Seeking Halal Earning
By Khalid Baig
According to Abdullah ibn Masud, Radi-Allahu unhu, The Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu
alayhi wa sallam, said: 'Seeking halal earning is a duty after the duty.' In other words
working to earn a halal living is itself a religious obligation second in importance after
the primary religious obligations like prayers, fasting and hajj.
This brief hadith contains three very important messages. First, it points to the
Islamic way out of the apparent dichotomy between the material and the spiritual worlds.
We often see them working in opposite directions. Indulgence in the material world does
lead one away from the spiritual world. Spiritual uplifting seems to accompany a tendency
to distance oneself from the material pleasures. There is a conflict, but is there a
contradiction also? Is it possible to resolve the conflict in a way that one can take care
of both? Or are they mutually exclusive? This has been a central question for all
religions and many in the past suggested the second answer, making hermits as the ideal
for the humanity. Unfortunately not much humanity is left when one moves too far in this
direction. One can read today the horror stories of Christian and Hindu monks, among
others, who tried to seek spiritual purification this way.
As a reaction, others took the other course, making material pleasures the goal of this
life. The western civilization today is the prime example of that. Its toll on human
spirit and morality is well known and is a constant reminder that something is wrong here
as well.
In between the two extremes Islam points out the Straight Path. Man is both a material
and a spiritual being. The solution does not lie in denying the material needs and desires
but in denying their claim to primacy. They are part of being but not the reason or goal
of being. As long as they are kept in place, they are an important part of our life. The
problem is not money but the love of it. Wealth itself is not bad. In fact Qur'an refers
to it as ' ... your wealth which Allah has made for you a means of support.' [Al-Nisa,
4:5]. And another hadith praises the merits of 'the halal wealth of a pious person.' The
effort to earn a living is not only not against spirituality, it is a religious
obligation!
But this earning must be through halal means. This is the second message of this
hadith. Our obligation is not just to make money but to make halal money. This is a broad
statement that is the basis for Islamization of a society's economic life. Not every
business idea or possible business enterprise is good for the society. And the decision
regarding right and wrong here cannot be left to the so-called market forces. Right and
wrong in the economic life, as in all life, must be determined by a higher source. Shariah
guides us as to the halal and haram business enterprises and practices, and at both
individual and collective levels we must follow that guidance.
At times that guidance may conflict with the prevailing practices. For example riba
(interest), gambling, pornography, and liquor are haram, and no matter how attractive the
financial rewards of engaging in those enterprises may seem to be, a Muslim must refrain
from them. This is the economic struggle of a believer, and it is obvious why it should be
carried out as a religious obligation. At the individual level the obligation is to engage
is halal professions and businesses. At the collective level the obligation is to
establish a system that facilitates such individual efforts and discourages their
opposite.
Sometimes we lose the balance between obligations at the two levels. Obviously our
ultimate responsibility is at the individual level; in the hereafter we will be asked
about what we did in our personal lives. At the same time, in the era of multi-national
companies, CNN, IMF, World bank, and GATT, it is obvious that individual efforts alone
cannot steer the economic life of a society in the direction of halal. Why avoiding
interest has become so difficult today? Not because of its inherent merits as a healthy
financial instrument but because it is entrenched in the system. Can we build an Islamic
life style when the CNN is advertising a western life style in the most enticing ways 24
hours a day in our homes? Can we resolve the issues of halal and haram in taxation in
Muslim countries when the national budgets and tax decisions are dictated to these
countries by the IMF and the World Bank? (Jurists say that taxes may be permissible if
they are necessary, reasonable, fair, within the ability of the payers, and if the means
of collection are not harsh. Otherwise they are unjust and haram). Obviously the struggle
to avoid haram individually must, of necessity, include the struggle to change the system
that forces haram.
Third, all this effort for halal earning should not eclipse our primary religious
obligations. Indulgence even in a purely halal enterprise should not make us miss our
Salat, or hajj, for example.
This point is more important than we may realize at first. In this century, some
Islamic movements made the error of suggesting that the primary acts of worship. like
Salat were not meant for their own sake, but were there to prepare us for the real
challenge of establishing an Islamic state. It was stated to persuade the audiences to
join such movements but the speakers had gone carried away and in effect it would result
in an inversion of the relationship between the two. The result is that those drawn to
collective struggles, in political or economic arenas, sometimes may ignore their primary
religious responsibilities, in favor of the 'bigger' struggle. This hadith may help us set
our priorities right: The economic endeavor is a duty after the primary duties. And let us
remember: In economics, as well as in religion, getting the priorities right is part of
being right.
Islamic Economics 