Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Economic Injustice Taking Personal Responsibility Masjid Hamza Long Island NY February 2016
AI: Summary ©
The Hanima is the source of wealth and is the most pure and most assured way to obtain it. The distribution of money received by the prophet's army is direct injunction of the Prophet's proposal to the middle class. The culture is designed to encourage people to spend money in areas where they don't want to be trapped in a super business, such as restaurants and the news industry. The culture is designed to encourage people to spend money in areas where they don't want to be trapped in a super business, such as in restaurants and the news industry.
AI: Summary ©
Remind us whatever we forgot from the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in his book,
he says what? He says,
he says,
whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave in the
in
the terms of fey to the prophet
fey is a word that's very similar to
hanima. Hanima is the war treasures when there's
a war or a battle and the Muslims
then,
seize the property of their vanquished enemies.
After a battle that's known as Ghanima,
war war treasure.
Also referred to in the Quran as.
Fay is something similar to it, but Fay
is what is seized without a fight.
If if if the Muslim army shows up
somewhere
and, they,
they they negotiate
some sort of truce
or their enemies
flee the the field of battle and they,
take their property
without without having to fight,
this is called a fe.
The Hanima is
according to,
according to the, law of Islam to be
distributed
amongst
the combatants in that battle.
So 1 5th of it is
reserved for the state to do with it
what it what the state wishes.
Please don't turn it up. I'll
move the mic up, inshallah. Just don't turn
it up. It's gonna make this awful echoing
noise.
So the the the the is what? Is
the the part of the war treasure which
is distributed
for
the combatants. One 5th is taken off the
top for the purposes of state.
They can be given by the by the
state as a reward to people who
didn't necessarily participate in the battle, but were
somehow instrumental in its victory. Or they can
be given to,
they can just be reserved for the state
to do whatever it wants. Part of the
Haqq of the the the Hanima also is
that the Ahlul Bayt of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam who is not allowed to
receive the money of Zakat, they should be
given from Hanima.
One of the, you know, one of the
reasons that the Ahlul Baytah of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam isn't allowed to the money
of Zakat is because the Zakat is the
spiritually filthy part of the the the the
money that people earn.
So,
there's a hadith in Sahih Bukhari,
in which Sayidna Ali radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, some
young men from Banu Hashim come to him
and ask him to give them a job
as zakat collectors.
And say, Ali
says, come. He says, if you wanna get
a job, I'll find you a different job.
Don't seek this job because the prophet
said that this money is from the the
filthy part of the wealth of people.
And it's not it's not, proper that the,
Banu Hashim al Baytul, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam should take from this money.
On the flip side, the money of Hanima
is not not the filthy part of the
wealth of of anybody, rather the of Hanima
is the most pure and most halal and
most of
of of of of of money. It's the
most halal way that, a person could have
money. Why? Because it reverts from the
ownership of the enemies of Islam into the
ownership of the Muslims
by way of Allah granting
it to the Muslims. Because the um'as that
came from before,
the default ruling for zanima is that it's
Allah ta'ala's property, not the property of the
the victorious army.
So what happened is, the umas from before
when they had war treasures, they would gather
them all into a heap, and then they
would all pray.
If Allah accepted their jihad
from them, a fire would come from the
sky and consume that that wealth.
And if Allah didn't accept, the the the
war treasure would sit there and they would
consider it to be cursed.
And if anyone held something back, or tried
to take some part of it and hide
it and keep it for themselves, Allah wouldn't
accept from any of them. So
the the they would go from soldier to
soldier making sure that nobody was keeping any
part of that wealth back.
So it reverts to the ownership of Allah
Ta'ala, and then from it as a special
rahma on this ummah, Allah Ta'ala,
sent that money as a special rahma on
this ummah, Allah ta'ala sent that money,
as a gift to the people of this
ummah, because the ummah of the akhruh zaman,
you go ahead and take it. There's no
no need for you to wait for it
to get burned,
or for you to leave it if it's
cursed. You go ahead and take it and
use it as halal. That's why in the
books,
right, imagine if you have,
you know,
a scenario where
a Muslim
has his property stolen
by a non Muslim.
Okay?
And then that non Muslim fights in a
battle with with a second Muslim.
Right? And the second Muslim, and then they
Muslims win that that that battle. That second
Muslim takes that property.
Right? The first Muslim has no right to
go back to the Qadi and say, this
is my my my property.
He has no right. He can say this
was my property, so I have the right
to purchase it from from him. But he
cannot say, this is my property. Why? Because
once the battle is over, all of the
property that's
from the vanquished army reverts to thee. Ownership
of who? Allah Ta'ala, and then Allah Ta'ala
gives it freely as a gift to thee,
to the Muslimi. That's why they consider the
money of Hanima to be the purest of
of of of money. This is why Sayna
Sayna Nabi
because the hookah of the Quran,
the the Ahlulbayt of the prophet is
not to be given to what? It's not
sorry. The zakat is not to be given
to what? To the Ahlulbayt, but Ahlulbayt of
the prophet
the soldiers who participated in the battle. So
a foot soldier gets 1 share, and a,
a mounted soldier gets 3 shares.
Why is that? A foot soldier gets 1
share, and a mounted soldier gets 3 shares.
Right? The reason is what?
The horse, where did the horse come from?
Tell
Yeah. You.
No. It didn't come from the state. How
is the state gonna just run a zoo
or something like that?
How is where is the horse gonna because
each horse has to be trained. You can't
just go as a stranger onto a horse
and ride it. The horse knows you, you
know it. Sometimes the horse won't let other
people ride. Each horse is different. It's not
like a a car. Like, every Honda Civic
is more or less the same. Right? The
horse the horse has different disposition.
Different horses can go different distances, do different
interesting things. Right?
So what happens, everyone has to raise their
own horse. Right? The reason the mounted soldier
gets 3 shares is 2 shares is for
the expense that they bore for buying the
horse, raising the horse, training the horse, etcetera
etcetera. Right? So that's that's why it's actually
considered to be, in the old days for
the the the Muslim to keep a horse
inside of his house.
That money that he spent on it wasn't
considered to be like a luxury or extravagance.
It was considered a It
was something that was a the money you
spend on it, all of it counts as
something that you get reward for the sake
of Allah ta'ala. Anyway, coming back to what
we were talking about. Right? There's fey. Allah
gave
fey fey to the the,
unlike which
is equitably distributed.
Right? Equitably distributed amongst the soldiers at the
rate of every soldier receiving 1 share,
for a a foot soldier and 3 shares
for a a mounted soldier. And the prophet
received a share as well,
from battle. Right?
That that that's the way Hanima was distributed.
Fay, on the other hand, because there was
no fighting involved,
because of that Fei reverts completely like the
khunts, like the the 5th off the top,
all of it reverts to the
the the,
ownership of the state.
And the state then does with it whatever
it wants. It can send it to the
general fund. It can use it to,
you know, reimburse the army that went out,
you know, in the path of Allah. It
can use it for whatever,
for whatever reasons it deems fit. Okay? So
Allah in Suraj al Hashir, he talks about
part of what he talks about is what?
The the money of that the Muslims received,
from Khaybar.
Right? Khaybar was a set of fortifications to
the north of Medina.
It was inhabited mostly by Jews,
and,
Jews who were antagonistic
to the to the Muslims. Jews who had,
taken political alliances
against the Muslims and Jews that had,
taken military moves that were antagonistic to the
Muslims, and Jews who had taken alliances with
people who were at at war with the
Muslims. So you think about the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, very very intelligent
and very, beautiful example that he gives for
all of us. He didn't say, hey, I'm
Nur Rasool Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, you know, fire
should rain out of the sky on my
enemies automatically just because I said, La ilaha
illallah. Allah gave him a task of like
dealing with his, with his circumstances and his
enemies. So he had 2 enemies in Madinah
Munawala. There's a time for for which Madinah
Munawala was very exposed and very vulnerable. So
the 2 major enemies were who? The yahood
of Khaybar in the north?
Right? And it's not because Muslims hate Jews.
No. It's because those people who happen to
be Jews were also at war with the
prophet
Right? And then there were the,
the the Quraysh in the south, in Makkamukarama.
Right? So what did he do? He took
the Sahaba
for Umrah,
right, in in pilgrim garb, unarmed. And he
knew that the Quraysh were would even if
they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to
slaughter them in the in the desert.
Because if they did, all the Arabs would
have turned on them because this was considered
this would have been considered a sacrilege against
the house of Allah Ta'ala. Their entire prosperity
was based on them, allowing people to make
pilgrimage to Makkamukaramah
without unhindered and without any,
without any, danger or without any threat of
violence.
So what happened? They made a treaty with
each other 10 years. We're not gonna fight
a war with one another. Okay?
So now,
if you have 2 enemies, 1 to the
north and 1 to the south, if you
go to with one of them, what's hap
what happens to your base. Right? You're exposed
from the other side. Now he has one
side,
he's clear. Right? So then what did he
do? And this is how you should solve
your problems in life. Obviously, most of us
are not gonna ever declare war on people,
go out and fight or whatever. But it's
a methodology how to deal with your problems.
Right? Don't try to take on the entire
world at one time. It's gonna squash you.
Right? So he he took care of one
side first, and then he
sent the army, and he himself participated in
that jihad to
go and maulify his enemies to the north.
So they show up, and Khayr is a
very wealthy a very wealthy oasis.
It's a very wealthy settlement, extremely wealthy. There
are individual fortifications
that are surrounded by
that are surrounded by, date palm orchards. I
mean, to this day,
if you go and, like, Google pictures of
Khayr, it's absolutely beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful. It's like in the middle of
the desert, it's super lush and green land,
and, just a really
valuable,
property.
And it's producing it's producing dates, which means
that it was a source of great wealth
as well.
They sieged the individual fortresses.
Some of them put up a fight, but
most of them didn't. At the end, after
a little bit of skirmish, there's, you know,
which was a siege. It wasn't a battle.
They give up, and they make
a,
an agreement with the Muslims that
that we will not fight against you, we
will not this, we will not that, and
we will also,
you know,
give you a certain percentage as a tribute
from our,
from our harvest, from the from the harvest
of our crops. And they were in a
very weak position actually when they when they
gave up and when they signed the treaty
with the Muslims. And they also put a
clause in that treaty, which was what? That
if at any time the Muslims wish to
revoke this arrangement in the future, this is
their right as well. And say, 'ammar during
his reign, he'll revoke it as well because
of his need for security,
in the heartland of Islam. Because Madinah Munawwar
was also the political capital of the Muslims
at that time. So at any rate, the
money that they got was the money of
Fay. Right? So Allah
Right? Whatever Allah Ta'ala
gave to his messenger
in terms of Fay. Right? The money of
Fay. All the wealth that they that they
got in tribute and in in treasure from,
their vanquished enemies. Right?
From the from the people of these the
the settlement or these settlements of Khaybar. Right?
Right? That that that money is for who?
It's for Allah and it's for Rasul
and the people who are his his immediate
relatives. Why? Because they're banned from receiving the
money of zakat.
Okay? And we'll return to that in a
second as well.
And for for the orphans,
and for those people who are in dire
poverty. Right?
The general word in Arabic for a poor
person is
Okay? It's somebody who needs something, who has
a, someone who has a need for something.
Okay? Miskeen is a special word for a
special type of poor person.
Faqid is someone who cannot like make ends
meet.
Right? You you don't know where you're gonna
pay the next month's rent from. Okay? Miskeen
is somebody who doesn't have enough. In the
morning he wakes up, he doesn't know how
he's gonna eat in the day. So it's
a type of dire poverty.
Right? It's a person who wakes up in
the morning, doesn't know where he's gonna eat
from in the day, where is he gonna
sleep in the in the night. You know,
the the needs for his day where he's
going to, get get those needs met from.
And that person who's a traveler who's cut
off from his wealth.
So that you don't have a doula between
your rich people. K? What does doula mean?
Right? Doula means that the wealth circulates only
amongst a certain section of rich people.
This is a direct injunction of the Quran,
that what? That the wealth should not
circulate directly amongst the rich people, amongst you.
So what happens is that the Prophet
makes Hijrah to Madinah Munawwala,
and the,
Muhajirin come with him. Okay? Although there's some
exceptions, like I said, Abdul Rahman bin Aufsina
Uthman
people who are able to go into the
marketplace and make it, you know, make money
relatively in a short short amount of
time. There are majority of the Sahaba radiAllahu
anhu who are neither businessmen nor do they
make a whole lot of money. They live
in dire poverty.
Right? They live in dire poverty. Those of
you who are familiar with the tafsir of
Surat An Nur. Right? You know that that
mus the Muslims were the the Muhajarin were
in such poverty,
that it came to the point where even
the prostitutes of Madinah,
Right? Imagine that. Because the whole system of
sharia was not imposed overnight in in in
in in Madina Munawwala. So there were prostitutes
in in in in Madina who were ostensibly
probably not not not Muslims, but, you know,
Allah Allah knows best. I I mean, I
can't say with surety, but it, you know,
it seems far fetched that they would be
Muslims.
But the prostitutes in Madinah Munawwara had money.
And so now these people come as Muhajuddin
to Madina, and they're totally broke. They're a
100% completely broke. Okay?
So they think, oh, this is our chance
to be respectable because these people are noblemen
from the Quraysh. And Quraysh is a very
noble and honored tribe amongst the Maqans. So
if you see, you know, you score a
Quraysh nobleman as a husband, you know, maybe
you'll be respectable again.
And then the the,
you know, poor,
Mujahideen, they're like, yo, we're broke. We don't
literally don't have anything to eat. If you
read even rialu salihin, you don't have to
do, like, super tahleek and hadith to see
this. You see that that people, like, you
know, they eat like one date in a
day, months go by without food being cooked
in houses.
Why? Because of poverty, people are just eating
dates and water. Even the dates sometimes eat
one date in a day. There's a hadith
of saying that Aisha
giving one date in sadaqa because she didn't
have so much to give. A woman came
with her 2 children. And so so that
that woman he gave she gave her one
date in sadaqa, because that's all she could
give. And so that woman cut
split the date in half, and gave half
the date to each of her children, and
she herself stayed hungry.
And she informed the prophet
about that mother's sacrifice, and and the Prophet
made du'a for her because she had already
left. She made du'a for her that, may
Allah ta'ala, you know,
reward her for her, sacrifice that she gave
for her family. So this is how poor
they were.
Right? You imagine if one of us came
I can come to Amin Abu'a, I wanna
marry a prostitute because she has a lot
of money. What would happen? Right? And the
the they're not like you and me. Right?
So it must have been really, really bad.
It must have been really bad. And so
then the come come down that. Right? That
that,
you know, the the,
the the the people of are for the
people of, the people of, the chastity for
the people of chastity, etcetera. The the the
that, even a slave girl of the
the, of of the believers,
it has a higher rank than than than
any any, woman who commits shirk, even if
her beauty astonishes you, or even if something
else about her astonishes you. Right? Still in
the eyes of Allah, ta'ala, it's like that.
So these people are the summary is what?
They're very poor. They're extremely poor.
So what the
prophet does is with the money of
the the fee, he gives because it's not
a hap like, like Hanima.
He gives from the wealth that they take
from Khaybar,
and distributes it to the Muhajirun.
And this happens once in the Khayr, and
once also in the the the
the expulsion
and
the destruction of Banu Quraydah,
which is also another tribe,
of Jews in Madinah Munawwara who also,
in the middle of in the middle of
war, in the middle of battle actually, they
betray the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the
treaty that they had signed with the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So their lands also that they're they're basically
dispossessed of,
these 2 in these two incidences, what happens,
the Messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
will give their wealth and give their lands
to
the most poor of the Muhajirim.
And Allah ta'ala then in this ayah of
Surat Al Hashr, he says what?
So that there is not a a doula,
just the the wealth rotating through
the richest from amongst you. So you see
there are a number of mechanisms in Islam
that are there actually to break up conglomerations
of wealth. Okay? The the the most robust
the most robust mechanism Islam has to break
up conglomerations of wealth is what?
Is is the law of inheritance.
Right? Because the the
largest source of wealth in the world,
the largest means by which people acquire wealth,
by by by far and away, it's not
hard work,
It's not business. It's not it's not any
of that stuff. It's what? It's inheritance.
Rich people giving money to their children. Rich
people.
The European system, right, the European system,
which we run essentially a,
kind of
a transformed
version of it. It's an evolved version of
it. Okay?
The European system is a system that essentially
has at its core
a desire to protect conglomerations of wealth.
Part of that is the reason why America
was so thoroughly settled, why so many people
from Europe came to America to settle America.
They had a system,
known as primogeniture,
which is a word that many of you
should remember from American
history in high school, which is what? It's
the system by which the eldest son receives
the entire inheritance.
Okay?
The, rest of the sons receive nothing,
and the daughters definitely received nothing at all.
Even during the lifetime of the father, he
won't give anything to the daughters usually.
Right? Primogeniture
means what? The first born son is, sits
at home. He's a king. He all he
knows he's gonna get the house for free.
He doesn't have to do any work. He's
just kind of a a brat.
Right. The second son, you know, the third
son, maybe they'll purchase a commission for them
in the army, or they because officer commissions
used to be, viable.
Right, like they kind of are nowadays in
some Muslim countries, unfortunately. We learn these things
from the British.
They're they're the the 3rd, 4th son, they'll
send them to get an education. Maybe the
10th son, they'll they'll they'll be, like, there's
no more resources to spend on him, so
they'll send him to become a priest.
Right? Which is what also now what we
do,
Right? Which is not an old practice of
ours.
But, people, when when they ask, they ask,
how many brothers do you have? I say,
I have no brothers. I'm the only son.
And then they go to my father and
they meet him, they give him condolences.
They say,
your son is so good. He you're gonna
go straight to Jannah. I say, you know,
Abu, that guy who said that to you,
that your son is so good, you're gonna
go straight to Jannah? If his if any
of his sons wanted to study the dean,
he'd take a baseball bat and break their
legs.
He's only saying it to you because he
felt sorry for you.
So so right? This is the system of
primogeniture. What happens, it ensures that
that, large tracts of land
and large inheritances don't get broken up. So
that monopolies that are established
through a lot of lying and cheating and
stealing and, like, deceit. Right? That they they
maintain they they they maintained and they're protected.
They're maintained and they're protected. On the flip
side, right, so this is a issue that
we have as Muslims also. Right? Masha'Allah. There's
I see probably a number of people from
Pakistan. I suspect in India and Bangladesh, they
may have some sort of similar issues as
well. This is a big deal. Like, what
happens is when a father dies,
the son that's stronger than the other sons
will dispossess them of their inheritance. This happens.
There are many there are many especially where
I'm from, where my family is from in
Punjab, you'll see there are many families that
have these brothers who literally kill each other
or, you know, physically harm one another or
threaten physical harm to one another to dispossess
one another of their lands. There's an area
in,
in Punjab, Jang.
Okay? Jang literally the landed the landed land
the the landed nobility, the land owning class
of Jang, on mass sometime in the last
century or century and a half, they all
converted to Shi'ism.
Why? Not because they have a problem with
Sunni theology, or they even know what Sunni
theology, or Shi'a theology is for that matter.
Why did they all convert to Shias? Because
the the,
whatever the Mujtihad's of the the Itna al
Sharia tradition,
they said you don't have to give inheritance,
land inheritance to your daughters.
Right? They literally they really literally sold out
their the of the Sahaba radiAllahu ta'ala and
whom what? Just because they wanted to protect
these conglomerations of of land ownership. Because
our actual Sharia,
right, prohibits prohibits,
these conglomerations
to be protected over time. Right? It it
requires that they be from generation to generation
be broken up. So if you have 10
sons, each of the 10 sons receives an
equal share.
Okay? Each of the 10 sons, he receives
an equal share, which would have been completely
like something in Europe. It would have been
a revolution. Right? Guess what? The daughters even
receive a share.
In Europe, they would have been like, The
10 sons receiving an equal share was offensive.
This part is just confusing. I don't get
it. Like, why would you do that?
And this is one of the things that
people make a level an allegation, oh, Islam
is misogynistic. It hates women. Why? Because the
females get half the share that the males
get. And so first of all, if Islam
was misogynistic, which hates women, then why would
we get the female share? We take money
from them instead of giving them money. That
doesn't make any sense. Right? And the second
thing is what? The the the reason the
females get half the share is because financially,
there's always someone obligated to spend spend on
them.
Right? If your mother if your if your
mother is you know, nowadays this happens, people
abandon their parents.
Right? In the in the in in Islamic
law, if you abandon your mother and your
father, the judge will repossess your wealth and
give it to them. That's it. You're done.
Right? So you cannot,
you cannot you cannot abandon them in that
sense. So, I mean, it's the same reason.
Right? For example, in America,
if a a mother is taking care of
children,
you're not going to expect her that the
child support payment's gonna be half,
and the father pays half of it, and
the mother's expected to take care of half.
That's what an equal share would mean. Right?
The father has to give all of it.
Right? So the the women get what? Half
the share of men because of their,
they have another,
financial safety net that's there, which is enforceable
by the law, by the way.
So what happens is that they have this
system. So if you have, like, for example,
like, for 10 brothers and sisters or whatever,
used to have big families in those. These
are even 4 or 5. If you take
any company and break it into 5 parts,
or you take any, like, building downtown and
you break its ownership into 5 parts, all
of a sudden, what happens?
Right? There's more competition
when someone owns the entire, you know, like,
a third of downtown,
then they fix the rate that rents are
gonna be at. They fix the terms at
which rent is going to be given. They
fix the amounts of deposits. Now when you
have 4 or 5 competitors for, a certain
industry,
competition, someone will give you a lower price
than the other one will.
Right? It's actually more in line with capitalism
than what they call capitalism nowadays. Right? They
say, America, the system is free market capitalism.
The system isn't really free market capitalism.
If you're, applying for citizenship, they'll ask you
this question, what is the economic system system
of America?
Please answer free market capitalism. Don't say I
heard something else in the Bayan. Otherwise, they
won't give you your passport.
But, but, like, you know, now that we're
citizens and we have the right to have
opinions about these things, which is a beautiful
tradition that we have in this country, it's
not really free market capitalism. Why? Because the
government subsidizes all sorts of companies, and the
government allows all sorts of monopolies and protectionism
to occur in many different industries. Right? So
look,
the money of fei is what? Redistributed.
Why? Specifically, so that you don't have a
plutocracy
ruled by the rich, a certain
class of people that have so much money
that they can thwart and * the rising
of any sort of competition.
Okay? The system of inheritance,
right, is such that what? It's there to
break up large conglomerations of wealth. Now there
is a a discussion in America. Right? If
you had someone, like, whatever, Glenn Beck or
someone who is sitting here and listening to
this talk, the one of the first things
you'll say is, like, what? You're trying to
redistribute the wealth. The reason that capitalism works
in America is because we reward hard work,
and we reward,
ingenuity, and we reward people who get in
the marketplace and, you know, do things. Whereas,
if you have a system that redistributes the
wealth like communism,
what is communism? The government will overnight
take, you know, they'll say, yes. We agree
that there shouldn't be a plutocracy of rich
people who completely, like, oppress everybody else. So
overnight, all of the private corporations, overnight all
of the private land, overnight all of the
oqaf, the endowments that churches and masajid and
synagogues own overnight. All these lot large, you
know, conglomerations of wealth, they overnight seize them
and then they will become government property.
Why doesn't why they they'll say the reason
that doesn't work and the reason communism is
never a viable,
economic system. Right? What are the communist countries
that have a strong economy? It's just China.
And that's because China is communist by name,
but it's like ultra capitalist. It's a government
management managed capitalism.
It's not really communism on the the the
the plan that, you know, like Yugoslavia and
and that, you know, the Soviet Union and
other communist states ran
on. The reason that communist states all failed
is what? If there's no connection between the
amount of work you do and the type
of business you run and the,
way that you do business and ingenuity,
research, development, any, All of those things, if
there's no,
tie between
your effort that you put in that and
the amount of money you get. So if
you work hard, you'll get same amount of
money. If you don't do almost nothing, you
slack off, you'll get the same amount of
money. There's no, benefit for anybody to do
anything. So what happens is the economy of
nations collapse
collapses under that malaise. Right? Whereas in capitalism,
if you do something, you get the money
for it, you get to own your property
from it,
it motivates people to go out and make
more money. Correct?
So
they'll say that, okay, you're gonna redistribute the
wealth. That's something that communists have tried, but
it failed because there's no, impetus or no
incentive to actually go out and make money.
Right? But what do we say? We never
dispossess a person of of of wealth that
they earn themselves.
Right? Even the even the the the the
sharia has injunctions against monopoly.
Right? For example, if somebody
purchases grain
and hoards it. Right? Buys all the grain
in the market and hoards it in one
place,
the government has the right to,
to take that person and force them to
sell the grain at a a regular market
rate.
What's the exception? The the producer.
The grower, they cannot force them to to
sell the the grain. He can keep it
if he wants to, or he can sell
it if he wants to at whatever price
he likes.
If he takes it into the into the
public market, the the public market, the prices
are fixed. If he keeps it and people
come to him and buy it, the government
has no no, in in our Sharia, the
government has no right to. Right? The masala
is in Hidayah. You can look it up,
inshallah.
Right? The government has no right to force
him to sell his his grain. But what
about a hoarder?
What about a speculator? A person who just
has a bunch of money, and so he
buys or corners a market. Right? They call
cornering the market. You buy, like, all or
a large portion of a certain commodity.
You neither grew it yourself, produced it yourself,
made it yourself. You just based on the
fact that you're rich from before you buy
all of it, and then you hoard it
and manipulate the market in such a way
that you wanna flood it back in the
market at a time that that the price
is higher. This is something that the government
has the right to intervene in. Why? Because
that guy did nothing to to benefit the
economy at all. He didn't produce what's in
need.
Right? The the grower actually produced something that
the people need right now. He should be
rewarded.
Whereas the speculator,
he did nothing. He added no value to
this is this is by the way, these
are the reasons why the marketplaces in the
Muslim world are completely destroyed. Right? If you
go to Pakistan, for example, if you wanna
buy vegetables, one day the
commodity price of sugar or whatever. Because there's
a certain set of people who have monopolies
on the the wholesale markets of these things
or on the production of these things. And
they will artificially
if someone owns 10 sugar mills in a
district, they'll shut down 8 of them and
only produce out of 1 of them, and
the government will ban the import of sugar
from another country, and that guy can charge
whatever he wishes to,
for sugar. This is something that happens on
a yearly basis. Right? Before Ramadan, everything in
the food market doubles in price.
In Islam, there's a law. Right? This is
not haram to buy and sell things. Right?
There's a law regarding the the the buying
and selling of food. Okay? If you are
a wholesaler or a middle man, that's permissible
as well. Why? There's a need for wholesalers.
You cannot have a farmer go to, like,
every single market, like, place, you know, whatever.
A 1,000 marketplaces in Karachi, one farmer cannot
go to all of them and sell. You
know, what will happen is 4 farmers will
show up in 1, and they'll have an
abundance of something. And then, like, one market
place, maybe maybe no one shows up, and
they won't have, like, whatever
potatoes that week or you can't do that.
So you have to have a distributor or
middle man. One of the laws in Islam
is that if you wanna be a distributor
or middle man for food stuffs,
you can only sell the food after having
taken possession of it.
You can only sell food after having taken
possession of it. So for example, if you
if you want to be a middle man
for wheat, you actually have to receive the
shipments of wheat in your store houses, then
you can sell it.
What happens nowadays? Right? Goldman Sachs
and these kind of companies,
right,
they trade in commodities,
and the the the commodities that they trade
in will be bought and sold, like, 40
times in a second sometimes,
maybe even more than that. The the the
commodity transactions happen so quickly
that,
the the the different,
traders
and these different, you know, companies that that
make their money from trading these things,
they they invest in fiber optic cables
that will take their trade faster than anyone
else because even a fraction of a second
lag in the trade will cost them sometimes
1,000,000 of dollars. So they will they they
refined the fiber optic technology to transmit these
trades
so much that it's reached, like, a kind
of a maximum upper limit because things can't
go faster than the speed of light, and
we only have a set of given set
of materials that, like, can conduct those the
the the signals for those trades. So now
what happens? They want they try to buy,
property that's closer to where the central market
is that the the trading goes through, just
so their trade can beat up the trade
of other people. So tell me something, if
you're buying and selling food, right, for people
like us, right, and I don't know, maybe
there's some ballers over here,
But for people like us, right, people who,
like, you know, dream of getting a 2016,
Honda Accord. Right? For people like us,
food is not something you buy and sell
40 times a second. Food is something you
need to eat, otherwise you're hungry.
Right? Alhamdulillah, Allah gave us there's another group
of people who, you know, they they they
they live that reality rather than just fearing
it. Allah may give help to all of
us.
For people like us, food is something that
you you you have to eat. So if
the price of the food goes up, like,
astronomically,
right, it's a problem for us. For those
people, they neither
grew the food,
nor did they distribute it, take it from
a place it needs to be, or from
a place that it is to a place
that it needs to be, or from people
that have it to people that don't have
it. They didn't provide any sort of useful
service whatsoever.
In fact, they didn't they didn't even receive
it. If you have to receive,
ownership of your or sorry, possession of your
food before you're allowed to sell
it, that means, can you sell it 40
times in a second?
No. It may be transacted 3 or 4
times maximum from the producer to the, from
the grower to the consumer. But what happens
when you have the system? The grower is
getting nothing.
Right? Which force forces forces small small business
people out of the marketplace.
And,
the
the person who's selling the the the the
product, the food stuff, gets cursed by this
by the buyer that you guys are trying
to rip us off. Where really, he's not
really making all that much money himself either.
And the person who's buying
is not going to be able to feed
his family, or is going to have to,
you know, people have these weird kind of
things. They have to, like, eat rice, plain
rice for like, several days in the week.
I mean, there's still people in this world
that cannot afford to eat what meat.
Right? This is a problem. This is an
issue. The the laws of the Sharia are
there to
limit and curtail the
ability of large conglomerations
of wealth,
to manipulate the marketplace in order to,
in order to protect their, their their their
position at the top. Right? They're not people
who worked hard to earn it. They're not
people who are producing anything or contributing anything
that's useful to the marketplace in general.
Right? They're not people who are, giving any
sort of value to people's lives. They're just
using the fact that they have a lot
of money to make a lot more money
and who ends up paying for that? It's
us. And that system is here in America
also, so just a little bit more refined.
That system we talked about, that's in Muslim
countries, unfortunately, because they don't, you know, to
them, Sharia law means just, you know, killing
blasphemers and like, you know, shouting slogans against,
like, whatever nearest non Muslim country that you
have a problem with. That's that's not I
mean, the Sharia is much more than that.
In fact, it that's not part of the
Sharia, some of it, in the first place.
Right? So
what is it over here? What's the system
over here?
Have you ever heard of corporation named Cargill?
Raise your hand.
Okay. A couple of guys. You ever heard
of a corporation, Archers Daniels, Archer Daniels Midland?
Yeah. There's just a couple of, there's a
couple of corporations,
regular people never have heard of them before.
They manipulate and own, like,
80% of the food,
food industries in America.
So for example, right, this has a lot
to do with the Halal industry, because I
do work with the Halal industry as well.
So 80% of the chicken that you buy
out there is labeled Halal, and I'll tell
you right now it's not halal.
Maybe maybe I won't be invited back to
Masjid al Hamza because I said this, but
whatever, you know. It's what? It's machine slaughtered.
So, well, Sheikh, so and so said that
machine slaughtered chicken is okay. Let's step back
from the theological discussion for a second, because
I'm not gonna I'm I'm I'll argue with
the Allah. I'm not gonna argue with people
who haven't studied the the issue. It's just
a way of wasting your time and mine.
Right? What happens what happens when you when
when you machine slaughter a chicken? Right?
Look at the look at the economic argument.
Okay? A machine slaughtered chicken, Halal machine slaughtered
chicken factory, and a a regular machine slaughtered
chicken factory.
Right? Commodity grade chicken, you can buy it
at the regular grocery store. Maybe New York,
it's a little more expensive, but in the
heartland of America, you can buy chicken for,
like, 79, 89¢ a pound per whole chicken,
which you're not gonna find that at a
halal grocery store. Okay?
Procedurally, what's different between a quote, unquote, Halal
machine slaughtered plant and a non Halal machine
machine slaughtered plant?
Procedurally, there's no difference at all whatsoever. K?
So So question comes, why am I paying
$2 a pound for this?
Right? Maximum is what? Someone said Bismillah before
pushing the button in the morning, which costs
how much money?
Well, if a person gets paid at the
the the slaughter plants minimum wage or $10
an hour plus benefits, okay, fine. Factor in
benefits and be very generous. It comes to
$15 an hour, and it takes them, you
know, an hour worth of pay, you know,
for them to get to the plant, and
turn on the machine, and turn it off.
It costs $15. You know how many chickens
are slaughtered in an industrial
grade, slaughter plant
on a shift? Like, upwards to 200,000
chickens. Okay. Each chicken is a pound and
a half. Right? So that's 33 £100,000
of chicken. Divide $15. Go ahead, someone, just
for fun. It'll be a very clean number.
Go ahead. Get get your calculator. 300,000 divide
divided by 15 comes out to
what?
What?
Oh, sorry. $15 divided by 300,000, the inverse
of it. Right? It's like it's like it's
a fraction. Right? It's a one over 15,000th
of a dollar.
It's less than a cent.
That's how much it costs. Okay? So now,
we have, a kind of a different story
we need to deal with now. Is that
why is this happening?
Why is this happening?
The production of meat, as as is the
production of really any other,
staple food stuff in America, it's completely markets
are completely cornered by these super huge,
companies, corporations.
So that, whatever, machine slaughtered plant, quote unquote,
halal plant,
is owned it's it's a plant, chicken plant
to put up cost around 20, $30,000,000
in industrial grade chicken plant. K? It's a
lot of money. Okay? 20, $30,000,000.
The corporation that owns it probably owns, like,
10, 15 of them.
Okay. So that's, it's like, you know, you're
going into the 100 100 of 1,000,000 of
dollars for the corporation that owns it. Those
corporations are owned by middle corporations that are
like a $1,000,000,000 corporation.
Cargill is like a multi archer Daniel, and
all these big conglomerates at the top, that
own all of these places, or like 85%,
90% of these places, those are multi $1,000,000,000
corporations.
Okay? So when you want to say, okay,
you can't produce chicken like this in America
anymore,
there's no it's very difficult. It's a very
uphill battle. K. This is one of the
reasons that halal is because it's so cutthroat,
you know. The margins on that 79 dot
89¢ a pound chicken, the margin on a
dollar 50 pound chicken is raised a little
bit better. They're razor thin. In the marketplace,
if you go to, like, a grocery store
and buy chicken,
1 cent, a pound margin, maybe 2¢ a
pound margin if it's, like, a super,
premium product or whatever, it's really not that
much. But here on the other side, you
can sell
79¢ a pound chicken for $2.
You while you're laughing at your mufti, they're
laughing at you.
So,
you know, coming back coming back to the
issues, this stuff is completely haram. It's impossible
for it to happen in,
in a system that that ad adheres to
Islamic law. And what's the benefit in it
for you? The benefit in it for you
is if you can only buy chicken from
like 4 or 5
or 3 or
4 super, like, 1,000,000,000 multibillion dollar conglomerate companies,
what does that mean that the price is?
Is the price gonna be at some sort
of fair market competition? No. Is the method
of procedure going to be, something that's open
for people to,
change or or or or or adapt to
their values? No. Because not everything is money.
Right? So if you look at how the
chickens are raised, if you look at how
the the animals are raised and how they're
treated, they're treated in a completely haram way.
Like, the chickens, they have them in coops
that they don't let sunlight into.
Why? Because the sunlight will cause them to
become active, and so they'll burn more calories.
You have to spend more feet on them.
Right? So weird, like, you have to give
all of them antibiotics, because they're so cramped
in that they literally live in their own
feces, and their own,
waste, and, you know, things like that. And
they clip their beaks. This is all stuff.
It's all stuff is haram. So you say,
okay, well,
let's,
change that. Okay?
Muslims should be at the forefront of these
things. Why? Because we're the ones who know
that we're not going to get away with
any of it. Right? But Nasal al Afiyyah,
okay, people are new to this country. People
have their own issues they're dealing with. Say,
listen, I don't got time to worry about
the beak of chicken getting cut off. I
feel bad about it, but I have to
pay my rent.
But the the okay. There are people in
this country that are, like, that are upset
about this stuff. They They may not even
be Muslims. They may not even believe in
the day of judgement.
But they're upset. It's wrong. It's wrong. You
know? Which is there's a certain degree of
merit to that argument. And I ask Allah
ta'ala to give Hidayat to all those people,
so that their good deeds not be wasted,
alright, and in the hereafter.
But it's wrong, it's wrong.
And and really if you're concern concerned as
a society about your wealth, know that sin
is a a a reason Allah Ta'ah impoverishes
people. It's a reason that your risk is
curtailed in this world.
So what happens is that,
they're they're going up against these multibillion dollar
companies to say, okay, like, don't sear the
beaks off of chickens, or don't raise them
in these horrible ways. The company is gonna
be, like, look, man. If we raise the
chicken properly or any semblance of properly. Right
now, it's like a nightmare the way that
the animals I use chicken as an example.
All of the livestock is like that.
And there's they call the food Frankenfood. Right?
Even the way the genetically modified GMO, the
plants, and things like that, all of it
is, like, really mega screwed up. Europeans completely
refused to allow GMO Foods in their in
their marketplaces.
When American conglomerates tried to bring them to
Europe, right, they rioted so hard, you know,
like, throwing, like, chairs through the windows at
Starbucks type of rioting. Because they're, like, *
no. You're not gonna do this. This is
an assault on our families. We're not gonna
let you do this. Which if Americans were
a little bit more, like, you know,
read the news more and read the entertainment
page less or sports page less, they would
know that this is what we're we're they're
feeding us. Nobody else in the world will
even even,
bring themselves down, humiliate themselves to the the
denigrate themselves to the point where they're gonna
accept this type of stuff. So what happens
is is that is that if you wanna
go up against them in government and implement
your values, what what what will happen?
They're gonna shoot you down because they it's
a multibillion dollar company. They can get a
senator in their pocket for $30,000,
which is nothing.
Right? Remember, we were talking about, like, okay,
fine. 200,000,
£300,000
of chicken in a day. Right? So 30,000
over 300,000
means what? It cost them 10¢ of chicken
to get a senator in their back pocket.
You know, probably, like, 5¢, 2, 3¢ a
chicken depending on where the where the,
constituency is to get a house of representatives
in their in their back pocket to get
a governor. It's all really cheap. It's really
cheap. Right? This is why the conglomeration of
wealth, the.
This is why Allah
made it a directive in his book that
this should never happen.
And if a person and so how do
you balance the the the need for rewarding
people's hard work
with the need for not having conglomerations of
wealth? Is that a person who produces what
what he produces, that person should be allowed
to have their money. And that person during
his lifetime should be allowed to have their
money. Once he dies, the the the the
people who, inherit that money from him,
they shouldn't they they they don't get the
right to perpetuate a monopoly based on something
that they're not giving,
to to to the people. Right? So for
example, an
somewhat of a questionable example, but an example
of money that's made from doing something original.
It's like, for example, Apple.
Right? They made the iPhone, they made the
iPad,
and someone could argue because they have, like,
the amount of money to do superior marketing,
you know, that's that was definitely a factor
in it becoming a big success. But the
fact of the matter is they made something
new that wasn't there, that people need, that
people want, that makes their life,
a change and modifies. I wouldn't say it
makes it better, but it makes doing certain
things in life easier which in itself is
a curse. But, you know, people people need
it now now that it's there, you know,
you cannot go without it,
in certain businesses or in certain, right, a
smartphone, then Android gets on afterward. Right? They
brought something to the marketplace that was
not there from before, and they made their
money, which is, like, great. Wonderful.
But this whole thing about, you know, buying
some food stuffs, marking it up. Right? This
whole thing about
about, you know, manipulating certain markets,
and hoarding hoarding things,
this whole thing about, like, you know,
just playing the stock market, like certain people
who play play the stock market there, or
play the real estate market. They're such big
players, just their purchasing of something drives the
prices of certain things up. This is completely
not adding any sort of value to the
marketplace,
and it makes these harmful monopolies that the
din completely
doesn't allow. Right? What's another example? Zakat. Right?
You have to think about taxation. There's an
entire,
philosophy behind taxation.
Okay? So retro progressive taxation is what taxation
that taxes income.
The idea that the the the the more
you're able to afford the taxes, the more
you should pay. Whereas a person's completely broke.
Right? If you're paying 20% out of their
taxes, then they're gonna have to choose, do
I have food or do I med buy
medicine today? There are people like that. One
day they'll eat one, like, especially old folks
and things like that. They have such little
money, so one day they'll eat, one day
they'll they'll they'll get medicine.
Right? Whereas, if you take 50% of a
super rich person's income,
they're like, oh, I can only buy, like,
3 yachts this year instead of 7. You
know, like, that's basically what the difference is.
So that's considered a progressive taxation system. Okay?
Where you tax income. Again, they're saying, oh,
you're punishing the people who are job creators,
and you're punishing the people who work hard
for whatever, and they went to school, medical
school for God knows how many years, or
whatever, or they, you know, built this business
from the ground up. You're punishing them for
it. Okay. Whatever. Then they have what they
call a a a regressive taxation system, which
is what?
Taxing,
taxing things. Right? Like, taxing sales tax. Right?
Taxing food and, like, clothing and things like
that. The reason it's regressive is what? That
everybody has to buy
roughly a similar amount of food in the
day and roughly a similar amount of,
of, what you call,
clothing and basic
necessities, retail things in a day. Right? So
meaning what? A rich person may wear a
$1,000 worth of clothing, and a poor person
may make wear, like, a $100 worth of
clothing.
But the gap between the gap between that
$100
$1,000
is less than the gap between the $30,000
the poor person makes and the $300,000
that are, you know, the what are $3,000,000
that the rich person makes. Right? So the
super rich at the top, they're they're they're
they're getting taxed at a much lower rate
than that. Right? So look at Zakat. How
does Zakat work? Okay?
Zakat taxes
not the money that you need for your
own stuff, but the money that's left over.
Zakat tax is not the money so for
example, if you're running a a household
that has 0 0,
savings in the year, then how much Zakat
do you get paid? That you have to
pay? You pay 0. Right? Whereas if you
have a whole bunch of stuff left over
at the end, right, this is also an
issue. Right? What happened after 911? What was
one of the first and most powerful message
George W. Bush gave to the public?
Keep spending money. For God's sakes, keep spending
money. Our economy is going to collapse if
you don't keep spending money. Why? Because the
stuff that you buy that you don't even
need, right,
if you don't keep buying it, what will
happen? The producers that produce that stuff, they're
going to,
their businesses are gonna collapse. Their businesses are
gonna not going to survive. And you have
to,
you know, take into account that we need
those businesses to generate revenue for the government.
Right? So imagine somebody says, you know what?
I don't wanna pay zakat.
So I'm gonna spend all the money I
have before the end of the year. You
know what? Good for you. Because every time
you spend that money, right, it's a kind
of a waste, admittedly.
But you're you're every when you spend that
money, you're gonna give it to somebody's wages.
You're gonna give it to somebody's business. Some
production will have something will happen out of
it. Right? And if you don't spend it,
just pay 2.5%
off the top of it, and, you know,
we're clear.
Now if you have, you know, if you
have the poor people paying zakat, sorry, the
people like middle class and whatever paying zakat,
you can fund a lot of,
poor people, you know, who are struggling.
If you if you do a study, someone
should do a study. Sheikh Yusuf Karbawi wrote
a
a study regarding Zakat, and it was it
was, written some years ago, Some, maybe 2
decades ago. And admittedly, I don't know, you
know, what the methodology used for a study
is. It probably could use some help. But
maybe someone who had shot this in statistics
or doing economics or whatever, you can redo
this study. He claimed
that if zakat on because there's zakat on
on cash,
It's the system of zakat on cash is
different than the system of zakat on crops,
and it's different on the system of zakat
on livestock. Okay? So he said, if the
the zakat was paid on crops in the
Muslim world, there would be no more hunger
in the Muslim world,
which is the way it's supposed to be.
I mean, it's a very fine tuned system.
It comes from after all. Right? It shouldn't
be a surprise. He said if Zakat was
paid on crops, there would be no more
hunger in the Muslim world. Food would essentially
not be an issue anymore, which is one
thing because we've ragged on Pakistan. All the
uncles left now. They probably think I hate
Pakistan. So you can tell them he said
something good about Pakistan after. One thing that's
really good about Pakistan is what?
Despite there being really severe poverty over there,
you don't see people starving to death.
You don't see people you see it in
other countries, people are starving, emaciated, and whatnot.
Pakistan, you don't see that. There's always someone
who will give you There's so many places
you can have food for free. If you
can't have food for free anywhere else, come
to the madrasa. You can have all the
dal and chal you want.
All the dal and roti you want, it's
free. There's no Sweden, Denmark, no country has
a a socialist system that's better than Madrasa.
You come study for free, live for free,
eat for free. It's not pretty, but it's
it is completely and totally free. Right? You
don't pay a cent. You can live 8
years. You you do become a Mufti. You
can live, like, whatever. 10 years, you know,
you do add hips on top of that.
13 years without paying a cent, like, without
having a cent in your pocket. You're you're
you're covered from head to toe. Right? The
people aren't, you know, people don't starve to
death. They have other problems in medicine. This
and that is obviously an issue, but no
one starts to death. So he said he
said in his study, he said what? He
said, if the Muslims paid zakat on their
crops, there would be no more poverty in
the Muslim world, and no more hunger in
the Muslim world. He said, if the Muslims
paid zakat on their cash, there would be
no more poverty in the world, period.
And what happens is people who have these
big conglomerations of wealth, they have an issue.
Right? K. If you have like,
zakataba wealth, right, is
a $1,000,000.
Right? Oh my god, $1,000,000 is a lot
of money. It's not a lot of money.
You and I are just that poor. Okay?
It really is not a lot of money.
K. So 2.5%
of a $1,000,000 is what? $25?
Right?
Okay. You can
25 grand if you gave it to the
poor. Maybe, like, 2 households will,
you know, it'll be the difference between, like,
homelessness, or having a house or the difference
between eating and not eating in the year.
It's pretty that's pretty sweet.
What about what about $10,000,000,000
if someone who has 10,000,000,000 net worth of
these, like, big shot people. Right?
Like, Alwaleed Bin Tawal or whatever. Right? These
people, they're they're they're, you know, you're talking
in the tens of 1,000,000,000 of dollars in
terms of net worth. He got upset. He
actually sued Forbes Magazine for under calculating his
net worth.
You know? It's like,
okay. Sure. Okay. So 33,000,000,000 there were $33,000,000,000
if you if you if you
levy zakat on so say just say $10,000,000,000,
what is it gonna be?
$250,000,000.
Okay? $250,000,000
is enough money that it could literally destabilize
the common economy of smaller countries.
You understand what I'm saying? It's that's okay.
Now we're talking, okay, that's a lot of
money. That's a lot of money. A lot
of things could happen from that.
The the idea of zakat is what? Is
that wealth shouldn't be allowed to stay idle.
It should stay moving. There's a incentive to
keep that money circulating to the system. Because,
for example, if you own a building and
you're renting the the the units of those
building out, that building out, that building is
not Why? Because the money is working.
Right? Because the money is working. There are
certain things that that the the the money
is not you cannot
it. Right? So you cannot levy zakat on
it. So if you spend the money,
the economy is running. Right? If you hoard
the money, then you gotta pay zakat on
it. Both ways, there is some concession. It's
not okay. 2.5%,
by the way. Right? People, how much tax
do they pay in America? Is there any
state that has 2.5%
sales tax?
No. And that's for stuff you need. This
is a after
all of your needs are taken care of.
2.5%
is nothing. As a as a as a
tax rate, it's absolutely nothing. Is there any
income tax in any state that's 2.5% or
less?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. People would move to
that state if that's all the the the
the the income tax rate would be in
that place. Federal income tax, forget it. All
bets are off. Even people on, you know,
people at the lowest rungs of society,
they're not getting away with, with being taxed
at such a low rate. Right?
2.5%
on the money that people refuse to allow
it to circulate,
right, means that
that the doula, right, that the rich people
that they're just hoarding the money and everybody
else is dying, it's not possible. There is
a recent study that was,
put out,
in the news that said, how many, 30
something people, the top 30 something people
in the world, right, own as much wealth
as the the bottom half
of the world's population?
Completely obscene. Does it mean that I'm a
communist and I hate rich people? No. You
don't you you have you don't have just
common sense tells you something's wrong here. Because
people are dying of hunger. People are eating
cats and dogs in places. People are, you
know, people are are are going through all
this. And now their children, their their stomachs
are bloated and whatnot. And on the flip
side, what is it? It's just that that
money is locked up. It's not circulating. It's
what? So
that there's not this dula that you guys
circulate money between your, you know, plutocratic
friends. The money just circulates between you, and
it doesn't get out to anybody else. Now
if people paid zakat, is 2.5%
gonna destroy anyone's company?
Some of them it might.
Right? Guess what? The money that you're running
the company with is not taxed by Zakat.
It's the the revenues that are not spent
at the end of the year
That's taxed. So 2.5%
off the top of,
net income is not gonna destroy any anyone
or anything by definition.
By definition, it's not going someone could make
the argument, well, I'm saving it for the
future when my business goes down or what
or whatever.
But even then, right, we are people of
iman. We say what? That the 2.5, Allah
doesn't decrease wealth by giving sadaqah.
Right? This is our iman, this is our
aqida, there's baraka in it. And economically, there's
an argument to be made as well. Why?
Because if people are starving to death, they're
not buying your they're not buying your stuff.
Whereas if people are able to live at
a living standard where they have disposable income,
now you have someone to sell to. Right?
This is one of the reasons it's very
important to maintain
the semblance of a middle class in America
is because the people at the top, who
are they gonna sell their, their stuff to.
Right? 9 11 happens, they're, just keep buying
stuff. Please, just don't stop buying things. Right?
The terrorist attack, never forget. That's horrible. Right?
But, like, please, you know, what would be
even more horrible for the rich people at
the top than, like, you know, 3,000 who
cares if people died? They really do. They
don't care. Honestly, they don't care. If they
cared, they would have given, like, health care
for the first responders and all of that
stuff. Right? The the the the the the
many of them died of cancer and the
government refused them treatment. They really don't care
that much, honestly. To be fair, it's just,
you know, it's the same thing just like
Pakistan. You know, if you wanna rile up
a crowd, talk garbage about India. If you
wanna rile up a crowd in Iran, talk
garbage about Palestine. If you wanna rile up
a crowd, you it's just basically all it
is. All terrorists, they don't really care. They're
half of them are doing business with, you
know, the countries that the the terrorists came
from. Doing very brisk business with them on
a daily basis. They really don't care.
But what? Don't spend money? This is like
a big problem. Guess what? If you if
you have a system in which there's not
a doula, in which people actually have a
place to live and something to eat, you
know, and they spend, like, you know, even
like $5 a day of discretionary income. Right?
The things you're gonna buy
buy with those $5 a day, those corporations
are very, very wealthy. There's an interest in
doing that. What happens? What went wrong? What
goes wrong? Right? You say, well, Sheikh, if
the system makes that much sense, how come
they don't implement it?
It's greed.
Okay. This is a hadith of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right?
The love of the dunya is what?
Is is is the the the beginning of
every folly.
It's when a person gets greedy. Right? You
ever watch these kind of criminal shows on
TV where people are doing fraud and, you
know, like, defrauding people of money and, like,
you know, how they get caught?
Stock, bond fraud, business fraud, this fraud, that
fraud. You know, I I I saw that
I used to go to I should go
to the gym more. I went to the
gym to become
because you sit and read all day, so
then you become weak. I used to be
able to actually exercise. Now I do that
stupid orbit machine
for, like,
30 minutes and then get out of breath.
I feel very ashamed of myself. Don't don't,
like, don't be like me, kids. Okay?
So, like, you know, you can plug your
thing in so you don't have to hear
the music blasting in the gym. So I
watch those shows where they kick you know,
it's really interesting. This guy comes to town,
adds new business, and the first people invest
with him. They get
crazy returns, and then everyone, like, they talk
up a storm. And people, like, old people
and poor people that you thought no had
no money. They're secretly hoarding all this money.
Right? All of them, they give this guy
the money, then when he reach a certain
tipping point, he bounces. He leaves he leaves
town and,
and and they catch but they catch him.
Why? Because the guy gets greedy. He did
it once, got the free money the first
time. He just has to do it one
more time. That's the time they caught him.
You say, okay, you you made, like, you
know, you made $30,000,000
in cash.
You would have gotten away with it, but
you had to make another 10,000,000. What difference
would it have made in your life? Absolutely
no difference whatsoever.
Okay?
This is my definition of rich.
Okay?
Rich is when you have so much money
that earning more money makes no difference in
your life at all. It's just keeping score.
Okay. So for example, someone has a $1,000,000,000.
Okay? And they're gonna live for another 40
years. Okay? So you've made a 1,000,000,000 by
30.
I'm proud of you. Go ahead. Get out
the calculator.
Get get the calculator out. You're gonna live
for divide a 1,000,000,000 by 40. Go ahead.
Who who has a calculator?
Okay. $25,000,000
a year. How many how much how many
dollars does that come out to in a
day?
That's why I asked for the calculator, because
the first one I know is easy, the
second one is not. Right? Adnan, you you
have the calculator?
Thank you. I know everyone else is asleep.
They're like, why isn't this Bhan over yet?
What?
$70,000
a day.
Okay?
Okay. So for the next 40 years, you
have to spend $70,000
a day. Okay?
What's the nicest hotel in New York cost?
Okay. New York is the most expensive place.
Okay. What's the nicest hotel in New York?
Maybe 3,000 $10,000 a night. Khalaf, you have
$60,000. You have a place you have a
a a a pad with, like, weird, like,
you know, European art from
this middle ages renaissance on the wall. And
there's a butler there to help you. The
Wi Fi, of course, may cost $10 more,
so you go ahead and spring for it.
And what else? Right?
Right. So you right. So you have you
have now the $60,000.
Who's gonna eat $60,000
worth of food? And how can you super
triple organic, even more expensive than halal, hand
slaughtered. Oh, my God. Right? Khaz.
You know? It's, you know, because nobody wants
to pay it's impractical to pay that much
money. Cost, you spend the more how much
you're gonna eat in a day? How many
clothes are you gonna wear in a day?
What are you gonna do?
There are certain things that people spend money
on that you really can't,
talk about in the masjid.
But none of that costs like like 10
whatever, $70,000
in a day. Right? So after that, and
there are people this is for $1,000,000,000.
There are people who have, like, you know,
30, 800, whatever weird amount of money, like,
you know, like,
manifold amounts of money after that. Making money
after a certain point is no longer about
a better lifestyle. It's just what? You're just
keeping score
in a pointless game.
What's the who wins the game? Okhotsk, you're
the richest person in the world. What happened?
Nothing happened. Right? You're richer than that person.
Right? Walid bin Talal is suing Forbes because
they underestimated his wealth or whatever. Okay. Like,
well, you're a big shot now. We all
love you. Right? What's the big deal? Absolutely
no nothing. It's just what? It's what? Greed.
Right? What
did
the
say?
The love of the dunya is the, the
the the fountain spring of every every error
that that that that will ever be made.
People get greedy at the top. And what
happens because of their greed, because of their
need to, like, okay, I need to be
move up on the Forbes list from, like,
17 to, like, 12 or whatever,
because of this 1,000,000,000 that's miscalculated.
What ends up having? Untold amounts of human
suffering.
Untold amounts of human suffering.
Right? What's the poorest continent on on the
on the earth probably after Antarctica?
It's Africa. Have you been to Africa before?
Okay. I've been to West Africa. I've been
to North Africa. I've been to Egypt. I've
been to South Africa.
Africa is the most wealthy continent in the
entire world. Okay. South Africa, if you go
to South Africa,
you will see in a line, like, 20
8 20 estates, each of which are like
a presidential palace. Like, you have, like I'm
talking about people who have, like, rhinos and,
like,
stuff in their in their, like, hippopotamuses
in their yard type of, like, opulence wealth.
Right? Why is it that all of Europe
went to colonize Africa?
Because Europe has weather like we have right
now for a significant part of the year.
And Africa is like
large tracts of Africa have, like, masha'Allah, the
high of 70 degrees and, like, a low
of, like, 65, like, for
majority of the year. Everything grows wild. I
mean, there are parts of Africa where you
don't even need to, like, have forget about
getting a job and stuff. You can literally
live in the jungle. You just lay down,
go to sleep, pick fruit, pick vegetables. You
know, there's a time where where before overhunting
destroyed all of these things, that fauna, like,
animals would literally come up to you just
grab it, slaughter it, and eat it.
Right?
That's the type of wealth. Like, weird Jannah
like type scenarios. Right? There's still places like
that in the world. There's still like Jamaica
is like that. Much of the,
the Malaysian, Indonesian arch ipelago is like that
actually to this day. Right? Much of it
is. Right? So what happens? It's just a
rush to go and, like, dispossess all of
these places. Strip everything you can out of
them. Now what happens to Africans? They're starving
to death.
The rich Africans, it's not that their money
is not there. Maybe Africa per capita has
more wealth than than than the rest of
the world.
At at any rate, it's at least similar
amounts of wealth. What is it? The rich
at the top are, you know, are are
have sucked the money out, and they sent
it to banks in Europe.
And the people on the ground are what?
They're starving to death. Right? This greed is
killing people. It's totally killing people.
It's not right. It's something that Muslims should,
you know, have a voice about, should be
aware of, be cognizant of the choices that
you make. Because the people at the top,
how do they make their money? They make
their money based on the consumer spending choices
that you and I make. Right? So they're
looking out for their interest. We should look
out for our interest. Instead of buying cheapest
thing you can at Walmart,
right, buy your produce from a local farmers
market. Sure, it'll be a little bit more
expensive, but it's a lot better for you,
and b, you're not empowering the people who
have made a living by destroying you.
Right? This is, this is not communism. This
is straight up free market capitalism. Right? Just
like, why why did African Americans boycott,
bus service in in Alabama? It's cause they're
treating them like garbage. So we're paying these
people. These people are becoming rich from the
money that we're giving them, and they're treating
us like garbage. Fine. We'll just stop going
on your bus. At the end of it,
they're pleading, please, you can sit in the
front of the bus, back of the bus,
on top of the bus. And where do
you wanna sit? Do you tell me where
you wanna sit? Just ride the bus again,
please. Right? Just ride the damn bus. Right?
Why? Because that's they're making their money from
you. So as a Muslim, right, if we
know that this doula is something that's morally
evil,
It's something that's immoral.
Right? So we should make choices as consumers
not to support it. Right? Go ahead and
buy your hand slaughtered chicken, even if you,
you know, Sheikh so and so says that
that machine slaughtered is okay. Support your local
butcher. Right? There's a one of the one
of the local there's a brother, Samir. He
actually comes to his Masjid for programs,
often times.
He runs this Halal Pastures business. It's all
hand slaughtered, organic, locally sourced chicken.
It's gonna be more expensive. Okay. Fine. If
you can't afford it, you can't afford it.
Right? But if you can afford it, do
business with this guy instead of doing business
with Cargill or whatever.
Right? Why? Because you're making choices,
and you think that's not gonna make a
difference. You eat a lot of chicken in
the year,
I mean, every every person, just in terms
of meat and fruits and vegetables, groceries. Right?
Maybe we're not, like, doing a $100,000 in
the real estate market, but we're definitely doing
tens of 1,000 of dollars as individuals,
in terms of food, you know. Young people
go to, like, go out to eat in
restaurants. If you go back on your, like,
what our Bank of America ATM,
website and see how much money you spend
eating out, it's like 1,000 1,000 of dollars
in in a year even if you're not.
So spend your money spend your money in
places that are are not
these types of kind of corrupt systems.
Okay? Spread that,
knowledge amongst other people with you. Right? The
halal industry is a very beautiful
gift Allah gave us. 1 is the whole
spiritually and the legal aspects of it and
stuff like that. That's a horse that's been
beaten to death, all of you seem to
know about it. But one gift of it
is what? It allows our community not to
be trapped in this kind of super agro
super business. And
if somebody wishes, I will write a fatwa
in writing that that that that the
production
of of of genetically modified
food stuffs.
Whether it be the weird Franken fish or
whether it be
other like franken food like plants and things
like that. It's completely haram. Right? What did
Allah say in, in Surah Surah Al Nisaa.
Right? That the shaitan,
he promises, right, that that,
that
I will I will,
right? Who knows the ayah? Because I already
I already had Quran fail once in a
day, and our one half has bounced on
us. Right?
That I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll
I'll promise them things,
and I will give them weird dreams, like
weird fake type of like stuff that's they're
gonna become happy when they get money or
whatever, and that somehow make them forget that
they'll die one day. Right? And, and that,
you know, the bodies of rich people
rot just like everybody else's, unless you're like
Walt Disney, in which case you get decapitated
and put in a freezer, which is even
worse in some ways.
Right? That's the the the our children watch
the videos of this crazy guy. Right? So,
so what happens? And then I'll make them
do stuff. I'll make them start off small.
Right? Instead of branding the animal, they'll slash
the the ears of the cows. And then
one day, they'll screw up the entire
gave us every single thing as it is
perfect.
And they'll even screw up the creation of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
If genetically modified food isn't like the tafsir
of this ayah, in this age, I have
no idea what is.
Okay? People have weird types of illnesses, sickness.
They're not able to eat wheat anymore. You
know why everywhere there's gluten free this, gluten
free that? It's because wheat is like such
a Franken wheat. There's, like, there's no proper
wheat left in the world anymore. The amount
of gluten in wheat nowadays is like is
like
a 10 times as much as it was,
you know, in the time of our forefathers.
People can't even eat weed anymore. Right? So
all of these weird frankenings, just refuse to
do business with them. Right?
Buy organic, buy local, buy, you know, buy
from a Muslim. Or again, the halal medium,
or the halal industry itself is a gift
to us, that one of the primary
research industries and primary vehicles of making wealth
is not in buying an iPhone, because you
only buy iPhone once every 2 years, if
you're, like, a regular person.
Some people less than that, some people can
find once a year. They they don't come
more than that. Right? But you eat food
every day.
Someone's making money off of you for eating
food every day.
So we have opportunity not only to,
shift our wealth in directions that are not
participating in these kind of,
doula like, huge, like, agro conglomerates,
but also in into our own community.
Because if we buy meat from a Muslim,
right, who's the only people who have butcher
shops anymore?
Muslims, Mexicans, and rich people.
Mexicans, because the stuff that they eat is
not available in in,
in regular grocery stores.
Okay. Muslims, because the halal issue, enrich people
because they don't wanna buy all this franken
food and stuff like that. You know, they'd
rather spring, like, $30 for a meal instead
of, like, $10, because they have $70,000
to burn in a day anyway. And they
don't want, you know, something that'll kill them.
So all these things are blessings. All these
things things we should keep in mind.
Those of you who, study economics, I've driven
off more than half the crowd, so I
think that's a good sign we should end
now.
That those of you study economics and study,
you know, business and things like that,
go make a killing, make a lot of
money, do good for yourselves.
Please sit down with the mashayikh and study
the the the fiqh rulings of these things,
both the rulings and the philosophy behind the
rulings as well. Inshallah, so that your wealth
will be halal and that it's not something
that's earned by oppressing another person, that you
have to then give account for it on
the day of judgment,
and pun be punished for it. May may
your accounting be
a source of blessings and not a source
of punishment. May Allah put Barakah in our
wealth. Whoever
brothers and sisters who are here or listening,
or who are from the Ummah Saydah Muhammad
who are
in, you know, in in in poverty or
in difficulty. May Allah ease their poverty and
ease their difficulty and give them,
the means to sustain themselves and their families
in a dignified way. Whoever is with the
Umayr Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam who's holding on to this wealth
in a in a wrong way, who's hoarding,
who's not paying their zakat, who's not giving
the the the haqq to the poor, who's
not inheriting or taking inheritance in a proper
way.
May Allah, you know, give them hidayah and
open their hearts so that they can have
Barakah in what they have,
by by by making it something Allah is
pleased with rather than a reason for Allah
to hate them. May Allah to Allah open
their hearts for that so that they have
a good life in this world and a
good life forever in the hereafter, and that
our poor brothers and sisters also benefit from
it. Allata, I give all of us tawfiq.
Remember, don't make your deen about money also
too much. Some people become everything's economic, economic.
Right? Once you die, rich people die, poor
people die. Once you die, it's gonna be
like a whole another ballgame. No one's gonna
care about money anymore. So remember that as
well.
That, that that that most important thing, if
the rich hold on to their money or
if they share it with others. And if
the poor get the money or if they
don't get the money, the the bottom line
at the end of the day is did
you make your your taluk with Allah
before leaving this world? If the answer is
yes, it will work out in the end.
If the answer is no, it won't. May
Allah make us amongst the yes people for
whom it works out.