GOD OR GREED ? A MUSLIM VIEW
Summary of a Presentation at the Muslim-Christian Dialogue on Greed organised by the Lutheran World Federation and hosted by the Sabah Theological Seminary on 26th of September 2011 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
- Greed is condemned in all religions. Even in secular philosophies, greed is regarded as a vice.
- In the Qur’an, the embodiment of greed is Qarun (28:76-82; 29: 39) who was preoccupied with the accumulation of wealth and riches, and cared little for his fellow human beings or for God.
Greed is a vice in Islam because a) it is an act of stark selfishness; b) it distorts and perverts one’s character. It makes one vain and arrogant; c) it makes one overly materialistic ; d) it leads to the spread of corruption in society ; d) it is the antithesis of sharing and giving; and e) it undermines a person’s love for God and subverts values such as justice, fairness and compassion.
- The repudiation of greed does not mean that one should renounce the life of this world. Money is not an evil in itself. Islam allows for the ownership of property. It prescribes rules for inheritance. Right through history Muslim societies have encouraged private enterprise and investment and recognised the legitimacy of reasonable profits.
- But in the life of this world, there are limits that one should observe. The concept and practice of limits is a fundamental principle in Islam. Do not transgress the limits is an oft-repeated advice in the Qur’an. It is linked to yet another principle, the principle of restraint. Restraint helps to check and curb greed. Restraint is the real meaning of the fast in the month of Ramadan. Limits and restraint in turn lead to balance. For it is only when everyone exercises restraint that there would be some equilibrium in society. An equilibrium that guarantees each and every person his rightful place helps to establish the framework for justice.
- When justice is central to society, greed will not find a foothold. There are at least five injunctions and practices in Islam which underscore the significance of justice—- prohibition of interest (riba); the wealth tax ( zakat); the division of inheritance( faraid); the bequeathal of personal wealth for the public good(waqf); and charity ( sedaqah). Underlying these injunctions and practices is a commitment to the equitable distribution of wealth and the reduction of social disparities.
It is significant that in the past this commitment did not in any way diminish the important role performed by the market in Muslim civilisation. Huge markets flourished in some of the great centres of trade of antiquity, from Fez to Melaka. But these were markets that were embedded in society, markets that by and large abided by the larger moral norms of Islam, including its prohibition on riba and on debt transaction.
- This is why from the perspective of Islamic values and principles, what mars and mires the global economy and global finance today would be morally reprehensible. The ever widening wealth gap between the rich and the poor at the global level and within nation-states, the maximisation of profits as a credo, the transformation of money into a commodity for profit and the overwhelming power of speculative capital in financial transactions would contradict all that Islam stands for. Most of all, it is the institutionalisation and the legitimisation of greed as never before in human history through a capitalist culture of acquisition, accumulation and conspicuous consumption that Islam would regard as the ultimate betrayal of God’s teachings.
- How does one get out of the greed trap? Perhaps one should begin with basics. Money should cease to be a commodity of profit. It should be a medium of exchange, nothing more; nothing less. Its intrinsic value should be determined once again by the gold standard. This will curb speculation and restore stability to the monetary system. It will also eliminate debt transaction. In such a system, there will be no need for interest or riba. Private commercial banking will yield eventually to public banks with mechanisms that ensure justice and fairness. The Profit-and-Loss Sharing( Mudharabah) principle — and not the maximisation of profits— will guide these banks in their lending and investment policies.
- Of course, reforms in the financial sector will have to be accompanied by far-reaching changes in the economy as a whole. The public good rather than private gain will be the leitmotif of the economy. Land, other natural resources, the supply of water and energy, highways, other forms of infrastructure, health care and education will all be part and parcel of the commons. Cooperatives will play a major role in the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Private business enterprises will be strongly regulated by ethical principles.
- To sustain a transformed economy within an ethical framework, our underlying consciousness should also undergo a mammoth change. Justice, fairness, compassion, love, sharing, giving, restraint and balance will become central to the life of the individual and the community. For these universal, inclusive values to perpetuate themselves from generation to generation there has to be a psychological, emotional and intellectual anchor. That anchor has to be a profound consciousness of God. It is God Consciousness that lays out the meaning and purpose of life, that determines the role and responsibility of the human being as vicegerent on earth, that affirms our collective commitment to all that is good and beautiful in this transient existence—- and therefore repudiates greed in all its manifestations.
10) Islam and Christianity concur on this fundamental belief: that the human being cannot serve both God and greed at the same time. If we choose God then we should declare war on those structures and attitudes that allow greed to breed in contemporary civilisation. As Muslims and Christians we should write, speak, organise and mobilise against greed. In this monumental struggle we should work with people of other faiths and those who may not belong to a particular faith community. The war against greed is putting into action God’s eternal message: Believe in God and do good.
Chandra Muzaffar
Kuala Lumpur
26 September 2011