بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 

Friday Sermon

 

Hazrat Amir’ul Momeneen Muhyi-Ud-Din

Al Khalifatullah

 

Munir Ahmad Azim

 

08 May 2009

 

(Summary of Friday Sermon)

 

After having greeted everybody with the Salutations of Peace, the Khalifatullah read the Tashahhud, Taouz and Surah Al Fatiha and then he read the following verse of the Holy Quran:

 

 

 

“Say: ‘Each one doth according to his rule of conduct, and their Lord is best aware of him whose way is right.” (Chapter 17 Verse 85)

 

I continue my sermon of last Friday the First of May.

 

The argument that the condition prevailing in the Muslim countries belie such a claim is entirely irrelevant, to say the least. In fact, it is their unjust, oppressive and static social systems which have been the proximate cause of the Islamic resurgence in the Muslim countries.

 

It should be clearly understood that this tradition does not relate to the poverty which is voluntarily adopted, involving a renunciation of worldly comforts. It is in this sense that another tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) should be understood: “My poverty is my pride.” This is a poverty that comes from within, from a deep realisation that man is poor before God, since all belongs to Him. It is in this sense that Islam is referred to as a “Cult of poverty”, which gives it the qualities of “ardour, courage, tenacity and generosity”.

 

The climate of Islamic philosophy – It is ethics that dominate economics and not the other way round. Hence, the Islamic system differs from all other economic systems by an “ethical factor”. This difference is fundamental because ethics epitomize the common values of a society and determine the preference structures of the members of that society. The key to a thorough understanding of the originality of the Islamic economic system lies, therefore, in its ethical value system.

 

However, the predominance of ethics in the “universe” of Islamic thought does not exclude the possibility that economic conditions may, in extreme cases, influence the ethical behaviour of human beings. In fact, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has been quoted as warning his followers against extreme, involuntary poverty because it can turn men away from God.

 

What Islam asserts is that ethics, independent of the economic conditions prevailing at any time or in any society, must guide human behaviour for the attainment of social bliss as well as spiritual salvation. At the philosophical plane, this axiological view is the exact opposite of the Marxian position, according to which economics dominate ethics, not only at the limited behavioural plane but also as a general rule. Islam also negates the capitalistic mentality which glorifies, out of all proportion, materialistic grabbing as a key to worldly success. In sharp contrast, the Islamic approach to economic problems is all-comprehending: “social bliss” is defined to include both economic betterment and spiritual ascension as two elements of a unitary Islamic outlook on what constitutes human happiness.

 

The Islamic system “exists” in the sense that it is logically, socially and economically viable. It is neither capitalistic, nor socialistic, nor a carbon-copy of a modern welfare state. This is not to deny that there may be some superficial inter-system similarities with respect to their element, which is inevitable since all socio-economic systems face the same social “reality”, the age-old problems of want, poverty, disease and economic deprivation – though from different angles. However, such similarities do not deprive any social system of its claim to originality.

 

The verse which I recited at the beginning of my sermon, Allah said:

 

“Say: ‘Each one doth according to his rule of conduct, and their Lord is best aware of him whose way is right.” (Chapter 17 Verse 85)

 

The dichotomy of man’s life into mundane pursuits and his aspirations has contributed immensely to the schizophrenic confusion prevailing in the modern world. Dualistic cultures, riddled with inherent contradictions, have sprung up, spreading social tensions. The Islamic solution is to destroy this artificial schism by providing a unitary philosophy of life, according to which no “moral vacuum” can exist on the plane of social existence. Accordingly, in the context of the immaculate Islamic vision of unity, the distinction between the secular and the spiritual becomes both meaningless and inconsequential. The Holy Quran has advised all mankind to seek God’s mercy in both:

 

 

“Our Lord! Give unto us in the world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good…” (Chapter 2 Verse 202)

 

This philosophy is as enlightening as it is exciting, making a direct appeal not only to emotions but also to reason. Man, by virtue of his theomorphic character, occupies a unique place in his philosophy, which guarantees him freedom and imposes the concomitant social responsibility. True, a certain authoritarian zeal permeates all ethically-oriented social orderings, yet the attitudinal framework that Islam provides is such that intellect is strengthened at the same time.

 

This is because Islam’s attitude towards life processes is based on the quality of Al-Adl (that is, Equilibrium). A divine serenity like the light which is neither blinding nor too dim, permeates the Islamic vision of human societies. The “straight path” of Islam is balanced on a knife-edge, any deviation from which will plunge mankind into the abysm of eternal condemnation. However, since human society is liable to deviate, as happens so frequently, from the “straight path”, it is obligatory on man, individually and collectively, to return to this path. Hence, Equilibrium is also a normative requirement that must be met. And this Equilibrium is attained only when a Messenger comes from God to bring back humanity towards that same “straight path” showed to their people and humanity by past prophets.

 

Within the Islamic perspective, the obligation to fulfil this requirement is enforced by making man directly responsible, not only for what he does himself but also for his immediate environment. Never alienated from the universe around him, man makes his own destiny. This is a difficult task, because a thousand temptations lie in ambush to turn him away from the path of salvation. Accordingly, man has been advised to constantly pray to Allah:

 

 

“Show us the straight path, the path of those whom Thou has favoured not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor Of those who go astray.” (Chapter 1 Verses 6-7)

 

Within the ethical limits prescribed by Islam, even the search for economic well-being gets sanctified. The way to Heaven passes through the Earth; in fact, the Holy Quran condemns misplaced self-denial.

 

 

“But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah hath given thee and neglect not thy portion of the world.” (Chapter 28 Verse 78)

 

As a result, ethics and economics become integrated, vertically and horizontally, to form a vital equation within a homogeneous Islamic system, which tolerates neither “kinks” nor any discontinuity.

 

This divine synthesis between man’s desire to cling to material possessions and his equally strong longing for spiritual ascension guarantees the “completeness” of the Islamic system, informing mundane pursuits with a sense of the sacred. However, it is important to bear in mind that, while it is true that the Islamic way of life forms a self-sufficient orbit of social, economic and moral values, it is by no means insular. It is not a limiting concept which pre-empts innovative ideas, but a starting point opening up new horizons for breath-taking initiations. It is this which ensures the dynamism of the Islamic economic system. In fact, “Islam was given providentially the power to synthesize, to integrate and absorb what was in conformity with its perspective from previous civilizations.” As a living religion, Islam cannot fail to absorb from its surrounding what conforms to its native genius. To maintain that everything useful about Islamic economics has already been said will frustrate all potentialities of intellectual advancement in this area of knowledge. History often repeats itself, but seldom, in the realm of ideas. Or else, the life of an intellectual would not have been so difficult or, shall we say, interesting.

 

The world has come a long way since the Middle Ages. It has become much more complicated than it ever was; and easy solutions, which sufficed in those halcyon days of ascetic simplicity, have become totally inadequate in the modern world of sensuous affluence.  Even worse, we do not have anywhere, in full operation, a model Islamic economic system which could be “simulated” and generalized to form the basis of Islamic Economics.

 

The task of modern Muslim economists is much more difficult than to relive the past in a mechanical fashion. It is to rediscover the fundamental verities of Islam in the vastly complicated world of today, with a view to improving upon what already exists: integrating what relevant knowledge is already available and transmuting it into a new frame of thought. In fact, this is how originality in the realm of ideas is defined in the Islamic perspective. Human knowledge, irrespective of its source, is the common heritage of all mankind. No purpose will be served – indeed, great harm will be done – if the existing economic wisdom, which has been generated through the long process of active intellectual interaction, is ignored in the formulation of our views on Islamic economics. The Islamic perspective ethics dominate economics, the first step in the direction of identifying the basic characteristics of an Islamic economic system, which is distinct from the existing economic systems is the search for a set of “general” ethical principles, which are unambiguously Islamic.

 

Characteristics of the Axiom system are one of the fundamental aims of the present study. However, such a system, to be viable and meaningful, must satisfy the following requirements: (i) the axioms must be an “adequate” and a legitimate representation of Islam’s ethical views; (ii) the set of axioms must be the “smallest” possible set; (iii) the elements of the set must be internally consistent and (iv) the axiom system must have “predictive power”.

 

Adequacy of the Ethical Axiom System is unity, Equilibrium, Free Will and Responsibility, which together form a “spanning set”. The set is not necessarily unique in the sense of being the only one possible as a basis of valid generalizations about the Islamic economic system.

 

It should have become clear by now that an Islamic ethical axiom system, as an analytical tool to explore the nature of the Islamic system, is an adequate framework, which eliminates the possibility of any inconsistency arising between man’s spiritual aspirations and his legitimate material pursuits. Spiritual bliss and material happiness come together in the Islamic unitary vision, which is perfectly equilibrated, and balanced, ensuring man’s innate freedom but simultaneously constraining the individual so as to maximize collective freedom and social happiness.

 

At a philosophical level, much of the utility of social science comes from the high degree of sensitivity of its practitioners to the problems of the real world. This awareness is reflected in the type of questions they ask. It is precisely the ability to pose the “right” type of questions that determines the quality of social science. However, in doing so, no social scientist worth his salt can ignore the basic values of the society he undertakes to study. Muslim all over the world are passing through a unique period in history which is making them look for their guidance to the Islamic value system that makes a claim to be “complete”. Hence, it would be unscientific to study their economic behaviour in isolation from the context of the relevant ethical environment. Indeed in the strict weberian sense, economic behaviour in an Islamic society will transform into effective action only in so far as it is immediately dictated by the ethical norms that Muslims subscribe to. Nobody should, therefore, be apologetic about the type of question that can be raised, for example, what is the Islamic system of ethical values, and how do those economic behaviour functions?

 

To ignore such question would be an ostrich like posture that social scientists can ill-afford to assume even in the interest of their own intellectual health!

 

I end my sermon on this verse of the Holy Quran, Chapter 41 Verse 54 where Allah says:

 

 

“We shall show them Our portents on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth.”

 

Insha-Allah, if Allah gives me the opportunity again to continue the same subject as Friday Sermon, I will do so. May Allah give me this knowledge in more profound details to give this to all Muslims and all humanity. Insha-Allah, Ameen.