SELECTIONS FROM THE REVITALISATION OF THE SCIENCES OF RELIGION Al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ Ulum al-Din The Ethics of Earning a Livelihood Chapter One The Merits of Earning and Its Encouragement In the Koran Allah, the Almighty said: “and We made the day for a livelihood.” (Koran 78 verse 11) He mentions this to show His greatness to His worshipers. And He High Exalted said: “We established you in the earth and made for you a livelihood but little is it that you give thanks.” (Koran Ch. 7 verse 10) “…He knows that among you there are the sick and others traveling the road seeking the bounty of Allah” (Koran Ch. 73 verse 20) Allah, the High, the Exalted said: “…disperse in the land and seek the favor of Allah,”(Koran Ch.62 verse 10) As for Tradition, the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “There are sins, which nothing can obliterate except the determination to make a living.” And may Allah praise and venerate him said: “On the Day of Judgment the truthful trader will be gathered with the awlia (those close to Allah) and martyrs.” It was told that Jesus (peace be upon him) saw a man and asked him: “What do you do for a living?” The man replied: “I worship Allah.” Jesus asked him: “Who supports you?” He answered: “My brother.” Jesus said: “You brother worships more than you.” In the sayings of Luqman the wise, to his son: “O my son, the lawful earnings suffice you from poverty, when anyone is impoverished he is afflicted in three ways: he is weakened in religion, he is weak in his mind and he loses his sense of honor, and what is greater than these three is that the people disdain him.” Umar - may Allah be pleased with him - said: “None of you should slacken in seeking his bounty while saying ‘Please Allah provide for me,’ while you know that the sky does not rain gold or silver.” Umar - may Allah be pleased with him - saw Zayed ibn Maslamah sowing his land, so Umar said: “You have done the right thing, if you have no need of anyone it will be better for your religion and make you better than them.” Ibrahim ibn Yasid ibn Al Aswad al Nakhayi who died in the year 96 H, was asked about the honest trader: “Is he preferable to you, or the one who spends all his time in worship?” He said: “The honest trader is preferable to me, because he is in jihad, satan comes to him through the weighing and measuring and through his dealing, but he is striving against him.” Ahmad was asked: “What would you say about the person who sits in his house or in the mosque and says, ‘I will do nothing until my provision comes to me’?” Ahmad replied: “Such a person is ignorant. Has he not heard the saying of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, ‘Allah make my provision under the shadow of my spear,’ and he also related that when the bird was mentioned to him he said: ‘It goes out with an empty stomach and returns with a full stomach.’” Chapter Two The Science of Earning through Trade, Usury, As Salam (i.e. sale in, which price is paid for goods to be delivered later) Rental, Loans and Partnership First: Sales Contract Allah has permitted trade, it has three pillars. The First pillar: the parties to the contract, the trader is restrained from trading with any of the following four: - An infant child; a mentally disordered person; a slave; the blind; this is because the underage child is not responsible nor the madman. The Second pillar: concerns the goods to be supplied under the contract; the ownership of the merchandise intended to be transferred from one party in the contract to the other, six conditions pertain to it: Firstly, it should not be impure, it is not permitted to sell dogs or pigs. Secondly, it should be of benefit, so it is not permitted to sell insects, rats or snakes. But you may sell parrots, peacocks and all decorative birds, even if they are inedible, to enjoy the sight and sound of them is permissible, but the dog is a thing, which cannot be kept in the house for amusement, because the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, has forbidden us from doing so. Thirdly, the goods should belong to the contractor or he has permission from the owner to sell them. Fourthly, the goods must be physical and available, whatever cannot be physically handed from one to another cannot be sold, such as fish in the sea, unborn cattle and the fleece upon the sheep, nor the milk in the udder. Anything, which cannot be lawfully handed over, such as mortgaged property or frozen assets, cannot be sold. Fifthly, the goods must be detailed and their kind and amount specified. Sixthly, the sold goods must be exchanged for their price in money. If the goods were to be bartered in exchange for something else, this is a special case. The Prophet forbade the sale of something, which is not fully paid for. The Third pillar: The terms of the contract, there must be an offer and acceptance in clear understandable language, whether verbal or written. Second: Usury Contract Allah, the Almighty has prohibited usury, and financiers have been warned from dealing in it, and likewise those who deal in foodstuffs, as there is no usury except in money or food. The money dealer should beware if he wants to sell or exchange money for other money, it must be face to face and the exchange must take place in the same sitting. They should not exchange inferior quality for superior quality, as it is only permissible to deal in like quality. It is not permissible to buy a greater quantity of bad quality goods and pay for it with a lesser quantity of good quality goods. What is meant here is that you are allowed to sell gold for gold and silver for silver. As to those who deal in foodstuffs who wish barter their goods, the barter must be concluded in one sitting, whether the foods to be bartered are different kinds or not. But if they are from the same kind, then they should exchange them and observe the like quality. Third: As Salam Contract (i.e. sale in, which price is paid for goods to be delivered later) The trader must observe ten conditions with regard to the As Salam Contract: First: The value of the contract must be known so that he dealing does not exceed them, if the delivery is not made in due time the injured party can return a claim against this value. Second: The value should be verified as existing at the sitting before the parties leave. Third: The goods to be sold must be specified, such as grain, livestock, metals, cotton or wool. It is not permissible in the case of pastries or any substance of, which its components can spoil. Fourth: The description given must be checked and verified. Fifth: The period of time must be specified, if it is to be a payment in arrears, it should not be delayed until harvest, nor cropping, but it must be specified in days and months. Sixth: The goods to be sold must be delivered in a ready form for the store, secure and present. Seventh: The place of delivery must be mentioned. Eighth: The goods are not to be defined as originating from a specific place. Ninth: The goods are not to be defined as being contained in specific container of a type, which is impossible to find. Tenth: It should not be delivered in food, even if the capital was food, nor be handed in cash even if the capital was cash. Fourth: Rental Contract There are two pillars: the rent and the benefit. Rent is the value of money; it should be known and specified with all its conditions as in a contract for sale. The second pillar: The benefit intended from the rental there are five conditions pertaining to it: First: There should be work or effort exerted for rent. Second: The rental should not be made for a use other than the prime use of what is rented, for example you cannot rent a cow to work and then milk it. Third: The work should be physically and lawfully appropriate. A weak person should not be hired to do strenuous work he cannot do, nor can a mute be hired to teach in a school. Fourth: Rental cannot be made for work, which is an obligatory duty on a person, such as hiring a person to fast, pray or do jihad in one’s place. Fifth: The work and the benefit should be known. The dressmaker’s work is apparent in the dress, the teacher’s work is apparent in the lesson. Fifth: Contract of Loan There are three pillars: First: The value of the loan, it should be ready cash paid to the borrower who is going to work with it. Second: The profit should be declared to be a condition that he will gain a half or a third or whatever they agree. Third: The work, which the borrower will use the loan for must be a trade in, which he is not restricted to one type of business or to a period of time. If it is a condition that he will purchase cattle with the money to obtain its young, then they will share the young, or they will buy wheat, then they will bake and share the profit, this will not be correct. Sixth: Contract of Partnership This falls into four types. Three of them are unlawful, according to the Al Shafi’i school of thought. First: The negotiated company, that is when two partners say, we have negotiated to share in all what we have and what we owe and what is beneficial. This is unlawful. Second: The partnership of labor. This is to agree together to share the wages of work. This is unlawful. Third: The partnership for influence: This is to say that one partner has higher standing than the other and he will use it in order to propagate and increase their business in ways other than of work. This is also unlawful. But what is correct is the fourth, which is called ‘a joint partnership’. This is when their money is joined together to the point that you cannot distinguish what belongs to one from the other except by division, each one would permit the other to manage the company in equal power. They share profit and loss according to their mutual shares and this must be an irrevocable agreement. The power of managing the company can be removed by dismissal, and by division the two parties can separate. Chapter Three An Exposition on Justice and Avoidance of Injustice in Dealing First Part: General harm. Its various Forms: The First: The monopoly, the seller of foodstuffs withhold stocks of food in anticipation of raising the price, this is to the general harm and the one who commits it is blameworthy according to the Shariah (Islamic Law). Ali - may Allah be pleased with him - said: “Whoever monopolizes food for forty days, his heart is hardened.” And he also said: “The one who monopolizes food will be burnt in the Fire.’ The Second: The one who circulates counterfeit money is unjust because he harms thereby the dealer who buys from him without knowing, and if he knows he will circulate it to the others, and thus the third and fourth and it will pass from hand to hand until the harm is general and the corruption has spread everywhere. So the sin of all of them goes back to the one who started it. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Whoever originates a bad deed, then the people work with it after him, he will carry the sin of it and the like of all those who worked with it, and this will not diminish from them any of their sin.” Someone said: “Spending one forged dirham is worse than stealing one hundred dirhams because theft is one sin, which is committed in one action, but spending a forged coin is an invention against the religion and it is a bad deed, which others will work with, so the sin of it will be upon him after his death for a hundred or two hundred years or more until that forged coin is no more.” Second Part Harm Specific to the Dealer The overall rule is that he should not love for his brother except what he loves for himself, so whatever he dislikes to deal with for himself he should not deal with for the others. The expounding of it is in four parts: the description of something good, which is not in it or the concealing of something bad, which is in it. The weight and the value of anything should not be concealed, nor should you conceal anything concerning the price, which if it were known to the dealer he would not have bought it. The First: The description of the goods should not be over-praised because if it is not there it is a lie. If the buyer accepts this then it is injustice as well as a lie. If he does not accept then it is a lie and a loss of virtue. The Second: He should reveal all defects in the goods whether apparent or not, and he should not conceal anything in it as this is an obligation, if he hides something he is unjust and deceitful, deceit is unlawful. What indicates that cheating is unlawful. It was narrated the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, passed a man selling fruit and he like the look of it, and when he entered his hands into it he noticed that it was wet, so he said: “What is this?’ The man said: “The sky rained on it.” Then the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, replied: “You should have put it on top of the food so that the people can see it. Whoever cheats us is not one of us.” The Third: The amount must not be concealed or diminished by rigging the scale or tampering with the weights. He must measure as he would like the people to measure for himself. Allah, the Almighty said: “Woe to the diminishers, who, when people measure for them, take full measure, but when they measure or weigh for others, they reduce!” (Koran Ch. 83 verses 1-3) The Fourth: He must be truthful about the current price, and not conceal anything about it, as the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, has forbidden lying about local prices. Also the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, has forbidden that someone stands before the seller while a buyer is negotiating with him, then he interferes by asserting he will buy at a higher price, although he has no intention of buying, in order only to force the price up on the buyer. Chapter Four Equitable Dealing Allah, the Almighty has enjoined upon us justice and equitability. Justice is a cause for salvation and in trade it is a greater requirement than that of capital. Equitability is a cause for happiness and success and in trade it is an essential requirement. A wise person does not barter the dealing of this life in preference of the Hereafter. In the dealing for the Hereafter the religious person should not confine himself only to justice and distancing himself from injustice while leaving aside equitability. One can gain the grade of equitability with one of the following six matters: One should not defraud his friend. If a buyer wants to pay more money than the usual price, because of his strong wish to help the seller due to his circumstances, the seller should not accept that, this is the equitable behavior. In tolerating defrauding, if the buyer buys food from a poor person whose circumstances indicate this, there is no blame on him if he overlooks any increase in the price and he should accept this with understanding and feel that his desire is to do the right thing according to the saying of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him,: “Allah will have mercy upon the one who is easy in selling and easy in buying.” But if he is buying from a rich trader who demands an excessive price, which is more than the buyer can afford, here the toleration of the defrauding is not praiseworthy but it is a waste of money without reward. Debt collection, equitable dealing in it is praiseworthy. On one occasion one should pardon, and on another one should permit them more time, and on yet another one should show them your mercy. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Allah will have mercy upon the one who is easy in selling and easy in buying, easy in paying his debts and easy in demanding debts.” The repayment of debts, it is equitable to pay your debts once you are able without delay, and that it you should walk to the one who you owe money and pay him back in time without causing him to have to come to you and demand it. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The best one of you is the one who pays his debt equitably.” The return of sold goods, one should accept with ease any goods you have sold to anyone if that person would be harmed in the purchase of them. As one should not accept to be a cause to harm another person. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Whoever easily accepts the return of a deal from a regretful person, Allah, the Almighty will ease for him his difficulty on the Day of Judgment.” In dealing with poor people one must have mercy and kindness and afford them their self-respect. The righteous people before us used to have two books for debts, one was coded so that no one would know the identities, this was the book for the poor and needy people, the poor people used to see the food and fruit and desire to have it, so they would go and say we need five pounds weight, for example, of this or that, and I have no money to pay you. They used to say to them, take what you want and pay when you are able. This gives the poor man the choice of paying if he is able or of being pardoned from payment. This was the manner of trading of the early Muslims. The one who still acts in this way is reviving the ordinance of the righteous. However, trading is a test for men, with it you can examine a man’s religion and his piety and see how righteous he is. This is why it was said: “If a man was praised by his neighbors, and by his friends while traveling together, and by his dealers in the markets, do not have any doubt about his righteousness.” Chapter Five Regarding the Traders’ Concern for his Religion in his Affairs and in what Relates to his End The trader’s concern for his religion is shown in seven ways: When he commences trading he does so with a good intention and that he intends from his business to suffice himself to avoid asking others for any help, to live lawfully, and to use what he gains from his business in the way of Allah. He should intend in his business that he is doing his collective duty for if industry and trade were abandoned life would come to a stop and the people would perish. If every individual or group performs a specific duty life will proceed in an orderly manner, but I fall people concentrated on one trade then necessities would not be found and general destruction would ensue. In this way the people have followed the saying of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him: “The diversity of my nation is a mercy.” This means the diversity of their professions and trades. The market of this worldly life should not deter him from seeking the market of the Hereafter, the markets of the Hereafter are the mosques, Allah, the Almighty said: “there are men who exalt Him there, whom neither trade nor sale can divert from the remembrance of Allah, and establish the prayers, and pay the obligatory charity.” (Koran Ch. 24 verse 37). From the righteousness of the early Muslims who used to make the start of the day and the end of the day for the Hereafter, and the middle of the day for trade. One should not be over eager to trade, so that he is the first to arrive and the last to leave. He should restrict himself to only distancing himself from the unlawful, but he should avoid matters in, which there is doubt, and he should not seek after fatwa but should consult his own heart. If he finds that his heart is uneasy he should abstain from it, if someone brings him goods of, which he is doubtful, he should inquire about it until he feels sure, otherwise he would be consuming the dubious. He must be aware of all his dealings and of each and every deal with his dealers, because he himself is watched and will be questioned. He should prepare the answer for the Day of Reckoning and Retribution, in every act and saying of his: why he did so? And for what? It has been said that on the Day of Judgment the merchant will stand beside each person he sold to and he will be questioned regarding every worker who worked for him.