Ingrid Mattson – Why is the Muslim Majority Poor

Islam greatly encourages giving money to the poor,

and zakat is a pillar of Islam.

Charities mentioned in the Quran

and in the sunnah, the practice of prophet

Muhammad, peace be upon him. Yes, sir. So

why is it that many Muslim countries

have a rich elite minority,

but the majority of people are very poor?

We're an economist for this.

Do we have one? That's just not true

though. Yeah. This is,

I think this has a lot to do

with,

modern capitalism more than anything else in my

opinion. But, to answer the question fully, we

really need

person who specialize in in modern economics. I'll

just give some basic guidelines and principles, and

that is that

in our religion, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala clearly

wants the wealth to be transferred from the

wealthy to the poor. There's a verse in

the Quran,

Allah does not want money to be transferred

only amongst the rich amongst you. Right? This

is one of the main principles of our

religion that the rich should not just get

richer and richer, and what we're seeing now

is a rise of a super elite and

a super rich. The number of billionaires is

now in the millions.

The number of billionaires in the world is

now in the millions. The rich get richer

and and the poor get poor. And this

is, I think, a manifestation of not just,

capitalism but also globalization. So I think instead

of blaming Islam for this, I think this

is just a product of the modern world.

Also, I think you're forgetting the fact that

many many countries are in fact quite wealthy

and, many Muslim countries are quite wealthy.

I would say that, quite a lot of

of Muslim countries, their gross national output and

their per capita income would rival, if not

be above, the median of the world, today.

I think all that this shows is that

there's still a lot of opportunities for those

who have money and who who are wealthy

to to help and participate in alleviating some

of the problems of poverty, but I don't

think it's fair to blame Islam for this.

Allahu Ala. You wanna add something to that?

Yeah. I think because part of the question

is, you know, there's this impression that there

are these,

and and and you've got to understand how

much of this is related to this old

orientalist

idea of

the rich idol

Sheikh, sort of, you know,

who's

kind of,

you know, sucking the wealth and the blood

of the poor people. There's a bit of

racism in a lot of these images

and

some inaccuracy.

For example, look at Thomas Friedman's book The

Lexus and the Olive Tree.

Now that title itself

implies that somehow,

you know, what's wrong with these, with these

Arab, that they would have a Lexus, as

if, I wonder what he drives. I don't

know, but how many Americans drive

Lexuses?

As if there's something

wrong with

with

people who are not, you know, white to

have,

to have nice things?

And if you look in, if you look

actually at these countries, let's get a country

like Saudi Arabia. Yes, they're super elite people.

Don't judge any country by the royalty of

that country. They are always,

you know, the royalty and the movie stars,

they always live a life of complete excess

that has nothing to do with normal people

But there's universal health care. There's universal education.

If you compare

every Saudi,

their what what they get from back from

the society, from the wealthy,

I'm not saying it's a, you know, it's

the last, I'd be the last person to

say it's

a perfect country, but if we take it

as the country that's considered to be, you

know, the worst and sort of popular

opinion,

the people in that country live very well.

They if they they have homes

that are provided by the government if they

need them, they have health care which is

still not true in this country,

they all have free education, they aren't burdened

by a huge educational loan or prohibited from

studying.

So yes, there are some wealthy people and

the very wealthy

are often very,

you know,

they they spend in excess,

but there are also some very wealthy people

who who continually give and really give an

awful lot. So I would say first compare

the facts. I remember that

seeing somewhere that in terms of the

percent of,

foreign aid that's given by Saudi Arabia, for

example, is something like 5%.

It's much less than 2%, the United States.

So, let's be a little bit fair and

certainly there's a lot of work to be

done in many countries.

A systematic

readjustment of the economic system is necessary,

and along with that the political system,

but it's not true that there's simply, you

know,

neglect of of the poor.

And gas is still 70¢ a gallon

in Saudi Arabia.

What's that? Gas is still 70¢ a gallon.

So the

So everyone can sign up. Everybody does enjoy

some part of it.

When talking to non Muslims about life after

death,

how should one present the similarities and differences

between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism?

Yes, definitely

I'll

be

early.

In in Judaism actually,

their concept of life after death is

fundamentally

not that different although I mean there are

differences.

Our

death only marks another phase of existence.

It is existing in another realm.

So here it is birth

that brings us from that world of nothingness

into this world.

So birth marks the end of that period

and usher a new period which in which

we are in right now and death

marks the end of this life and brings

us into a life called Hayat Al Barzakhiyyah.

It's another phase of existence

and then Judgment

Day brings the end of that phase

and into an eternal phase

called the Hereafter.

So this is our phase of existence, these

four stages.

I think from what I've read and heard

about Judaism,

they do have some similar

structure.

Christianity varies a lot more but in Judaism

especially at the time of death returning back

to God and so forth and so on

and what we try to let the person

read the shahada

of

before they pass away. They also have a

statement or affirmation of faith that they try

to let the dying person read

before they pass away.

So there is

a continuation

of life and I don't know maybe one

of the other scholars

can give a lot more details

as to the differences but generally this is

what Islam is about. I

think this is a good topic

to discuss with people of other faiths. I

mean rather than,

than trying to interpret other people's faiths for

them,

or you yourself do the comparison, this is

a, this is such a beautiful topic to

have,

you know, an interfaith discussion on, get together

with people from other faiths in your community,

and

your job is to articulate as best as

you can as a Muslim what you understand

about life after death. What are you looking

forward to? What do you hope for?

And they can also talk about their perspective,

and that way you can learn,

and,

and share this beautiful view. Of course, we

believe that as Allah

says,

as, God the Most High says,

that it is

as no eye has seen, and no ear

has heard. So it's something utterly like anything

we can imagine.

Yet,

we we we can understand by reading the

Quran and hearing the descriptions of the Prophet

Muhammad, some of what

at least will feel we could get a

little taste of what it might feel like,

like when the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon

him, gave this beautiful image,

to his companions when they said, well we

see God

and he said, Can you see, and this

is a good time of the month to

say this, Can you see a full moon

on a cloudless night? And they said, yes,

of course. He said,

she said, and so you will see God.

Now that doesn't mean that, you know, God

is like a moon or anything, but

how do you feel

when you look up on a beautiful, cloudless

night and see that shining, white full moon?

There's this sense of awe and wonderment, so

it gives us a little sense of how

we're going to feel, a sense of connection,

a sense of awe, a sense of peace,

tranquility, wholeness,

so these things allow us, in our limited

capacity as created beings,

to have somewhat of a sense

and anticipate

things that we simply cannot imagine now because

we're in a temporal realm. But at least

it gives us hope, and it gives us

a sense of joy and anticipation

that it will be something,

you know, worth everything.