OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Reflections
Let us next examine the economic set-up of our country*. A detailed analysis reveals that the whole system is founded on vice and evil.
The foremost evil in it is the institution of Banking through which the whole nation's wealth is rendered at the disposal of a few individuals. In the guise of national development and stability, all the money is actually used to satisfy the whims and lusts of a few capitalists. Banking, on the one hand produces economic disparity and on the other, cripples the national economy. While the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, a country gets caught in a vicious circle of procuring external loans for its own sustenance. Quite ironically, it has to rely on money borrowed from its people through investment certificates, prize bonds, rifle draws and other such alluring schemes for the completion of its various welfare and commercial projects and for its administration and defence.
The second evil is its system of taxation. The government has an almost unlimited authority to impose whatever amount of tax whenever it likes on the people while the rate of tax fixed once and for all by Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) is not taken into consideration. As a result, it has become almost impossible for people to honestly carry out business or pursue any other economic activity. Every year the national budget is anticipated with dread and fear. Every new tax decreases the credibility of the government and represses the spirit of its people to come out and offer what they can if their country is in need of their assistance.
The third evil is that the system does not uphold the rightful claim of the workers to be granted both a basic salary and a share in the net profit according to the extent of toil and labour put in. Although, the industrial workers have been granted some other facilities besides their basic salary, yet their share in the total profit has only been accepted half-heartedly. The conditions of the land workers is even more pathetic. Their share in the net profit is generally accepted but they are not given a basic salary. They are neither employed on fixed working hours nor given other facilities every industrial worker receives. In particular, the millions of peasants which inhabit our villages live and die like slaves serving their masters day and night throughout their lives.
The fourth evil in it is the total lack of acknowledgement of the fact that every penny over and above a person's needs does not belong to him; the poor and the destitute are its rightful claimants. As a result, such needy citizens have been deprived of this right and the whole system is unable to provide them even with the basic necessities of life.
The fifth evil in it is the menace of large cities which are actually large industrial centres. Instead of dividing the resources of development into small units and providing all the citizens with equal opportunities, these resources have been concentrated in a few areas which receive development at the expense of others. Moreover, these large cities have become perfect breeding places for criminals and have also accounted for the disruption of our cultural traditions. Not to mention the fact that congestion and pollution have deprived people of fresh and invigorating environments.
These are the major evils which plague our economic set-up. They have, in fact, significantly contributed to the moral degeneration and regression of the whole society. In our humble estimation, the following measures must be undertaken to put this set-up in order:
1. All institutions which provide capital on loan should be completely abolished, and all Banks should be converted into various branches of the Bait-ul-Maal, where people can deposit their savings. These branches should provide protection, exchange and other similar facilities. In return for this service, the Bait-ul-Maal should be allowed to spend the deposited money only in the public sector upon industrial, commercial, agricultural and welfare projects, with the precondition that without being given any profit on the original amount, the depositers would be returned their money whenever they demand it.
2. The only form of absentee partnership permitted should be that in which people can directly become shareholders in business projects of the private or public sector.
3. Every economic venture which leads to moral misconduct in the character of an individual, is a means of deceit or damage for the parties involved, or is a cause of accumulation of wealth in the society should be declared unlawful. Interest, insurance, gambling and hoarding should be prohibited, and the law of inheritance should be correctly enforced.
4. To run the machinery of the state, the government should be allowed to rely only on the income obtained from its lands, industries, mineral reserves, trade and zakat. Ushr should also be imposed upon industrial produce. In emergency situations however, an appeal for money can be made by the government. Furthermore, no tax should be imposed on the people, so that they are liberated from the shackles of this barbarity of the modern age.
5. In every economic enterprise which results from the interaction of labour and capital, labour should be granted a share according to its participation. Those working on the lands should also be given wages and be entitled to all other facilities like the industrial workers.
6. It should be the responsibility of the state to provide everyone with the basic necessities of life which include food, shelter, clothing, education and medical treatment. Those at the helm of the state's affairs should always keep in mind the Almighty's promise about all means and resources that if the people in their national capacity hold steadfast to His directives, He would bless them with immense prosperity and happiness.
7. All means and resources of development and progress should be divided into small units to get rid of the menace of large cities.
8. If in the means of production, the rights private ownership result in injustice and usurpation, the state has all the authority to interfere and debar a person from these rights, though, only after a court pronounces this verdict.
9. To keep money in circulation, people should be urged to spend it in the way of Allah and to refrain from accumulating it.
(Adapted from Ghamidi's "Burhaan")