Islam for Muslims

• THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
• 1 Meaning & Importance of Faith (Iman)
• 2 Some Signs of Ideal Faith
• 3 God As The Unique and Supreme being
• 4 God as the All-Powerful
• 5 God’s Power in Shaping Destiny
• 6 God as the Creator
• 7 God as the Merciful
• 8 God as the Protector
• 9 God as the all-knowing
• 10 God as the Guide
• 11 God as the Judge
• 12 The Prophets in the Quran
• 13 Mohammad (pbuh) as the Final Prophet
• 14 Divine Books, Angels & Jinns
• 15 Various Stages of Life after Death
• GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
• 16 Importance & Types of Good Deeds: Importance & Types of Good Deeds
• 17 Some Ideal Signs of Good Deeds
• 18 God at the Center of Religious Universe
• 19 Sources of Islamic Laws (Sharia)
• 20 Purification & Preparation for Prayer
• 21 The Essentials of Prayer (Salat)
• 22 The Essentials of Charity (Zakat, Fitr and Qurbani)
• 23 The Essentials of Fasting (Siam)
• 24 The Essentials of Pilgrimage (Hajj)
• 25 The Essentials of Knowledge (Ilm)
• 26 The Essentials of Inheritance (Faraiz)
• 27 The Essentials of Halal Income
• 28 The Essentials of Halal Food
• 29 The Essentials of Modest Dress & Behavior
• 30 The Essentials of Marriage & Divorce
• 31 The Essentials of Death & Funeral
• 32 Optional but Valuable Deeds
• 33 Avoiding Personal Sins: Why & How?
• 34 Fighting Satan (Devil) to Avoid Sins
• 35 Five Major Sin Packages
• GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
• 36 The Importance of Preaching & Good Advice
• 37 The Techniques of Preaching & Good Advice
• 38 The Roles of Family & Parents
• 39 The Roles of Schools & Students
• 40 The Roles of Mosques & Muslims
• 41 The Roles of Print and Social Media
• 42 The Importance of Resisting Social Sins
• 43 The Techniques of Resisting Social Sins
• 44 Observing Islam in a Non-Muslim Environment
• 45 Islamic Governance: Legality, Potentials & Problems
• 46 Criminal Justice System for the Muslims
• 47 The Ideal Qualities of a Muslim: Piety & Proficiency
• 48 The Unity among the Muslims: Why & How?
• 49 The key to progress and prosperity of muslims
• 50 Final Appeal to the Muslims

27: THE ESSENTIALS OF HALAL INCOME

Introduction: Living on halal (honest) income is a mandate for each and every Muslim. The reason why honest living carries so much weight in Islam is not hard to find. The alternative to this would mean illegal (haram) income which will be the mother of many other grave sins like bribing, cheating, theft, robbery, underweight selling and so on. In other words, honest earning has positive co-relation with morality and social justice. You are therefore required to “eat of (only) the lawful and good sustenance which God has provided for you” (16:114). You are also reminded that the income that is “left for you by God is best for you” even if you might think that as insufficient by your greedy comparison with the rich (11:86). The Prophet warned, “If you do not live off honest income, your prayer and supplication will not be accepted”. 

Importance:  Islam not only eyes honest earning as an obligation but also places it in the ranks of ‘fard’ deeds like prayer, ‘hajj’ etc. It also receives boost from the Quran that says “the (commercial) ships may sail (majestically) by His Command, so you may seek of His Bounty” (30:46). This means whatever time (usually an upward of 8 hours daily) you spend on the job or in business is comparable to sacred time devoted to the good deeds. There is, however, one line that goes between these two.  The formal good deeds like prayer are open to credits from both the quality (piety) and quantity. In case of honest earning, however, blessings count mainly for the quality (honesty in earning) and not much for the quantity (or high amount of money you make). In the latter case, “an abundance of bad (income) may dazzle you” (5:100) but that is a negative thing, indeed.

Caution: You cannot justify or purify your illegal income by spending some or all of it toward charity. Honest earning is an ever-burning necessity; you cannot deliberately plan to make illegal income now in order to pile up fortunes and try to come clean later, under cover of repentance, ‘hajj’ or charity etc. for sin remission. You cannot fool God that way as He has clear view of your heart and mind.  If you are ever forced to earn illegal income out of poverty, you should not do that without regret and quantitative limitations.

(A) Prohibition of Interest: Islam forbids commercial lending of money for earning interest of any descriptions: high (usury) or low, open or concealed. “Do not devour usury, doubled and multiplied. Give up what remains of your demand for usury. If you do not do it, take a notice of war from God and His Prophet. If you turn back, you can (only) have your capital sums back” (3:130; 2:278/279). You are better expected to show humanity by lending money as brotherly help, without greedy desire for anything in excess of loan, exploiting the borrower. During your lending, if you take any security deposit (collateral), you must return that during loan repayment. Anything you receive in excess of principal loan amount (e.g. repayment of $150.00 for $100.00 loan), either in cash, kind or as disguised benefits is known as interest (usury) by textbook definition. The Prophet blames not only the taker of interest, but also its giver as well as the writer and formal witness of usury documents etc.

(B) Priority of Business:  By contrast, Islam gives backing to business (both production and trading) as a way of living. God “permitted trade and forbade usury” (2:275). The Prophet picked up business as his early career, saying business income is the best if complies with morality. The dignity of business is not for its own sake, but mainly for 2 reasons: (i) it gives you freedom of work schedule adjusted with your religious obligations like prayer, hajj etc. and (ii) it gives you a chance to have your morality and piety tested through avoidance of haram, greedless pricing etc. In the test, you will score high if “neither traffic nor merchandise can divert you from God’s remembrance” and if you “trade by mutual goodwill” (24:37; 4:29).

Types of Business: Islam keeps options open for all types of business: sole proprietorship, partnership or corporate. Partnership business may take the form of joint sharing in capital or combining one’s capital with other’s labor. The partners, however, must share both profit and loss (PLS) at pre-fixed rate and none of them can unilaterally reap profits, to the exclusion of the other. That is how partnership betters over usury business in which the lender demands interest as additional to the principal loan amount without any regard to the borrower’s poverty or business loss.

Recording: The Quran affirms the need for keeping a written record along with witnesses for any business contract, small or big, involving future obligation, without relying only on unreliable memory. Such documentation promises to be “fairer in the sight of God, more suitable as evidence and more convenient for removing doubts among yourselves” which could otherwise lead to disputes (2:282).

Prohibited Items in Business: Islam imposes a ban on business dealing (selling or buying) in impure and illegal items like pig, wine, meat of dead animals, smuggled goods, things obtained through theft or robbery, gambling etc. Likewise, prohibition applies to jobs that are based on illegal operations like prostitution, nightclub, massage parlor, bar shop etc. It views business as a vehicle for driving forward the wellbeing of both the buyers and the sellers. It therefore disqualifies business transactions that have potentials of one-sided loss for any of the parties. Examples include doing business with the minor, the mad, the blind, buying and selling of unseen, unknown or indefinite things like fish in river, calf in the womb etc., trading on vague terms of contract and so on.

Banned Practices in Business: Islam rules out any types of fraudulent practices in business. You are expected to “weigh with right balance” (17:35) in order to avoid “giving less than due” through selling and taking “exact full measure” or more while buying (83:3/2). It will be sinful to sell adulterated goods or use counterfeit coins. Similarly you are not allowed to mislead customers by making false praise of your goods or selling goods that are inferior to what you displayed before sale. You are also not expected to sell at upward of fair price, taking advantage of buyer’s ignorance or weak bargaining strength.  During the stage of bargaining between the buyer and seller, a second buyer cannot jump into negotiation as offensive to the first buyer or offer a higher price only to boost the demand and price. Hording of merchandise is not permissible if done in bulk quantity, with a mind to profit later from selling at higher price at consumer’s cost. In sum, fair play for social benefit is central to business in Islam.

(C) Morality in Workplace: As with business, there is ample scope to practice morality in service life as well. In discharge of public service, you cannot collect from your customers any illegal benefits (in cash or kind) known as bribery. The Prophet placed the liability of bribing on both the takers and the givers. The general prohibition against bribery comes from specific Quranic ruling against bribing “as a bait for the Judges” for distortion of judgment (2:188).

    If you hold an official position, you are not supposed to abuse official powers, misuse office assets, break your trust, conspiring against your boss etc. You are expected to perform your duties in a way that truly satisfy your job contract. This may require not only a good attendance record but also sincere delivery of public services within office time. If there is a conflict between the timings of office and prayer, you need to negotiate with the employer for gaining time for compulsory prayer only, if necessary in exchange for make-up work or accept pay cut for lost time. You, however, should not misuse this prayer opportunity by needlessly taking time longer than needed to perform only compulsory salat, keeping in mind that honest income is also an obligation and probably no less important than optional prayer. If the very nature of your job (such as daylong duty coupled with employer’s refusal to allow your prayer time) keeps you from compulsory prayer indefinitely, then you must try your best to switch to a favorable job. 

Conclusion: In this way, Islam not only gives high status to honesty in income but also offers detailed guidelines about how to maintain such honesty.