economic
sphere it initiates and aggravates crisis.
Rightly, therefore, has Islam strictly prohibited all
transactions based on it or involving it in some form or
other.
Advancing money on interest, keeping deposits in a bank for
the sake of earning interest, or getting concessions in rates
of goods or commodities against advance payments of price,
mortgaging and utilising an income-yielding property against a
certain sum, to be returned in full when the property is
redeemed and investing money in a trade against a
predetermined and fixed rate of profit-are all unlawfnl
business transactions because they involve Riba (interest) in
some form or the other.
Transactions similar (in nature) to gambling. The Arabic
equivalent to gambling is Maisir which literarily means"
getting something too easily"," getting a profit
without working for it". The literal meaning of the term
explains the principle on account of which gambling is
prohibited in Islam. Any monetary gain which cornes too
easily, so much so that one does not have to work for it, is
unlawful.
The most familiar form of gambling amang the Arabs in the
days of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) was gambling
by casting of lots by means of arrows drawn from a bag. Some
were blank and those who drew them got nothing. Others
indicated prizes-big or small ones. Whether one got anything
or nothing depended on pure luck. unless there was fraud on
the part of someone concerned. The principle on which
objection to gambling is based is that you gain what you have
not earned, or lose on a mere chance. Dice, lottery, prize
bonds and betting on horse races are to be held within the
definition of gambling.
Munabadha and Mulamasa. Islam recognises barter trade
subject to the injunctions of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. In
fact, Islam has closed all doors of dishonesty and deceit in
business dealings. It has prohibited all forms of transactions
which admit of fraud in the least degree. It has impressed on
the traders that defective and worthless goods should not be
given in exchange for good ones, and if there is a defect in
the goods sold it must be pointed out and made manifest to the
purchaser. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him)
said:" The buyer and the seller have the option of
cancelling the contract as long as they have not separated;
then. if they both speak the truth and make manifest, their
transaction shall be blessed, and it they conceal and tell
lies, the blessing of their transaction shall be
obliterated".
Besides issuing the instructions which govern all forms of
trade, particularly barter trade, Islam has banned two forms
of sale contract that were prevalent before Islam. These were
Munabadha and Mulamasa. In neither of these was the purchaser
offered an opportunity to examine the thing purchased.
Munabadha means that the seller should throw the cloth to the
buyer before he has carefully examined it. The very act of
throwing the cloth will mean that the bargain has been struck.
Mulamasa means touching the cloth without examining it, ie.
the buyer was just supposed to touch the cloth to strike the
bargain. Both these forms of transaction were prohibited
because in either case the purchaser got no opportunity to
examine the things sold to him, and the bargain was likely to
prove unduly disadvantageous to one side.
In fact, Islam demanlds that goods and commodities for we
should go to the open market and the seller or his agents must
be aware of the state of the market before proposals are made
for the purchase of goods or communities in bulk. He should
not be taken unawares lest advantage be taken of his ignorance
of the state of the market, and the prevailing prices. All
this is ver clearly laid down by the Prophet (may peace he
upon him).
As mentioned above, Islam tries to be fair to both parties
to a transaction. Any step on the part of one, that is
advantageous to him and disadvantageous to the other, is not
permissible. The seller is expected to make the defects (if
any) in the goods manifest to the buyer, nor is the buyer
expected to take undue advantage of the ignorance of the
seller.
Mozabana. It is the exchange of fresh fruits for dry ones
in a way that the quantity of the dry fruit is actually
measured and fixed, but the quantity of the fresh fruit to be
given in exchange is guessed while it is still on the trees (Mishkat,
2710). The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) has forbidden
this exchange because the quantity of the fruit on the trees
cannot be definitely Determined and the transaction is just a
leap into the dark.
Mu'awama. It consists in selling the fruit on the trees for
a period of one, two or three years even before it has made
its appearance. It is prohibited because like Muzabana it is
also a leap into the dark. Such transactions may result in
bitterness and frustration.
Bai' al-Gharar. It is to sell a thing which one doesn't
have in one's possession, nor expects to bring it under one's
control, e g. fish in the river, or birds in the air.
Possession is one of the basic conditions of a sale. One
cannot sell a thing which is not in one's possession.
Bai' al-'Uryan. It is getting a thing against a nominal
advance on the condition that if the bargain is struck, the
advance will be adjusted and if the bargain is cancelled, the
seller will riot return the advance. The advance being
nominal, the buyer has practically no liability. He will abide
by the contract if he finds it advantageous to him and will
withdraw himself from it otherwise.
Bai' al-Mudtar. It is to buy a thing forcibly or to
purchase a thing when its owner is compelled under stress of
want to dispose it of. Instead of purchasing the thing, and
taking undue advantage of the seller's helplessness, one
should help him. Bai' alal-Bai' (sale over and above the sale
of another). When one person has sold goods to another, a
third Person should not upset the bargain trying to sell his
own goods to the latter, offering them at lower rates or
pointing out the defect in the goods already sold to him by
the former." A Muslim should not purchase in opposition
to his brother, nor should he send a marriage proposal over
and above the proposal of another."
Bai' al-Hast (i. e. sale by means of pebbles). The
purchaser will tell the seller that when he will throw a
pebble on his goods, the sale contract will be confirmed or
the seller tell the purchaser that on whatever thing a pebble
thrown by him falls will be sold to him. Sale contract is a
serious matter and it should not be accomplished by such
hit-and-miss methods like throwing the pebbles on the goods. A
sale completed in this way may lead to injustice and hardship
to one side and is consequently prohibited.
Sale of unripe fruit and unripe corn. The Holy Prophet (may
peace be upon him), according to Hadrat Anas (Allah be pleased
with him), has prohibited the sale of grapes before they
become dark and that of the corn before it ripens. Similarly,
he has forbidden the sale of raw dates. The fruit of the date
palms should not be sold until it becomes red or yellow.
Here is a brief account of the sale transactions prohibited
by Islam. If one ponders over these forms of transaction
described above and described in greater detail in" Kitab
al-Buyu," one can arrive at the following conclusions:
Islam insists upon absolute justice and fairplay in
business dealings.
According to Islam, a person who sacrifices his faith, and
loses the good pleasure of his Lord to make a monetary gain
has not made a good bargain. A Muslim will not go in for such
a bad bargain. A Muslim merchant is not a worshipper of the
Mammon with an inordinate love for money. He prizes faith,
piety and righteousness above all.
Islam does not believe in the view that all is fair in
business and that every kind of cleverness and deceit is
justifiable in business transactions. Islam regards business
or commerce as an economic activity to be carried on in a
spirit of humanity. tarianism and justice. It does not approve
of the cut-throat competition. Indeed, the very concept is
un-Islamic.
Islam expects the buyer and the seller to look upon each
other as Muslim brethren or fellow human beings, each trying
to go all his way to help and serve the other. It the seller
happens to overcharge the buyer, he, instead of feeling proud
of his cleverness in doing so, should somehow compensate him
for the excessive payment received.
All bargains that are clenched without giving the purchaser
a fair chance of examining the things are prohibited because
this amounts to denying him a right that was his due.
Forcible transactions or transactions in which the buyer
takes undue. advantage of the helplessness or misery of the
seller are also discouraged.
Islam has prohibited traffic in wine, swine, dead bodies of
animals and other goods the use of which has been declared to
be Haram (unlawful).
It has also forbidden trading in things that have a
debasing or vitiating influence on the Muslim society.
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