Exchange of goods
and services
As wealth is
distributed unequally and everyone’s needs are different, only exchanges
[trade] can allow each individual to survive. The economic society functions
thanks to these exchanges.
For an exchange to take
place, you need goods or services to be exchanged, and you need exchangers.
Goods to be
exchanged
To be able to be
exchanged, it is necessary that the goods already exist: neither sale of fruits
before they appear, nor sale of small animals before they are born.
Exceptionally, Bay’us Salam (forward sale) is permitted, although the
property for sale does not yet exist. The “Salam” is a contract under which one
of the parties (the bank or the customer), as buyer, advances a fixed amount to
the other party who undertakes, as seller, to deliver goods duly identified on
a fixed date. In other words, “Salam” is a prepayment forward sale.
So, apart from the “Salam”
exception, the good must be in your possession; no sale of a property that you
do not yet own (and that you intend to buy on the market, for example). If the
item to be exchanged is a movable property, it must be owned and delivery must
have already been made.
The exchangers and
their consent
In Islam, one notion
dominates and governs exchanges: it is consent.
Allah commands: “O you who believe! Do not devour one
another’s wealth illegally, but rather trade by mutual consent.” (An-Nisa 4: 30)
The exchange can only
take place with the full agreement of both parties, the lack of agreement
vitiating the transaction with irregularity and threatening to be deprived of Barakah.
We can only appreciate the merits of this measure, capable of creating a
society which is, of course, always competitive, but asking for consent and
transparency so that evils such as fraud, theft, etc. are discarded.
Islam declares
irregular and orders to cancel any transaction where an obscure point remains,
for example: the nature of one of the goods to be exchanged, its quantity, the
amount of the price or the date of the settlement, the exact nature of a service,
its duration, conditions, etc. because any unclear point can lead to litigation
and the necessary consent is therefore not total.
The practice of
interest prohibited!
Islam also condemns interest.
Several verses of the Holy Quran speak of it. For example, in Surah Al-Imran
[Ali-Imran] Allah warns us: “O you who believe!
Don’t practice usury [Don’t eat Interest] by over-multiplying your capital. And
fear Allah so that you may succeed!” [Al-Imran 3: 131]
Here, the agreement,
although existing, cannot be considered as such: the borrower only resorts to
this solution out of necessity, because if he does so because of poverty, it is
difficult to imagine how the sum will be procured at the time of repayment of
the debt load.
Instead, one can have recourse
to the Mudarabah; the one who brings the capital would then share the
benefits but also the damages.
The Qur’an, responding
to those who equated interest with the profits of a sale, says: “(It is) Allah (Who) has declared (the profits of) the
sale lawful and declared interest unlawful.” [Al-Baqara 2: 276]
Islam, according to its
philosophy, also condemns other transactions which flow from the same
principle: demanding more than the given quantity while the product is the
same. Thus, a kilogram of rice should not be sold for two, just as a litre of
cow’s milk cannot be sold for two litres of the same liquid. On the other hand,
you can sell an apple for two, or two goats for three, individually. In other
words: a product sold by measure or by weighing (according to the Hanafi
school) cannot be exchanged for the same product except by measure or by equal
weight.
The sale by measure of
picked [collected] dates against the same fruits still on the tree did not make
it possible to check whether the two measures are equal, so it was prohibited
by the prophet (pbuh).
Gold will also be sold
for the same weight of gold, and the two goods will also be exchanged by both
parties in the transaction itself. It is be the same for metal silver.
Islam also prohibits
gambling. Allah says: “O you who believe! Wine,
games of chance, idols and divinatory arrows are nothing but dirt, the work of
Satan. So refrain from it, maybe you will succeed! Satan only wants by means of
wine and games of chance, to create in you enmity and hatred, and (by the four
things) to prevent you from remembering Allah and from the practice of Salat. Will
you not then abstain?” [Al-Maida 5: 91-92]
In these games too,
consent cannot be considered as such; each participant only invests a sum of
money in the hope of hitting the jackpot; while only some succeed, the others,
disappointed, can only chew their resentment. Thus sets in “enmity and hatred”.
The winners will
continue to participate and will lose a large part of their winnings. Those to
whom luck will never smile will not stop playing until they have squandered all
their property in it, or perhaps they will not hesitate to go into debt: the
passion for gambling makes one drunk.
The economic market is
thus deprived of precious capital, even of labour, part of which may be tempted
by an easy race for fortune, to the detriment of the effort essential to work.
Islam also prohibits
what follows from the same principle: assembling capital by the contribution of
many individuals and handing it over to one of them, such as certain bets, etc.
In addition to the
notion of essential consent, Islam formulates other principles.
Islam had put in place
provisions to avoid the monopoly of price controls by a few individuals. The markets
were then supplied by caravans. Some traders would intercept them before they
arrived in town, allowing them to acquire all the merchandise and then set
exorbitant prices. The interception of the caravans before their arrival in the
city was then prohibited by the prophet (pbuh).
Bedouins also came to
sell their merchandise in city markets. Usually, these desert dwellers are in a
hurry to sell their wares and return home. The prices then remain reasonable.
Certain Bedouins used to entrust the merchants of the towns with the task of
selling their merchandise; prices then increased. The prophet (pbuh) therefore
forbids the Bedouin to have their merchandises be sold by city merchants. In
the same spirit, he banned speculation in certain forms.
Islam also condemns any
income whose source is likely to endanger the moral health of society:
prostitution, pimping, bribes, manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages.
Now, let’s talk a
little bit about the duties associated with the possession of property.
The owner of property must first of all provide for his own needs and also for
those for which he assumes the responsibility: his wife, his minor sons, his
unmarried daughters. Even this elementary duty can be a source of rewards. A
Hadith tells us: “The expenditure which a man incurs for his family and from
which he hopes for the reward is counted as an act of charity.” [Bukhari,
Muslim]
Anyone who becomes
unable to provide for their subsistence will be taken care of by their
relatives who would inherit from them in the event of death; each participating
in it proportionately to the quota assigned to him by the laws of inheritance,
we find here a fundamental law; the load is proportional to the gain.
There are also acts of
worship that one performs by means of one’s possessions. Islam prescribes
Zakat, a tax on wealth to be paid annually, and declares that it purifies
wealth. It will have to be calculated from any “fruitful” good: gold, silver,
commercial goods, certain herds having reached a determined quantity.
There is also the ‘Khums’
(a fifth) on some mines and treasures. Some crops are subject to ‘Uchr’
(one tenth) if they only have or need rainwater or streams to grow, and one
twentieth if it has been necessary to irrigate them by hand. And on gold,
silver, and commercial goods, the Zakat is one fortieth. We will notice the
reduction in the contribution rate with the increase in the effort required to
make the good bear fruit.
Other
acts can also become obligatory or pre-obligatory for the possessor of
property: the Hajj, the sacrifice of animals, the Sadaqatul Fitr...
Islam has also
instituted without making them obligatory, the act of charity (Sadaqah),
Will [inheritance] (Wassiyah), bequest (Waqf), and many other
formulas, all intended for investment for the future life.
The use of material
goods for spiritual ends leads the human being to part with part of the wealth
that he cherishes so much, which can only have a happy influence on his bestial
person (nafs). It also reminds him of their transience as well as his
true mission on this earth: the worship of Allah.
Human beings cannot
follow all of their whims; it has a particular nature, which requires special
treatment after much trouble/ difficulty/ effort.
The solution for him
would be to comply with the prohibitions, or let us rather say with the limits
prescribed for him by his Creator. The same Creator Who knows him so well, him
and his nature.
These few words and
explanations obviously cannot deal with the subject in its entirety; they
cannot therefore be used as a reference save for individual problems (Masa’il).
May Allah protect us
all from the prohibitions and open our way to legal transactions to strengthen
a healthy and transparent society. Insha-Allah, Ameen.