Ooh, I’m gonna have fun breaking this down.
I’ll definitely come back to this a little later today, because it’s Friday & breaking down assumptions of “the Islamic permissibility” of wealth hoarding & exploitation by a wealthy ruling class as to be relevant to anything “Quranic” is going to make for a good pre-Juma’a post.
Okay, so I had a long day at work & I really want to do this topic justice because I’ve been waiting for someone to bring up the place of labor relations & class struggle in Islam, so I want to give it a decent bit of attention, which I’ll work on tonight & tomorrow IsA.
So I’m thinking about making this into a post on my old writing blog instead of just making it a long thread of tweets. It’ll also help me organize the arguments & citations better.
The amount of research I’ve done for this in the span of 4 hours & my one take away right now is how anyone can study business ethics & labor rights in Islam & still believe that capitalism has any moral ground to stand on in Islamic tradition is beyond me.
Like a truly Islamic political economy based purely on the text of the Qur’an & Sunnah alone would absolutely decimate a capitalist economy & it’s entire political foundation, render the entire ruling class wealthy elite obsolete, & eradicate poverty permanently.
You know that vision leftists have of what a political economy based purely on the social well being of all those who produce & exist in an economy would look like?
The vision ends with a societal production structure that’s reflected in Islamic jurisprudence.
The vision ends with a societal production structure that’s reflected in Islamic jurisprudence.
Over 2 days of research & I’ve finally solidified my findings in Islamic jurisprudence that workers have a right to democratic participation in the work environment & a right to share in the profits & products they’re involved in producing, as well as basic necessities fulfilled.
So not only are workers considered inherent partners in business enterprises according to the Qur’an & Prophetic commendation of the laborer, but also deserving of livelihoods that guarantee basic living necessities (food, clothing, housing, healthcare, education, etc.)
Another fun fact: if Islamic commercial law was enacted, the entire American economy would find poverty nearly eradicated in less than a year before zakat (alms tax) could even be distributed just by its compensation requirements alone.
What sort of poverty would exist in the world where workers had a share in the profits they produced, so that their wealth increased with whatever productivity the put into their work, & majority of the profits weren’t hoarded by those who already had wealth?
And the people were commanded to spend with whatever surplus they had after they took care of their daily necessities, allowing for the flow of wealth throughout the economy, so everybody would partake in that wealth & grow in prosperity & peace as a people?
What kind of world would we live in where everybody who contributed in any endeavor was considered partners deserving of the wealth they shaped with their labor, & were commanded to not sleep while their neighbor was hungry?
More than anything, how can we say Islam commanded us to be compassionate throughout all our lives & this mercy not extend to the workplace, & that no single person be left behind in poverty?
The sheer beauty of these encouraged practices of shared livelihood in the Dīn, toward the most simple & straightforward method of eradicating global poverty, that wasn’t kept from the words of the greatest scholars of our religion, & I’m shocked that I’m just learning of it now.
Entire fields of study dedicated to resolving one of the most detrimental issues in history, & it’s already been addressed in the clearest way possible with a conclusion that’s been reached over & over by the people who study it.
And I’ve never heard it discussed before.
And I’ve never heard it discussed before.
People are in poverty because they aren’t compensated enough while society continues to grow & only a handful hold majority of its wealth.
“Woe to those who give less than due, who exact full measure when they weigh, but give less when they measure & weigh.” {83:1-3}
“Woe to those who give less than due, who exact full measure when they weigh, but give less when they measure & weigh.” {83:1-3}
