Why Islam Made ZAKAT Obligatory & Declared WAR on RIBA!
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What was the longest time you've ever spent without food? Ten hours, 24 hours. That's a serious difficulty, isn't it? In 2021. Number of people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide has climbed to 828 million. Having seen all this. Thousands of people are wondering the answer to this question. Why are the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer? The 42 richest people in the world. In a 2017 report, Oxfam says that these 42 people's total wealth is equal to the total wealth of half the world's population. The following year, half the world's wealth became equal to the wealth of only 26 richest people, which is even less than the previous year.
According to a report by the United Nations, 71% of the world's population lives in countries where income inequality is growing day by day. And yes, this includes many countries that are identified as developed countries. A huge portion of society is tense and desperate, like a bomb ready to explode. But what if I told you that hundreds of years ago Islam brought the solution we are desperately looking for? It is such a solution that, if implemented correctly, would provide that in some cities there would be no poor people anymore. Therefore, donations would have to go to other cities that are miles away. Is this really possible?
If you are ready for a comprehensive content that has taken weeks to prepare with comments and insights from experts and researchers? Let's begin. Imagine a country where there are public announcements like what are the people in debt? Where are the needy, the orphans, the poor who want to marry the oppressed, or you who have rights and needs come and take your rights? The state officials walk in the streets looking for poor families. This is not a dream. This is not a story. Such a period has actually happened. We're talking about the early seven hundreds, close to the 100th year after the arrival of the Zakat system.
The Islamic Calipha Omar bin Abd al=Aziz issued such a decree and made that announcement. What a scene that is far away from the present day, isn't it? So what exactly is this zakat we are talking about, and how applicable is it today in this day and age? We'll get to all of that. But first, let's try to figure out the system that we have now. We are in a dead end that is very difficult to get out of. There are two sentences that have been ruining our lives all around the world. One of them is ‘’You work and I eat’’ which is basically the interest system. The tragedies caused by this system are countless. Let's analyze this phenomenon with an example.
You want to buy a car or a house, but you can't afford it. You are someone who can only make a living. Then the smiling face, a bank representative comes and says to you, I'm here to help you. I can give you the money you want in this many installments, but you will pay it back with this much interest and thinking that you have no other option, you sign the contract. Now you are going to work for years to pay back the loan with a high amount of interest. Just the interest part of the loan. You don't if itself means extra months of work for you. Maybe you will look for additional sources of income and put in much more effort. Probably your spouse will have to work too.
Maybe we'll have to sacrifice the time you'll spend with your children. And in the meantime, if something goes wrong and you cannot pay the installments on time, your debt will increase even more. This means more stress and more work for you. And do you know what happened right before you started going through this long and painful process? The same smiling bank made a deal with a rich person a few hours before you took that loan. His money has been invested to earn interest, and now it will just increase without doing anything. In just one month, without any effort.
That man will earn interest on the loan that a few families like yours have paid with great difficulty in maybe months or a year. And in the end, you will realize that you have actually bought that person's money and that you have been making him richer all this time. How would you feel in such a situation? Probably you would feel a serious resentment. We live in a world where the total wealth of 1% is equal to the total wealth of the remaining 99%. So it's pretty obvious that something is going wrong here, and people have accumulated more or less anger against that 1%. And over time, both material and emotional gaps are being formed between these two groups.
Right at this point, you come across the second sentence that ruins our social lives. ‘’So long as I'm full. I don't care if others die of hunger.’’ Then Islam comes and forbids interest and replaces it with a much better system, Zakat. And by making it obligatory, it closes the huge financial gaps between people. But what is this Zakat system? Let me explain it to you step by step. First of all, there's a concept that is called ‘’Nisab value’’. What is it? Think about all the money you have as savings and your trade goods. Now remove your debts from that money and goods.
And after this, if your savings are above the “Nisab value”, which is the value equivalent to minimum of 80g of gold in your local currency, and if you have not fallen below this amount for a year, you've become responsible to “Pay Zakat”. But if you are below this limit, you become eligible to receive ‘’Zakat money’’ So is the amount to give a Zakat so high that is difficult for people to pay. Actually, no. We are talking about only 1/40th or 2.5% of the amount of savings you have. Let's say you have $100,000 and it has been sitting aside for a year, giving $2,500 of that amount is nothing for you, especially when you know that the person you are giving to is in need.
You will feel the spiritual reward for it too. And on top of that, you will witness that person's joy. So it doesn't take much away from you, but it makes a big difference for someone who is in need. Zakat is one such measure. It's not a tax, but you can compare it to a wealth tax. There's not a single country in the West today that has a comprehensive wealth tax. Most taxes are income based tax or product type, consumer taxes, a VAT and sales tax. Whereas zakat it's about money which has not been utilized. So latent money after one year, of course, above the Nisab. And that money has not been utilized on your daily expenses.
So your money for your property, your money for your family, your money for your son's education, your money for your daughter's, you know, wedding or whatever it may be, that money is spent money. And that's not going to be subject to zakat. But zakat is, of course, on that wealth which is unspent. So it is a latent wealth tax. There's also such a surprising beauty in zakat. Many times in the history of Islam. People who previously received zakat eventually became able to give zakat after sometime. Go online and search for the amount of 80g of gold in your currency. So after a certain period, many families reached an income level where they have this amount of gold as savings.
So with the help of this system, many poor people didn't get poorer, but instead they got richer. In the Islamic sources, we have information like this. In Islamic State, zakat was collected from one region and started being distributed there. But although they still had the money to give, there were no needy people left. So the remaining zakat was sent to other regions, meaning kilometers away to other cities. Can you imagine? In the history of Islam, none of these was a dream. I don't need to give names, but some of you can guess. They made a calculation about the total wealth of one of the richest people in the world.
It is news from 2 or 3 years ago, and they said with only 2% of this person's wealth, that is $6 billion. The entire world hunger could be ended. Remember those close to 1 billion people who are in chronic hunger that we mentioned in the beginning? There wouldn't be such a scene anymore. And does the 2% sound familiar to you? It's a little less than the zakat percentage, which is 2.5%. And if we take into account that zakat is given every year, the results become unimaginable. Now let's think about it from another point of view. If such financial prosperity is achieved in a region, wouldn't we also see a decrease in crime rates there?
Because behind many crimes such as theft, there's somehow a kind of poverty, Of course, this is not always the reason and this doesn’t excuse those people who commit them. But how can we deny its impact? Imagine there's a criminal and his judgment is left to you. You have two options. You either will give that person a punishment that you think he deserves, which would be a completely reasonable act, or somehow we'll go back in time and eliminate the reason that led him to commit this crime. Which one would you choose? Wouldn't it be better to prevent the crime in the first place, if that was possible?
As you see, zakat also fights with the financial difficulties behind many crimes and indirectly helps justice and the safety of society. This is the multidimensional peace and prosperity that zakat provides. What happened in 2008 during the recession? What did Obama do? He went to the Congress. He got 600 or $700 billion and he deposited them in the accounts of the poorest. And he didn't say, ‘’Listen, this is the last amount of money that we have. So try to save it.’’ No, he said, ‘’Please take it and spend it’’ And like that. The economy will roll if you give $100 and put it in the pocket of a rich person. You may come after one year to find it in his pocket. He even forgot about it.
He didn't spend it. It didn't benefit anyone. But if you give $100 to a poor person within 15 minutes, it vanishes! Because he needs. He will buy food. He will buy clothes, he will buy shoes. He will buy things for his children. So what happens is he poured it into the economy. So the more cash you pour into the economy, the more demand on goods. To face this, you will need to increase production. To increase production, you create jobs. That is what zakat is... There was a journalist in the UK who said that wealth has become so distant, you don't even actually know it exists anymore.
The only time you get a glimpse of it is if you open up one of these lifestyle magazines and you see how the super rich have got islands and yachts and you know how they live... Apart from that. You know, wealth becomes impossible for you to even imagine. According to Islam, if you're a person who is in need and cannot change your situation, you have actually a right to the wealth of a rich person. In the opposite scenario, meaning if you are rich, the needy people you have never met have a right to your property. Sounds strange, doesn't it?
In the Qur'an in the 19th ayah of Surah Adh-Dhariyat, Allah says: “and from their properties was given the right of the petitioners and the deprived.” Let's understand this ayah better through an example. Let's imagine a region where there is mass hunger and poverty, and we see 25 people who haven't eaten anything for days. They have become pale and very weak. Their hunger is clearly visible in their state. A little later, a huge dinner table is started to be set with a variety of food. Finally, you come and sit at that table dressed in beautiful clothes. The table is so big and full of food that is even enough for a thousand people.
But you do not invite anyone around you, and you ignore those 25 people who ask for help. As they see you eating with such an appetite, their hunger becomes more and more intense. After becoming full. You tell their servants to pack up the remaining food that can feed 999 people and leave that place. It would be a really annoying scene, wouldn't it? Wouldn't the hunger and hardship of those 25 hungry people around you be manifest in your food and wealth as dirt, a wealth that is seemingly clean but spiritually dirty? This is where the meaning of the word ‘’zakat’’ shows itself. One of the meanings of this word that is repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’an, is “to purify”, that is, “to clean”.
In the sense that, it's an obligation that cleans the person's wealth when it's given and leaves it unclean when it's not given. All the hardships that are caused by poverty in the world. Hunger, sufferings, deprivations, crimes, spiritual difficulties, tears, etc.. Each of these turns into dirt on the wealth of the people who ignore those sufferings. When a person gives his zakat, it's as if he's saying, I'm aware of this situation and I'm doing my part at a minimum level. In reality, he's inviting those 25 people to his table, which could feed a thousand people, meaning he's helping 2.5% of them. In the world of trials.
Just as the body is given as a trust an amanah to the humans, the family to the father and the baby to the mother. The poor are left in the care of the rich people. In Surat Al-Ma'un, Allah criticizes and exposes the crimes of some rich people who doesn't fulfill this trust. In the second and third verses, Allah says about them, that is the one who pushes aside the orphan and does not encourage the feeding of the poor. One of the biggest problems with the system we grew up in, is that ‘’After a while, something that should be a means becomes a goal.’’ What do I mean by that? The luxurious lives we have seen since childhood have encouraged us to constantly want more.
Our perceptions and the way we look at the world have been shaped to always focus on earning more. Then we went into business life and said, the more I earn, the closer I get to live in my dreams. First of all, let's make this clear. There's nothing wrong with people gaining wealth, and Islam does not forbid us to do so as long as it is through permissible ways. But the system we have been exposed to has made some of us extremely greedy. Money is normally a tool that we use to buy things or spend it for a purpose, isn't it? But for some people, making money itself has become the ultimate purpose. This goal drives them to save up more and more than 30-40 years past.
And he realizes that his whole life has been spent guarding an enormous wealth that he cannot finish spending, even if he wants to. A wealth that he even forgot that existed. And people around him are thinking about what will happen to all this money after his death and making calculations in their minds. On the other side, there's a totally different world. In the city where that extremely rich person lives, there's a mother whose husband had died and she was left with her children. She's trying to figure out how to take care of them, have to provide for them. She's in a very difficult situation and needs support. There's a father whose business and trade had failed and he became bankrupt.
He's so hopeless that he's now thinking of suicide. There are people who cannot get out of their debts. There are people who had been cheated, robbed, stolen from who are in a desperate situation. Haven't you ever heard of people who have to take care of their old parents? They have regular expenses that need to be covered, such as medicines. These are not things that only happen in movies. There are people who lost their homes in earthquakes. People whose properties were destroyed by fire or flood. There are starving people living in Africa. On the other hand, we have this data: wealth of the richest 1% of the world's population is equal to the wealth of the remaining 99%.
Don't you also think that the difficulties these people go through taint, pollute the properties of those who just keep accumulating wealth in their accounts and don't care about other people? Your attitude has to be that these poor people have a right on me. If I had more money, I would give them more. So they are not failures. And sometimes the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He would honor the poor and the weak in such a way that if they gave a small amount of charity, he would spread that charity. Those few dates over the big amount of wealth that the rich people were giving. And he would say, this is the barakah. This is where blessing comes from.
So it is a part of It is a part of the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) to love the poor. I came across a headline on a very famous discussion forum website. It was asking a very interesting question: ‘’What would happen if we re-distributed the world's 1% 's wealth back to the remaining 99% as a one-time reset?” Let's go out on the street and tell people about this idea and say to them: “There is a button in front of you. If you press it, this ‘’re-distribution‘’ will happen.’’ If you walked around all day, you probably wouldn't find anyone who wouldn't press it unless we come across one of those 1%, of course. There would even be people who would press it before the question was completed.
And what would you do? Remember the dinner table example I mentioned earlier? If I don't invite those people, they will feel distant towards me, and rightly so. They might even hold a grudge against me. And as a result of this, my insensitivity towards them might increase. And ignoring them can even become normalized for me. Over time, this can lead me to a moral collapse, and as a consequence, a society that needs to be in unity will be divided into two. Let's think about two types of scenes from history. The first type is from the French Revolution, or the Russian Communist revolution that you saw in history lessons.
They brought big changes, but at the same time they are very big historical tragedies that resulted in the bloodshed of countless people. The second type of scene, on the other hand, is the state decree that we talked about in the beginning when Islamic State made announcements in the streets because there were no needy people left to take care of. The reason for both scenarios to happen is the relationship between the rich and the poor. But in the first case, there's hatred and anger, while in the other there's mutual respect, compassion, and love. While the situation is like this, who can deny that the zakat system is one of the things we need the most?
At this point, you might think that ‘’If there was such a system in Islam and positive results were seen, prosperity emerge after it was implemented, then why didn't any other state come up with a similar system?’’ I mean, doesn't it always happen like this? Someone develops a system or a technology that works, and over time other states start using the same system too. But I don't know if it was because of prejudice against Islam or love for wealth. It was not implemented, but rather interest system has become more common. If zakat is practiced the way it should be practiced. Zakat. First of all, it changes our view toward the wealth, toward the wealth that we possess.
So there there are benefits of zakat that are immediate, instantaneous. The moment to become a muslim or you're a good Muslim and you realize you have to pay zakat. And so you give zakat, your attitude toward the wealth that is remaining, that is yours changes. If it doesn't change, you haven't given zakat properly. You need to give zakat of your zakat, because zakat means now I have given the right of the poor in my wealth. But then it opens the heart to charity, because I see now there's maybe I have more wealth and this person needs more. Or these people need more. So all of a sudden, your relationship to people is one that I have this wealth which is simply an amanah.
It's a trust that Allah has given it to me. And the best thing I can do that will make me the happiest is if I spend it on people who deserve it most. Imagine a person coming into the world centuries ago in a society far from civilization, in Arabia at the time of Jahiliyyah. He doesn't know how to read and write and receives no worldly education. And the same person brings a book called the Qur'an and the concept of zakat and the prohibition of interest, which we have been talking about, are just two of the rules of that book, but they bring solutions to many difficult problems of humanity. They solve poverty, removes hatred and arrogance in society, and bring brotherhood.
They also lead people to charity and revive the economy. When we look at all the efforts that were put in by the people who are called experts in this field over centuries, we see that they have never been able to come up with a system even close to the one brought by this unlettered person. Let's bring together 100 of the most successful economists of today and let them work for years. Can they come up with a system that comes close to this, and can they make people practice it in such an effective way for hundreds of years? I don't think so. All of this clearly shows that this cannot be a manmade system, and that it can only be from divine revelation. Time is passing.
Centuries are passing, but Islam is getting younger and younger. Day by day, the value of its rules is understood and appreciated better. Every day it shows more and more clearly how it's in accordance with human nature, and therefore it can only have come from the creator of all human beings and the entire universe. And the choice of either ignoring or accepting it is left to us.
According to a report by the United Nations, 71% of the world's population lives in countries where income inequality is growing day by day. And yes, this includes many countries that are identified as developed countries. A huge portion of society is tense and desperate, like a bomb ready to explode. But what if I told you that hundreds of years ago Islam brought the solution we are desperately looking for? It is such a solution that, if implemented correctly, would provide that in some cities there would be no poor people anymore. Therefore, donations would have to go to other cities that are miles away. Is this really possible?
If you are ready for a comprehensive content that has taken weeks to prepare with comments and insights from experts and researchers? Let's begin. Imagine a country where there are public announcements like what are the people in debt? Where are the needy, the orphans, the poor who want to marry the oppressed, or you who have rights and needs come and take your rights? The state officials walk in the streets looking for poor families. This is not a dream. This is not a story. Such a period has actually happened. We're talking about the early seven hundreds, close to the 100th year after the arrival of the Zakat system.
The Islamic Calipha Omar bin Abd al=Aziz issued such a decree and made that announcement. What a scene that is far away from the present day, isn't it? So what exactly is this zakat we are talking about, and how applicable is it today in this day and age? We'll get to all of that. But first, let's try to figure out the system that we have now. We are in a dead end that is very difficult to get out of. There are two sentences that have been ruining our lives all around the world. One of them is ‘’You work and I eat’’ which is basically the interest system. The tragedies caused by this system are countless. Let's analyze this phenomenon with an example.
You want to buy a car or a house, but you can't afford it. You are someone who can only make a living. Then the smiling face, a bank representative comes and says to you, I'm here to help you. I can give you the money you want in this many installments, but you will pay it back with this much interest and thinking that you have no other option, you sign the contract. Now you are going to work for years to pay back the loan with a high amount of interest. Just the interest part of the loan. You don't if itself means extra months of work for you. Maybe you will look for additional sources of income and put in much more effort. Probably your spouse will have to work too.
Maybe we'll have to sacrifice the time you'll spend with your children. And in the meantime, if something goes wrong and you cannot pay the installments on time, your debt will increase even more. This means more stress and more work for you. And do you know what happened right before you started going through this long and painful process? The same smiling bank made a deal with a rich person a few hours before you took that loan. His money has been invested to earn interest, and now it will just increase without doing anything. In just one month, without any effort.
That man will earn interest on the loan that a few families like yours have paid with great difficulty in maybe months or a year. And in the end, you will realize that you have actually bought that person's money and that you have been making him richer all this time. How would you feel in such a situation? Probably you would feel a serious resentment. We live in a world where the total wealth of 1% is equal to the total wealth of the remaining 99%. So it's pretty obvious that something is going wrong here, and people have accumulated more or less anger against that 1%. And over time, both material and emotional gaps are being formed between these two groups.
Right at this point, you come across the second sentence that ruins our social lives. ‘’So long as I'm full. I don't care if others die of hunger.’’ Then Islam comes and forbids interest and replaces it with a much better system, Zakat. And by making it obligatory, it closes the huge financial gaps between people. But what is this Zakat system? Let me explain it to you step by step. First of all, there's a concept that is called ‘’Nisab value’’. What is it? Think about all the money you have as savings and your trade goods. Now remove your debts from that money and goods.
And after this, if your savings are above the “Nisab value”, which is the value equivalent to minimum of 80g of gold in your local currency, and if you have not fallen below this amount for a year, you've become responsible to “Pay Zakat”. But if you are below this limit, you become eligible to receive ‘’Zakat money’’ So is the amount to give a Zakat so high that is difficult for people to pay. Actually, no. We are talking about only 1/40th or 2.5% of the amount of savings you have. Let's say you have $100,000 and it has been sitting aside for a year, giving $2,500 of that amount is nothing for you, especially when you know that the person you are giving to is in need.
You will feel the spiritual reward for it too. And on top of that, you will witness that person's joy. So it doesn't take much away from you, but it makes a big difference for someone who is in need. Zakat is one such measure. It's not a tax, but you can compare it to a wealth tax. There's not a single country in the West today that has a comprehensive wealth tax. Most taxes are income based tax or product type, consumer taxes, a VAT and sales tax. Whereas zakat it's about money which has not been utilized. So latent money after one year, of course, above the Nisab. And that money has not been utilized on your daily expenses.
So your money for your property, your money for your family, your money for your son's education, your money for your daughter's, you know, wedding or whatever it may be, that money is spent money. And that's not going to be subject to zakat. But zakat is, of course, on that wealth which is unspent. So it is a latent wealth tax. There's also such a surprising beauty in zakat. Many times in the history of Islam. People who previously received zakat eventually became able to give zakat after sometime. Go online and search for the amount of 80g of gold in your currency. So after a certain period, many families reached an income level where they have this amount of gold as savings.
So with the help of this system, many poor people didn't get poorer, but instead they got richer. In the Islamic sources, we have information like this. In Islamic State, zakat was collected from one region and started being distributed there. But although they still had the money to give, there were no needy people left. So the remaining zakat was sent to other regions, meaning kilometers away to other cities. Can you imagine? In the history of Islam, none of these was a dream. I don't need to give names, but some of you can guess. They made a calculation about the total wealth of one of the richest people in the world.
It is news from 2 or 3 years ago, and they said with only 2% of this person's wealth, that is $6 billion. The entire world hunger could be ended. Remember those close to 1 billion people who are in chronic hunger that we mentioned in the beginning? There wouldn't be such a scene anymore. And does the 2% sound familiar to you? It's a little less than the zakat percentage, which is 2.5%. And if we take into account that zakat is given every year, the results become unimaginable. Now let's think about it from another point of view. If such financial prosperity is achieved in a region, wouldn't we also see a decrease in crime rates there?
Because behind many crimes such as theft, there's somehow a kind of poverty, Of course, this is not always the reason and this doesn’t excuse those people who commit them. But how can we deny its impact? Imagine there's a criminal and his judgment is left to you. You have two options. You either will give that person a punishment that you think he deserves, which would be a completely reasonable act, or somehow we'll go back in time and eliminate the reason that led him to commit this crime. Which one would you choose? Wouldn't it be better to prevent the crime in the first place, if that was possible?
As you see, zakat also fights with the financial difficulties behind many crimes and indirectly helps justice and the safety of society. This is the multidimensional peace and prosperity that zakat provides. What happened in 2008 during the recession? What did Obama do? He went to the Congress. He got 600 or $700 billion and he deposited them in the accounts of the poorest. And he didn't say, ‘’Listen, this is the last amount of money that we have. So try to save it.’’ No, he said, ‘’Please take it and spend it’’ And like that. The economy will roll if you give $100 and put it in the pocket of a rich person. You may come after one year to find it in his pocket. He even forgot about it.
He didn't spend it. It didn't benefit anyone. But if you give $100 to a poor person within 15 minutes, it vanishes! Because he needs. He will buy food. He will buy clothes, he will buy shoes. He will buy things for his children. So what happens is he poured it into the economy. So the more cash you pour into the economy, the more demand on goods. To face this, you will need to increase production. To increase production, you create jobs. That is what zakat is... There was a journalist in the UK who said that wealth has become so distant, you don't even actually know it exists anymore.
The only time you get a glimpse of it is if you open up one of these lifestyle magazines and you see how the super rich have got islands and yachts and you know how they live... Apart from that. You know, wealth becomes impossible for you to even imagine. According to Islam, if you're a person who is in need and cannot change your situation, you have actually a right to the wealth of a rich person. In the opposite scenario, meaning if you are rich, the needy people you have never met have a right to your property. Sounds strange, doesn't it?
In the Qur'an in the 19th ayah of Surah Adh-Dhariyat, Allah says: “and from their properties was given the right of the petitioners and the deprived.” Let's understand this ayah better through an example. Let's imagine a region where there is mass hunger and poverty, and we see 25 people who haven't eaten anything for days. They have become pale and very weak. Their hunger is clearly visible in their state. A little later, a huge dinner table is started to be set with a variety of food. Finally, you come and sit at that table dressed in beautiful clothes. The table is so big and full of food that is even enough for a thousand people.
But you do not invite anyone around you, and you ignore those 25 people who ask for help. As they see you eating with such an appetite, their hunger becomes more and more intense. After becoming full. You tell their servants to pack up the remaining food that can feed 999 people and leave that place. It would be a really annoying scene, wouldn't it? Wouldn't the hunger and hardship of those 25 hungry people around you be manifest in your food and wealth as dirt, a wealth that is seemingly clean but spiritually dirty? This is where the meaning of the word ‘’zakat’’ shows itself. One of the meanings of this word that is repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’an, is “to purify”, that is, “to clean”.
In the sense that, it's an obligation that cleans the person's wealth when it's given and leaves it unclean when it's not given. All the hardships that are caused by poverty in the world. Hunger, sufferings, deprivations, crimes, spiritual difficulties, tears, etc.. Each of these turns into dirt on the wealth of the people who ignore those sufferings. When a person gives his zakat, it's as if he's saying, I'm aware of this situation and I'm doing my part at a minimum level. In reality, he's inviting those 25 people to his table, which could feed a thousand people, meaning he's helping 2.5% of them. In the world of trials.
Just as the body is given as a trust an amanah to the humans, the family to the father and the baby to the mother. The poor are left in the care of the rich people. In Surat Al-Ma'un, Allah criticizes and exposes the crimes of some rich people who doesn't fulfill this trust. In the second and third verses, Allah says about them, that is the one who pushes aside the orphan and does not encourage the feeding of the poor. One of the biggest problems with the system we grew up in, is that ‘’After a while, something that should be a means becomes a goal.’’ What do I mean by that? The luxurious lives we have seen since childhood have encouraged us to constantly want more.
Our perceptions and the way we look at the world have been shaped to always focus on earning more. Then we went into business life and said, the more I earn, the closer I get to live in my dreams. First of all, let's make this clear. There's nothing wrong with people gaining wealth, and Islam does not forbid us to do so as long as it is through permissible ways. But the system we have been exposed to has made some of us extremely greedy. Money is normally a tool that we use to buy things or spend it for a purpose, isn't it? But for some people, making money itself has become the ultimate purpose. This goal drives them to save up more and more than 30-40 years past.
And he realizes that his whole life has been spent guarding an enormous wealth that he cannot finish spending, even if he wants to. A wealth that he even forgot that existed. And people around him are thinking about what will happen to all this money after his death and making calculations in their minds. On the other side, there's a totally different world. In the city where that extremely rich person lives, there's a mother whose husband had died and she was left with her children. She's trying to figure out how to take care of them, have to provide for them. She's in a very difficult situation and needs support. There's a father whose business and trade had failed and he became bankrupt.
He's so hopeless that he's now thinking of suicide. There are people who cannot get out of their debts. There are people who had been cheated, robbed, stolen from who are in a desperate situation. Haven't you ever heard of people who have to take care of their old parents? They have regular expenses that need to be covered, such as medicines. These are not things that only happen in movies. There are people who lost their homes in earthquakes. People whose properties were destroyed by fire or flood. There are starving people living in Africa. On the other hand, we have this data: wealth of the richest 1% of the world's population is equal to the wealth of the remaining 99%.
Don't you also think that the difficulties these people go through taint, pollute the properties of those who just keep accumulating wealth in their accounts and don't care about other people? Your attitude has to be that these poor people have a right on me. If I had more money, I would give them more. So they are not failures. And sometimes the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He would honor the poor and the weak in such a way that if they gave a small amount of charity, he would spread that charity. Those few dates over the big amount of wealth that the rich people were giving. And he would say, this is the barakah. This is where blessing comes from.
So it is a part of It is a part of the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) to love the poor. I came across a headline on a very famous discussion forum website. It was asking a very interesting question: ‘’What would happen if we re-distributed the world's 1% 's wealth back to the remaining 99% as a one-time reset?” Let's go out on the street and tell people about this idea and say to them: “There is a button in front of you. If you press it, this ‘’re-distribution‘’ will happen.’’ If you walked around all day, you probably wouldn't find anyone who wouldn't press it unless we come across one of those 1%, of course. There would even be people who would press it before the question was completed.
And what would you do? Remember the dinner table example I mentioned earlier? If I don't invite those people, they will feel distant towards me, and rightly so. They might even hold a grudge against me. And as a result of this, my insensitivity towards them might increase. And ignoring them can even become normalized for me. Over time, this can lead me to a moral collapse, and as a consequence, a society that needs to be in unity will be divided into two. Let's think about two types of scenes from history. The first type is from the French Revolution, or the Russian Communist revolution that you saw in history lessons.
They brought big changes, but at the same time they are very big historical tragedies that resulted in the bloodshed of countless people. The second type of scene, on the other hand, is the state decree that we talked about in the beginning when Islamic State made announcements in the streets because there were no needy people left to take care of. The reason for both scenarios to happen is the relationship between the rich and the poor. But in the first case, there's hatred and anger, while in the other there's mutual respect, compassion, and love. While the situation is like this, who can deny that the zakat system is one of the things we need the most?
At this point, you might think that ‘’If there was such a system in Islam and positive results were seen, prosperity emerge after it was implemented, then why didn't any other state come up with a similar system?’’ I mean, doesn't it always happen like this? Someone develops a system or a technology that works, and over time other states start using the same system too. But I don't know if it was because of prejudice against Islam or love for wealth. It was not implemented, but rather interest system has become more common. If zakat is practiced the way it should be practiced. Zakat. First of all, it changes our view toward the wealth, toward the wealth that we possess.
So there there are benefits of zakat that are immediate, instantaneous. The moment to become a muslim or you're a good Muslim and you realize you have to pay zakat. And so you give zakat, your attitude toward the wealth that is remaining, that is yours changes. If it doesn't change, you haven't given zakat properly. You need to give zakat of your zakat, because zakat means now I have given the right of the poor in my wealth. But then it opens the heart to charity, because I see now there's maybe I have more wealth and this person needs more. Or these people need more. So all of a sudden, your relationship to people is one that I have this wealth which is simply an amanah.
It's a trust that Allah has given it to me. And the best thing I can do that will make me the happiest is if I spend it on people who deserve it most. Imagine a person coming into the world centuries ago in a society far from civilization, in Arabia at the time of Jahiliyyah. He doesn't know how to read and write and receives no worldly education. And the same person brings a book called the Qur'an and the concept of zakat and the prohibition of interest, which we have been talking about, are just two of the rules of that book, but they bring solutions to many difficult problems of humanity. They solve poverty, removes hatred and arrogance in society, and bring brotherhood.
They also lead people to charity and revive the economy. When we look at all the efforts that were put in by the people who are called experts in this field over centuries, we see that they have never been able to come up with a system even close to the one brought by this unlettered person. Let's bring together 100 of the most successful economists of today and let them work for years. Can they come up with a system that comes close to this, and can they make people practice it in such an effective way for hundreds of years? I don't think so. All of this clearly shows that this cannot be a manmade system, and that it can only be from divine revelation. Time is passing.
Centuries are passing, but Islam is getting younger and younger. Day by day, the value of its rules is understood and appreciated better. Every day it shows more and more clearly how it's in accordance with human nature, and therefore it can only have come from the creator of all human beings and the entire universe. And the choice of either ignoring or accepting it is left to us.