Why Do We Fail on the Financial Fronts?
I happened to visit one of my old friends who had shifted to a new house and the invitation was pending. The door of his house welcomed me with the Qur'anic verse " Hazaa min fazli Rabbi" "This is the bounty of my Lord". I was happy of that announcement, until I was told that the house was bought through a bank loan! What an arrogant display hypocrisy! It was then that I realized the value of knowledge in Islamic finance and why is knowledge in Finance essential for a Muslim in today's time?
Among those things which will be questioned first on the day of Qiyamah, will be: Where did you get the money from and where did you spend? A lot of people incline to haram due to love for wealth and luxury or out of love for their children. These two things weaken our resisting power. The Qur'an cautions us in the 8th verse of Surha Taghaboon" Indeed your wealth and your and your children are a trial for you". Many people fail miserably in these two trials. A Sahih hadiith, acknowledges the Qur'anic verse," The fitna of my ummah is wealth". These days you will find many well wishers of our community reminding us about the poverty in community repeatedly. For them, richness is a sign of prosperity.
It is our financial greed that many of us refuse to share the inheritance equally. It is the quest for luxury that people want o have things by hook or by crook.
Many Muslims take advice in investment and expenditure from people who do not know much about Islamic economy. There are certain people who encourage interest based loans for the welfare of community. If a person fails on financial front, many of his ibadaah (worships) will fail to yield results.
Many people earn halal but their expenditure includes a lot of haram, through buying things not required at all, but for status symbol. The wisest chapters in Islamic finance also include where not to spend. If you understand this and are able to distinguish between a good investment and a bad spending that you can identify a lot of wrong and tempting expenditures and resist them. You can be a “kaniteen” a satisfied person.
During Ramadhaan, I see a lot of Huffaz e Qur’an lining up for reciting tarawih each wanting to lead in taraweeh in places where rich people pray... At times I pity them. Many of them prefer to lead the taraweeh in large congregation hoping to get a good income after the ‘khatam e Qur’an’. Here is a batch of people whose status will be envied by others on the day of Qiyamah but in this world they have to wait for Ramadhan to Ramdhaan to solve their financial problems. That is their only source of big income through out the year. The reason is that people don’t value ‘Ilm e deen ‘. We spend huge amount of wealth on our child’s academic education, hire expensive tutors, buy expensive books, but we bargain like a stingy person when we hire the service of Islamic teachers for our child’s I religious knowledge be it tuitions in tajweed and makhraj or essential fiqh etc.
I had a discussion with a prominent Huffaz, and I advised him to build a parallel career so that he may not be depended upon the donation in the month of Taraweeh, last month I met him, and he told me that he is buying a small house. I was happy to receive his supplication for my advice. The other day I advised a trustee of a prominent madrasa that they should include a subject on accounts in their syllabus. They should also be taught essential fiqh and ethics in business dealing too. After all Islamic finance is not only about accounts but accountability as well. Isn’t’ it?
By Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala on Saturday, April 2, 2011
Author: Nisaar Yusuf focuses on socio-economic problems from Islamic view point. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com