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ý 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 :

http://www.geocities.com/al_iman11/1.html

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