The Islamic capitalism of John Ruskin

Below is a quote from the final essay of John Ruskin's Unto This Last, first published in 1860. This collection of essays was a strong influence on Ghandi's life. With his creativity, mindfulness of God, and sharp intelligence, Ruskin rejects the two most popular economic ideas of his time: materialist capitalism on the one hand, and communist socialism on the other, instead proposing a form of capitalism that's exactly the Quran's: capitalism that's guided by such unfashionable ideas as kindness and virtue:

Observe, in these statements I am not taking up, nor countenancing one whit, the common socialist idea of division of property[1]; division of property is its destruction; and with it the destruction of all hope, all industry, and all justice: it is simply chaos—a chaos towards which the believers in modern political economy are fast tending, and from which I am striving to save them[2]. The rich man does not keep back meat from the poor by retaining his riches; but by basely using them. Riches are a form of strength; and a strong man does not injure others by keeping his strength, but by using it injuriously. The socialist, seeing a strong man oppress a weak one, cries out—"Break the strong man's arms"; but I say, "Teach him to use them to better purpose." The fortitude and intelligence which acquire riches[3] are intended, by the Giver of both, not to scatter, nor to give away, but to employ those riches in the service of mankind; in other words, in the redemption of the erring and aid of the weak—that is to say, there is first to be the work to gain money; then the Sabbath of use for it—the Sabbath, whose law is, not to lose life, but to save. It is continually the fault or the folly of the poor that they are poor, as it is usually a child's fault if it falls into a pond, and a cripple's weakness that slips at a crossing; nevertheless, most passers-by would pull the child out, or help up the cripple. Put it at the worst, that all the poor of the world are but disobedient children, or careless cripples, and that all rich people are wise and strong, and you will see at once that neither is the socialist right in desiring to make everybody poor, powerless, and foolish as he is himself, nor the rich man right in leaving the children in the mire.

—John Ruskin, Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political Economy. Note #63.

[1] Communism.

[2] There are many examples of the chaos that ensue when men are prevented from owning property: Philosopher David Stove, in his What's Wrong with Benevelonce makes a powerful case for the fact that men have no motivation to work and create civilization if there isn't the possibility of keeping their wealth, and he describes the deep, overwhelming unhappiness of men living under communist regimes (there are no smiling faces to be seen on the streets). Dr. Daniel Amneus makes the same point in his Garbage Generation, mentioning the idle and purposeless life of US men who, due to the unjust US divorce and family court system, end up living their lives as little more than money-making machines for their ex-wives, putting most of their earnings into a family that's no longer theirs. Paul Graham in his Hackers and Painters mentions that the most important reason for the West's renaissance was likely the first appearance of Italian city-states that allowed men to keep the fruits of their labor, instead of giving it to the ruling prince as was popular at the time elsewhere in the world (it can also be argued that allowing men to keep their wealth was the cause of appearance of the civilizations of Babylon and ancient Athens).

[3] According to many scholars, high intelligence and wealth are correlated: The richest group of society are also the most intelligent (i.e. smart people find it easier to get rich). See The Bell Curve. Here Ruskin is alluding to this observation, which even today is unpopular to state; people don't like the thought that biology can determine a person's chance of getting rich or poor. This is unfortunate, as the scholars who wrote The Bell Curve note, because it creates a society that doesn't teach intelligent people that it is their duty to take care of the poor.

Christian suffering in the Middle East this Christmas: The myth and the reality

In a typical show of the sad naivete of many Western Christian , Christian-run news sites and blogs are lamenting the suffering of Christians in the Middle East in the typical "Christians good Muslims bad" mode of speech.

A good discussion of this unfortunate Christian hobby follows, from professor Juan Cole's Informed Comment:

The press is full of stories this Christmas season about the negative effects on Middle Eastern Christians of the Arab upheavals of 2011. This “vale of tears” approach does profound injustice to the actual reality of the Arab Christians. The discourse of the persecution of a helpless Christian minority serves Orientalist purposes, intimating that the West has yet another hapless object of pity and reason to intervene in the Middle East, and blaming Muslims as a whole for intolerance instead of acknowledging cross-religious alliances.

The Egyptian revolution against Hosni Mubarak, for instance, was an ecumenical affair, with many of Egypt’s 8-million-strong Coptic Christians joining their Muslim compatriots in protests (Christians are about 10 percent of the Egyptian population). Christians no less than Muslims were fed up with Mubarak’s dictatorship. They were convinced that the regime fomented sectarian tensions so as to divide and rule. They were under disabilities imposed by the Mubarak state.

Christians in a Changing Arab World are Making their own Destinies [Informed Comment]

Christians are suffering in some parts of the Middle East, but again, the situation is far more complex than what even the intelligent Christians seem to realize, and it is largely self-inflicted, through popular Christian support for Bush and Israel:

Where Christians are in a truly difficult situation, as in Iraq, the proximate cause is actually American intervention, which was conducted in such a way as to heighten sectarian tensions. Christians were flourishing in Iraq in 2000 and 2001, and there was no al-Qaeda extremism. The instability provoked in Iraq by George W. Bush is far more important as an explanation of their difficulties than a supposed eternal and essential Muslim hostility to them (if that were the case, why are they better treated in some times, places and governmental systems?)

Chaldean Christians in northern Iraq have cancelled private Christmas celebrations this year, restricting themselves to church services. Alsumaria reports that Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako said, “the continuous targeting of Christians in Mosul, incidents of Badinan of Kurdistan in addition to other situations in Iraq led Christians to cancel Christmas celebrations…” It isn’t just Arab Muslims who have tensions with Iraqi Christians, but also the Kurds, who are largely American allies.

Likewise, continued massive rightwing Israeli land and water theft in the Palestinian West Bank, and the separation barrier built by the Israelis that crowds in on Bethlehem, have hurt the Palestinian Christians, who are for the most part in solidarity with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The some 12 million Arab Christians (out of some 350 million Arabs) are active agents in their own fates. They make alliances with Muslim fundamentalist forces as well as with secularists, and sometimes switch alliances. They fight back against repression, as they did at Maspero in Cairo this year, risking death or injury. And the Christian West and its Jewish-nationalist allies can sometimes be their worst enemies, not sympathetic rescuers.

Christians in a Changing Arab World are Making their own Destinies [Informed Comment]

Instead of looking to themselves and realizing that their actions have consequences, and praying to God for forgiveness for their errors that have caused their Christian brothers so much suffering, many Christians take the ignoble and arrogant route of blaming Muslims for their naivete, racism against Muslim ethnicities, and general lack of Christian virtue as taught by Jesus.

Footsteps in heaven

It is related by Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (s) once said to Bilal at the time of fajr: "Tell me about your act from which you expect the most in your Islam, for I have heard the sound of your footsteps in heaven."

"I have done nothing," replied Bilal, "which could give me hope, except that when I perform the wudu' in any part of the day or night I try to offer as much of salah with it as I can."

From The Four Pillars of Islam by Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (1913-1999).

Small things

N

one of us know if we will ever do anything significant for the cause of Islam in our lifetime. It is impossible to know if we will ever attain the status of an 'alim, martyr, or parent. This is a strong motivation to do as many little things as possible on a daily basis with the time we have now. Little things that are easily accessible for all of us, that do not require money or a surplus of time, are abundant in Islam.

One can start with something as simple as wudu'. There are a number of merits surrounding the subject of ritual ablution. One of them is to go to bed in a fresh state of wudu'.[1]

Something small like this, done consistently, can help transform one's soul by chinking away at sloth, carelessness, and dirt -- both figuratively and literally.

[1] Sahih Bukhari, 1:247.

Is five prayers per day excessive in number?

In the Mi’raj[1] fifty daily prayers were prescribed for the believers. However, their number was later reduced to five. This was done to impress upon man that he had been found capable by God of devoting such a large part of his time and energy to His worship. The one who keeps this in mind will never regard the five daily prayers as excessive. In fact, he will realize that he had been found worthy of much more and had the Lord, out of His Grace, not made the concession, he would be carrying out His command dutifully and performing as many as fifty prayers (salāh) every day. God showed his favor to him and made the five prayers equivalent of fifty in reward. However, the original command is there to stir his ambition and urge him on to greater effort.

From Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (1913-1999), The Four Pillars of Islam, p. 11.

[1] Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey.

Selfless Giving: The Most Effective Form of Islamic Dawah

The entire text of this essay is reproduced below. This essay is available as an ebook download for the Kindle and other devices, please refer to our Islamic eBooks page for download links.

D

r. Ali Qaradaghi, former president of the Fiqh and Osool (Islamic law) branch of Qatar University, and the founder of Rabitay Islamiy Kurd, a successful Islamic charity in northern Iraq says in an interview:[1]

“I've learned that dawah[2] doesn't truly reach the masses except when it is through acts of charity, and this is my understanding of the saying of Allah, "Be a nation that calls for what is good, encourages what is right, and discourages what is wrong, and those who do this are the successful ones"[3] . You call people to do charity toward others, and then in addition to it you encourage people to do what's right or discourage them from doing wrong. So in Kurdistan we adopted orphans, built mosques, and supported widows. There were over 50,000 thousand orphans in the country. 4,000 villages had been completely destroyed.[4] When we started our charity organization in 1991 we found out that the fruit of charitable acts is much greater than the fruit of the dawah that tries to only offer wisdom and guidance.”

Hearing this clarified an important concept in my mind: that there are two kinds of religious charities; those that, like Dr. Qaradaghi’s charity, serve people without expecting anything in return, and those that try to administer religion with the help they give.

The lesson I’ve learned from the success of Dr. Qaradaghi’s charity, and the failure of various Christian charities that are active in the same region, is that religious charities should be manifestations of their religion’s teachings, not propaganda centers. Religious charities shouldn't have a conversion agenda; their only goal should be following God’s words when He says:

And they love to feed the poor, orphans, and those imprisoned, [saying:] "We are feeding you due to our desire to meet God, we do not want from you any reward or gratitude."[5]

This attitude is extremely powerful. And we rarely see it from anyone, even from those who think they are very religious. But every now and then a man or woman appears who changes the world through the constant practice of this oft ignored commandment.

Selfless kindness that doesn’t expect gratitude, that only gives and doesn’t wait expectantly for anything in return, touches the depth of our hearts. We quickly fall in love with those who show this behavior toward us, and they quickly amass thousands and sometimes millions of followers. This is not a form of trickery to cause them to convert to our religion. Any religion that practices selfless-giving in service of God and teaches it is a true religion and deserves to be followed. The Quran, though the book of Islam, describes Christians who practice their religion in this selfless way as follows:

And you will find the closest of people to the believers to be those who said “We are the supporters” [of God, the Quran’s way of referring to Christians] because from them there are people devoted to learning and ascetics, and they do not act with arrogance. And when they hear what was sent to the Messenger [Prophet Muhammad] you will see their eyes overflow with tears as they recognize the truth they already know, saying “our Lord, we have believed, so count us among the witnesses.” “And how can we not believe in God and what has come to us of the truth, and we long for our Lord to include us in the company of the righteous?” So God rewarded them for saying this with gardens graced with flowing streams, to live in there forever, and this is the reward of those who do good.[6]

Though it’s not clear from this verse, the Quran doesn’t expect them to convert to Islam, as clarified by other verses from the Quran:

The [Muslim] believers, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians–all those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good–will have their rewards with their Lord, there is no fear for them, nor will they grieve.[7]

And also:

And every group has a direction to which it turns [when it prays], so compete with each other in doing good deeds. Wherever you are God will bring you together [on the day of Judgment], God is very much able at doing anything [He wants].[8]

Not all those who benefit from a selflessly-giving charity will appreciate the service, but this is the whole point: Not expecting anything in return. The charity should embody its religion and represent it, and beyond this, whether people appreciate it or not, is not the charity’s business, it is God’s, because as God says:

It’s not your duty to guide them, rather God guides whoever He wishes. Whatever you spend of good things [i.e. not broken or spoiled things] you do it for yourselves [God doesn’t benefit from your good deeds, ultimately you benefit from it in the afterlife]. Everything you spend should be in seeking of God’s pleasure. Whatever good things you spend will be faithfully returned to you [by God, in this life or the afterlife], and you will not be wronged [i.e. your reward will be just].[9]

Thus we should not expect any form of reward or gratitude for our acts of charity, it is this selfless, non-expectant, unassuming form of giving that softens the hearts of people toward God’s beautiful religions.

Giving selflessly, without expecting gratitude, is a difficult ideal, and one that few people and charities actually reach. It is very difficult to do charity without expecting gratitude from those who benefit from it, it is against human nature. We like to be thanked when we are nice to others. It is a state that could be rightly described by the following Quranic verse, though from a different context:

And [this state] is not reached except by those who have made it a life-long habit to practice patience, and it is not reached except by those who have a great share [of God’s mercy, bounty, and guidance].[10]

For those who like to do good deeds, the difficulty of selfless giving makes it even more worthwhile to pursue. God rewards good deeds based on the amount of effort we put into them, and selfless giving requires a great amount, maybe super-human, effort to achieve, and for this reason the rewards are clearly going to be great.

I should note that I'm not saying all other non-profits, such as those that produce religious lectures, are useless. Producing and offering lectures is of course a good deed, but those who do so should take into account God’s command:

There is no compulsion in faith.[11]

Thus making a group of homeless people sit through an hour-long lecture with the promise of free lunch is wrong and 'un-religious, because it is a form of compulsion (though slight)—the person who does this has used a reward to compel a group of hungry people to listen to religious indoctrination. And it completely goes against the ideals of selfless and non-expectant generosity that I mentioned above.

Religious charities should not force people to consume dawah material with their food, the charities themselves, their selfless giving and caring, should be the very dawah itself.

Notes

[1] Hadeeth Adhikrayat ma'a Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi, interview by Dr. Jasim Al-Mutawwa [Arabic].

[2] Arabic for ‘calling’ or ‘inviting’, in Islamic literature it refers to evangelism.

[3] Quran, 3:104.

[4] By Saddam Hussein's regime, through his Anfal campaign.

[5] Quran, 76:8, 9. Literal translation: And they feed food with love to a poor person, an orphan, and a prisoner. Indeed we are feeding you for God’s face, we do not want from you a reward or thanks.

[6] Quran, 5:82-85.

[7] Quran, 2:62.

[8] Quran, 2:148.

[9] Quran. 2:272. Literal translation: It’s not upon you their guidance, but God guides who He wants, and whatever you spend of good things then it’s for yourselves and you shouldn’t spend anything except to seek God’s face and whatever you spend will be faithfully given back to you and you will not be wronged.

[10] Quran, 41:35. Literal translation: And it is not reached except by those who were patient, and it is not reached except by those who have a great share.

[11] Quran, 2:256. Literal translation: There is no forcing in faith.

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Cover Credits

Photo © Neal Fowler. Cover design by Ikram Kurdi.

Published by QuranClub.

Kaaba magnet art

Saudi artist Ahmad Mater has created the pictured piece of art that depicts a cubic magnet with iron filings around it, resembling the circumambulation of worshipers around the Kaaba.

It's beautiful.

The full set of photos can be found at Ahmad Mater's Flickr photostream.

The prayer of two prophets

In verse 129 of Suratul Baqara we read the following prayer, which was made by Prophet Ibraheem and his son, Prophet Ismaeel, when they were building the Ka'ba:

رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آَيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

Our Lord, please raise up among them a prophet who recites Your verses upon them, who teaches them the Book, and teaches them wisdom, and who purifies them. Truly You are the Mightiest, the Most Wise.

A few pages later we read the following:

فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِي وَلِأُتِمَّ نِعْمَتِي عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ (150) كَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِيكُمْ رَسُولًا مِنْكُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ آَيَاتِنَا وَيُزَكِّيكُمْ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمْ مَا لَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْلَمُونَ (151) فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ (152)

150. So don't fear them, and fear Me, that I may perfect My favor on you, and that you may be guided.

151. Just as We have sent you a prophet of your own who recites upon you Our verses, who purifies you, who teaches you the Book and wisdom, and who teaches you what you did not know before.

152. So remember Me, and I will remember you, and be thankful toward Me and never ungrateful.

If you read the Arabic, you will see that verse 129 and verse 151 mirror each other's wording (it's apparent in the English translation too). This is Allah's way of telling us that the sending of Prophet Muhammad is Allah's answer to Prophet Ibraheem and his son's prayer.

This little Quranic story can be considered Islam's 'back story'; the two prophets who built the Ka'ba made a prayer to Allah, Allah's answer, which came about 2500 years later, was Prophet Muhammad, a descendant of the two prophets, and today all of us Muslims are living the consequences of this story.

Imam Ghazzali on rejecting science

The 20th century scholar Said Hawwa mentions in his book, Allah Jalla Jalaluhu:

ولقد قال الإمام الغزالي في كتابه (تهافت الفلاسفة) حاملاً على علماء الدين، المنكرين للحقائق العلمية، كمعرفة وقت الكسوف والخسوف وغيرها: (ومن ظن أن المناظرة في إبطال هذا من الدين، فقد جنى على الدين وضعف أمره؛ فإن هذه الأمور تقوم عليها براهين هندسية وحسابية لا تبقى معها ريبة، فمن يطلع عليها ويتحقق من أدلتها، ثم يقال له: إن هذا على خلاف الشرع، لم يسترب فيه، وإنما يستريب في الشرع، وضرر الشرع ممن ينصره لا بطريقه، أكثر من ضرره ممن يطعن فيه، وهو كما قيل: عدو عاقل خير من صديق جاهل).

Imam Ghazzali says in his book Tahafutul Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), talking to the scholars of religion, those who deny scientific truths such as the knowledge of solar and lunar eclipse schedules and other facts:

"And anyone who thinks that it is a religious duty to debate and refute these scientific facts has committed a crime against religion and has weakened it, because these facts are based on geometrical and computational evidence in which there is no doubt; when someone acquires knowledge of these scientific facts and checks the validity of the evidence behind them, if he is told: these facts are in contradiction with religion, he is not going to doubt his scientific facts but rather he will doubt the religion [QuranClub's emphasis]. The damage done to religion by those who try to support it in misguided ways is larger than the damage done by those who slander it, it is as they say: a wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend."

When religion isn't shy of science

Said Hawwa, the 20th century Islamic scholar who was mentioned in our previous post, writes in his book Allah Jalla Jalaluhu:

في كل ظاهرة جوانب لا تُعدّ ولا تحصى تدل على الله.

إننا نقول هذا، لأن بعض الناس يتوهمون أن التفكير في الكون، ودراسة ظواهره بعمق، وترتيب المقدمات على النتائج، والوصول إلى الحقائق، ونبذ الأوهام، والقضاء على الخرافة، والتمسك بالقانون الذي أوصلت إليه التجربة: كل هذه المعاني مما لا يتفق مع الفكر الديني.

ولئن وجد هذا عند ديانات خاطئة، ومذاهب باطلة، فلا يصح هذا في الدين الحق، ولن يوجد أبداً. لأن الحق لا يتعارض مع الحق. فإذا كان الدين حقاً، فلابد أن يكون كل أصل فيه، وكل فرع من فروعه، منسجماً انسجاماً تاماً مع الحقيقة التي قام عليها البرهان؛ وإلا فأن نصاً واحداً من نصوص الدين، يُثبَتُ تناقضه مع الحقيقة القاطعة، كافٍ لأن يزعزع الثقة في الدين كله.

من كتاب "الله جل جلاله" لسعيد حوى.

In every phenomenon in this universe there are an uncountable and incalculable number of features that give evidence of God's existence.

We say this because some people have the illusion that thinking of the universe, studying its phenomena in depth, formulating laws upon our findings, reaching scientific truths, dispelling myths, abolishing superstition, and holding fast to the laws that experiments prove, are all activities that are in disagreement with religious thinking.

And if [anti-scientific thinking and attitude] is found in false religions and invalid doctrines, it should not be found in a true religion, because truth does not contradict truth. Thus if a religion is true, then all of its roots need to be true, and all of its branches, in complete harmony with the truths that conclusive evidence support. Because if not, if even one line of text in the religion's texts is found to contradict a proven truth of the world, it is going to be enough to shake our trust in the entire religion [QuranClub's emphasis].