Nadim Bashir – Islamic Business Ethics Upholding Integrity And Avoiding Deception
AI: Summary ©
The importance of honesty and integrity in business transactions is emphasized, along with the need for fulfilling promises and maintaining a healthy business relationship. The importance of honesty and integrity is also emphasized, particularly in times of hesitation and dishonest communication. It is essential to be mindful of words and actions that may cause confusion and harm in relationships, and to be true and honest in public spaces. It is also important to be mindful of agreements in business and to be transparent in meetings.
AI: Summary ©
Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah
Akbar I bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship
except Allah I bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship
except Allah I
bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah I bear
witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah Come
to Prayer Come to Prayer Allah
is the greatest, Allah is the greatest
There is none worthy of worship except
Allah I
bear
witness that
there is none worthy of worship except Allah
We have become victims of someone else's deceit.
How many of us have become victims to
the fraud of others?
And this is why I've decided that in
today, in this brief khutbah insha'Allah, that
we need to understand that yes, making money
is a responsibility.
In order to take care of our families,
we need to make money.
The men often go out, in many cases
even the women may go out, and they
may work, and they work to provide for
their family.
But brothers and sisters, let us keep in
mind that when it comes to even fulfilling
our responsibility, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Rasulullah
salallahu alayhi wasalam, has given us certain guidelines.
Guidelines that you and I, we have to
follow.
And we follow these guidelines even when it
comes to earning an income, even when it
comes to earning wealth and building up assets,
but we must do it with the correct
way.
Today insha'Allah in this brief khutbah, I
want to share with you five things that
we have learned from the sunnah of the
Prophet alayhi wasalam.
Or we have learned them in the Qur
'an.
Things that are considered as business ethics.
But at the same time, at the very
end of the khutbah insha'Allah, I have
five advices.
Five advices for everyone who wants to engage
in business.
First of all, I request everyone to please
come forward.
There's a lot of empty space, a lot
of empty gaps.
Please come forward.
First of all, brothers and sisters, one of
the most important things that we learned from
the Qur'an, is the importance of honesty
and being truthful when doing business.
Brothers and sisters, today how many times people
tell me, that they have become victims of
someone else's deceit and fraud.
And the reason why this happens is, that
initially in any business transactions, we begin to
display, we present a certain matter, a certain
issue.
But brothers and sisters, we a lot of
times are not trustworthy in our business.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He tells us,
especially in the Qur'an He says, This
is about not only about business, this is
related to everything.
Do not, Allah is telling us, do not
mix the truth with the falsehood.
You know something is wrong, always be transparent
about these kind of things.
Do not mix the truth with the falsehood.
Whenever you do business with anyone, make sure
you express any kind of flaw within that
merchandise.
If there's something wrong with this, that you
must make it, you must tell them, that
this is what's wrong with this.
So you understand that before you buy anything,
you have made them aware.
If they choose to buy it even despite
the fact that there is a flaw in
it, that is on them.
But the responsibility is, that we cannot give
one statement and say that there is some
truth to it, but there might be some
falsehood to it.
And a person will say, Alhamdulillah, yes there
might be some falsehood to it, to my
statement, to my sale, I'm trying to sell
something to someone, I am majority of it,
I'm truthful about it, there is something that
may be wrong with it.
Allah is telling us that no, this is
not the correct way of doing business.
You give the full truth and nothing but
the truth.
Allah then says once again, do not mix
the truth with the falsehood.
Because that is deceiving someone else.
You are deceiving someone else.
This is a fraud.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
like these kind of people who commit fraud.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He tells us
in the Qur'an, when He talks about
the qawm, the nation of Shu'ayb a
.s. He says in Surah Shu'ara, you
will study that there are many stories of
different prophets.
And Allah highlights each of their major issues.
When Allah talked about the people, the nation
of Shu'ayb a.s, He highlighted the
fact that these were people who used to
commit fraud in business.
They used to cheat each other in business.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, اَوْفُوا الْكَيْرَ
وَلَا تَكُونُوا مِنَ الْمُخْسِرِينَ That be amongst those
that when you weigh something, then weigh it
properly.
Do not cheat each other.
And we also find in the hadith of
Rasulallah s.a.w. when he says, اَتَّاجِرُوا
الصَّدُوقُ الْأَمِينُ He says that the businessman who
is honest, the businessman who is trustworthy in
his business, and he has a reputation in
the community, in the society that this person
does good business, he is very fair in
his business, he is very trustworthy, and he
is honest in his business.
Rasulallah s.a.w. says that on the
day of judgment, they will be with who?
مَعَ النَّبِيِّينَ They will be with the anbiya
on the day of judgment.
They will be with who else?
As-Siddiqeen.
They will be with the as-Siddiqeen on
the day of judgment.
And they will also stand side by side
with the shuhada on the day of judgment.
Brothers and sisters, we like to be with
this kind of people.
The Prophet s.a.w. is telling us,
if you really want to be with this
kind of people, then always make sure that
when you do business, you do business with
fairness and justice.
Imam Hanifa r.a, there's a very interesting
story about him, that he used to be
a cloth merchant.
Besides the fact that he was a great
scholar of aqeedah, he was a great scholar
of fiqh, he was also a cloth merchant.
And it is mentioned that while he was
the brains behind the business, he used to
be in charge of all the shipping and
the labeling and everything.
But he had another person who he used
to work with, and he was his delivery
guy.
And it is mentioned that one time, Imam
Hanifa r.a, he must have packed some
clothes for someone, and he gave it to
his worker.
His worker went and delivered it.
But when he delivered it, he noticed that
there was some kind of defect, there was
some kind of a flaw in that cloth.
He came back and he told Imam Hanifa
r.a, that, Ya Imam, when you gave
me that cloth, you probably did not notice
it, but there was a defect with that.
Now of course at that time, they never
had paper trails, they never had technology that
we have today.
So Imam Hanifa r.a asked him that,
do you remember where you went?
And he says, I don't remember exactly which
house it was and so forth, or where
I made that delivery.
Imam Hanifa r.a, look at his honesty,
because he understands that he has to stand
before Allah on the Day of Judgment.
He said that every single penny, anything that
I have earned from that sale, I'm gonna
take all of that and give it for
the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I'm gonna give it as a sadaqa to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and it is
not lawful for me to use the money
that I have made from this transaction and
this sale.
Where is that honesty today, brothers and sisters?
Where is that truthfulness today?
Today wallahi, because of just for this mere
dunya, we're willing to cheat others.
Even when it comes to our matters of
this country, how many of us, to be
honest, how many of us we lie and
cheat on our tax forms?
How many of us we lie and cheat
on our tax forms?
And at the end of the day, what's
the logic behind it?
That this is a kafir country.
They do this and they do that.
This gives me the liberty to do whatever
I want and to cheat and deceit them.
This is wrong, brothers and sisters.
We are the ones who chose to live
in this country, knowing what this country is,
and what their foreign policies are, and how
they spend their money, and where they spend
their money.
That was our choice.
إِنَّ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ وَاسِعَةً Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says, His land is vast, go anywhere
else.
But to lie and cheat and deceit in
any capacity is not right, brothers and sisters.
So this is why let's understand the importance
of trustworthiness and honesty.
And by the way, let me say this
also, that when we as adults, when we
lie and we cheat and we do these
kind of things, our kids are learning from
us too.
Do not feel, do not think that I'm
doing this and no one knows.
In many cases, our kids, they see this,
and they see this hypocrisy.
That on one end, my parents teach me
to be honest and trustworthy, but I see
this also.
And this is where the confusion comes for
them, comes into their heart about the deen.
So brothers and sisters, when we are trustworthy
and honest, then this is also important for
our children and for their iman, and teaching
them how to do business in the future.
The second thing that's extremely important as mentioned
in the Quran is, the importance of adl,
the importance of justice, brothers and sisters.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says in
the Quran about those people who were not
doing justice in the time of the Prophet
ﷺ.
They used to keep the dates, the good
dates on top, and the sour dates, the
rotten dates on the bottom.
And also when we find that whenever they
would, when it come to themselves, they would
always try to measure properly.
When it came to others, they would not
measure properly.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says in
the Quran regarding these kind of people, وَيْلٌ
لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ أَلَّذِينَ إِذَا اكْتَالُوا عَلَى النَّاسِ يَسْتَوْفُونَ We
see in the Quran that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says, that these people who don't
do justice in their business, then there is
a wrath of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that will come upon them.
And this is why Rasulullah ﷺ, he also
says in a hadith, مَنْ غَشَّنَا فَلَيْسَ مِنَّا
Anyone who cheats anyone else, they are not
from amongst us.
So this is why brothers and sisters, always
remember, that today if I cheat someone, I
may get away with it.
But wallahi we have to stand before Allah
on the day of judgment.
Wallahi we have to stand before Allah on
the day of judgment.
And at that time, there is no one
who will come and support us.
And Allah will have all the records.
Allah will have all the receipts.
And then at that time, we cannot run
away from our crimes.
We rather do business properly.
Even if I lose something in this dunya,
خير, no problem, I will lose.
But I won't lose on the day of
judgment.
I won't jeopardize my akhira just to make
a few dollars, just to make a few
thousand dollars, brothers and sisters, it's not worth
it.
Wallahi it's not worth it.
So let's always make sure that whenever we
do business with others, we always apply justice.
It is mentioned that even in the time
of Umar bin Khattab radiallahu anhu, he will
see certain merchants in Medina, they will cheat
others.
And Umar bin Khattab radiallahu anhu will tell
them, either you fix your habit, or you
don't belong in this market.
Simple as that.
He will not sit there and engage in
too much discussion.
Either you fix your problem, or you get
out of the marketplace.
So this is why, because when people cheat,
it spreads, other people do get affected.
So this is the second important thing, the
second important ethic when it comes to business.
The third important ethic when it comes to
business, brothers and sisters, is the importance of
fulfilling your promises.
When you say, when you take a loan
from someone, and you say, that I will
pay you back by this time, you must
fulfill that responsibility.
You must fulfill that oath, brothers and sisters.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Qur
'an He says, وَأَوْفُوا بِالْعَهْدِ إِنَّ الْعَهْدَ كَانَ
مَسْؤُولًا Fulfill your promises.
If you have an agreement, you've taken a
loan from someone, you made a promise, you're
returning to them within a year, you make
sure you return it within the year.
If you know you cannot return it within
a year, then you go back to that
person who has lent you the money, you
talk to them, you communicate with them, and
ask them, that can you get some more
time.
Are they willing to give you more time
to fulfill that payment, to fulfill that loan.
And if they give it to you, Alhamdulillah.
If they don't give it to you, this
is their right.
This is their right.
And how many times people will come and
say, that what kind of a person they
are.
They have no mercy.
They have no rahma in their heart.
I need more time.
They don't give me more time.
Yes, let me make this very clear.
Yes, there is part of business is to
have ihsan towards each other.
But the problem with our Muslim community unfortunately
brothers and sisters, is that we take that
ihsan, and we abuse the ihsan.
We abuse the ihsan.
Someone may give us another month.
Someone might give us another half a year.
You take care of it.
But we abuse the ihsan.
This is why people, unfortunately within the Muslim
community, unfortunately within the Muslim community, we have
lost trust with each other when it comes
to businesses.
And it's not just only, you know, we
have these stories about only the Muslim mechanic.
It's not only the Muslim mechanic.
There are across the board, there are good
Muslim mechanics.
And there are some bad ones.
When it comes to business, there are some
good ones.
And unfortunately there are some bad ones.
It's not only one segment of the community
that is bad.
I know people who are in the car
business.
I know people who are mechanics.
And mashallah, they are very trustworthy and honest.
And people go to them.
The point is brothers and sisters, we have
cheated each other so much that we have
lost trust within our own Muslim community.
How often we hear things that I'd rather
go and do business with a non-Muslim,
because I cannot trust my own Muslim brothers
and sisters.
This is the problem that we have and
we need to turn that around.
We need to make sure that when it
comes to fulfilling our promises and our oath,
we fulfill our promises and our oath.
This is why I think about it.
One of the greatest things that we learn
about the Prophet ﷺ, what made Khadijah radiallahu
ta'ala anha so impressed by the Prophet
ﷺ is that he was an honest and
trustworthy businessman.
When Khadijah radiallahu anha hired the Prophet ﷺ,
before they even got married, what made her
say that this is a man of integrity,
it was his trustworthiness.
When the people of Makkah were in a
dispute of who's gonna place the black stone
next to the Kaaba.
When the Quraish were in a dispute, when
they saw Rasulallah ﷺ, he had a reputation
that he is as-sadiq al-ameen.
We need to create that reputation again within
our Muslim community.
Number four, brothers and sisters, we make sure
that when it comes to any kind of
business, we stay away from haram.
Anything that is considered as haram, we stay
away from it.
If it has to do with riba, we
stay away from it.
Now of course there is riba in many
different aspects of business and this is why
you always go to the shaykh, you always
go to the expert and ask them that
how is this to be done.
And there are experts in business, there are
shaykhs who are experts in business.
You go to them and you ask them
and find out that the style of business
that you are doing, is it halal or
is it haram.
There might be an element of riba from
an external source, find out from others.
Find out is this business halal or haram.
Umar ibn Khattab radiallahu anh he would tell
the people of Medina that first you need
to find out if your business halal or
not.
If your business is not halal, you have
no place here in the markets of Medina.
So this is why it is important that
we make sure that everything that we do
is halal.
And that also means that any kind of
business and especially, I'm sorry to say this
and be a little blunt about this, but
especially when it comes to people who sell
anything that is considered as haram.
There are unfortunately store owners who sell wine
and alcohol.
Ittaqillah brothers, be cautious of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
For this dunya, you are selling alcohol, you
are selling wine, you are selling things that
are completely outright haram.
For what?
For a few thousand dollars, you are willing
to give up your akhira?
You are willing to sacrifice jannah for these
few thousand dollars?
Brothers and sisters, we have to be careful
of what we are doing.
Also with this, we need to also understand
that when it comes to business, so many
people they spread deceit and lies about each
other.
Don't do business with this person because he
does this haram, and he does that haram.
This is how issues start in the community.
Because we spread this van, we spread these
assumptions.
And this person is right, and this person
is a munafiq, and this person is a
kafir, and this person is this and that.
No, we need to stop this.
This is what's causing these problems.
If I don't know something, how many people
have called me and said that they have
heard that this person is doing business the
wrong way.
I said, I don't know.
Go and talk to them yourself.
Go and ask them yourself.
And if you want to do business with
them, Bismillah.
And if you don't want to, then just
stay away.
That's your choice.
That's your prerogative.
But brothers and sisters, we need to understand
that when it comes to haram, we stay
away from haram.
We stay away from backbiting about each other.
We stay away from causing any kind of
lies in the community about other people.
Just because someone's business is there, and they
are your competitor, it does not give us
the right to lie about others.
It does not give us the right to
create lies about each other, just so that
we can make more money.
The fifth most important thing is, when it
comes to business is, we always try to,
as I said this earlier, but this is
the fifth point is, we always try to
be generous as much as we can towards
each other.
Always try to go the extra mile for
someone else.
At the same time, if you see, and
listen to me very carefully when I say
this, if you are doing ihsan towards others,
and you see that your ihsan is being
abused, you as the lender, or you as
one partner, you have a right to say
that this is wrong.
And you have a right to say that
I'm not going to show any mercy going
forward.
Because yes, you do want to show mercy,
but at the same time, we cannot become
abused by anyone.
Anyone who allows someone else to walk over
them, that's not on them, that's on you
brothers and sisters, that's on us.
If we allow someone to abuse us, that's
on us.
Knowing that someone is abusing us, that is
not ihsan.
That is not ihsan.
That is not saying, I am humble.
That's not humbleness.
That's foolishness.
You're allowing someone to walk right over you,
you need to stand up for your rights.
And you cannot go to anyone else and
say that I want you to stand up
for my rights, but you need to stand
up for your rights.
This is how it works.
So I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that He grants us the tawfiq, that He
gives us the tawfiq that we do business
correctly.
And we're always trustworthy.
And we're always honest.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to grant us barakah.
And whatever we do, whether I am working
for someone, or I have my own business,
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put barakah
in our finances.
Ameen.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
us the tawfiq to stay away from anything
that displeases Him and the Prophet ﷺ.
فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَن يُضِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ
وَنَشْتُوا أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَى اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا
شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَنَشْتُوا أَن مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُ أَمَّا
بَعْدُ As I said earlier, inshallah, five ethics
that we have learned from the Quran and
Sunnah, and five advices.
I may have covered this already, but these
are things that I see the most in
our Muslim community, and we need to be
mindful of them.
Number one is brothers and sisters, whenever you're
about to engage in any kind of business,
study the contract.
The responsibility of the person who's asking you
to sign the contract, it is their responsibility,
just like we learned from the stories of
Ibn Hanifa, to mention any kind of flaws,
anything that is noteworthy, something that they need
to be mindful of, and put yourself in
the shoes of that person.
If you are signing a contract, and someone
wants to get you in business with them,
wouldn't you want to know and be mindful
of the most important things?
Now that you're on this side of the
table, make sure you mention everything.
And the person who's signing the contract, it
becomes your responsibility to read the contract.
No one is forcing you to sign it,
but read the contract, and ask questions if
you have any, but study the contract, how
often it happens, that people have already said
what's going on, they have signed the contract,
and then they come afterwards, that I did
not understand this, and it causes major issues
within that business relationship.
So the very first thing is, always study
any kind of agreement that may be in
place.
Number two is, brothers and sisters, and anytime
you're doing business with anyone, be transparent.
The reason why we have so many issues
is that there is a lack of transparency.
If anything is changing, be transparent.
Tell the other person, this is what's happening.
And often what happens is, especially when you
have multiple parties working on one thing, there
is the third thing, which is very important
is, that there should always be communication.
There is transparency, but there is communication.
When you have more, the more the people
that you have involved in any businesses, any
project, or anything that you're doing, the more
communication is required.
Often what happens is, that, oh yeah, I
told this person, I told him this, I
told him that, he understood this, he understood
that.
This is ridiculous, honestly.
This should not be going on anymore.
We are not living in a time, unfortunately,
we're not living in that time anymore, that
your word is your bond.
Your word is your commitment.
This was something that existed a long time
ago, ethically speaking, we don't live in those
times anymore.
Oh, I thought this brother was trustworthy.
Oh, I thought this sister was trustworthy and
honest.
No, you thought.
But the Qur'an tells us, the hadith
tells us, be transparent, document everything.
The longest verse in the Qur'an is
about documenting alone.
Think about that for a moment.
The longest verse in the Qur'an is
about documenting something.
So this is why brothers and sisters, always
be transparent, always communicate, document everything, have a
receipt for everything.
And if someone says to you, that you
don't need to keep a receipt, no, I
need to keep a receipt.
In fact, if someone says, you don't need
to keep a receipt, that is when you
keep the receipt.
When someone says to you, you don't need
to keep a record, no, I need to
keep a record.
Not because you're saying that that person is
dishonest, but you need to have your ducks
in line.
You need to have everything in place, in
case, la samhallah, something, God forbid, something happens,
at least there's documentation everywhere.
And remember brothers and sisters, at the end
of the day, we all have to stand
before Allah on the Day of Judgment.
If anyone takes anything from anyone in this
dunya, dhulman, in an oppressive manner, how often
people go to courts and they take what's
not theirs.
You may have got away in this court,
the court of this dunya, but we will
have to stand in the court of the
akhirah, the court of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, and we have to answer for everything.
So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to grant us the tawfeeq, to always be
truthful and honest, and may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala protect our assets.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
from a financial perspective, anyone who is in
the state of loan, in the state of
debt, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help
them remove their debts.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put barakah
in our money, in our finances, in everything
that we have.
May Allah put barakah in it.
Ameen.
Allahumma inna nas'aluka ilman nafiAAa wa amalan
mutaqabbala wa rizqan wasiAAa wa shifaAAa min kulli
daf Allahumma inna na'udh bika min ilmin
la yanfaAAa wa min qalbin la yakhshaAAa wa
min nafsin la tashbaAAa wa min duaAAa illa
yustajAAab Ameen.
Rabbil alAAalameen.
Inna Allah ya'muru bilAAadli wa alihsani wa ita
'idhi alqorba wa yanhaAAan alfahshaAAa yamunkay wa albaAAa
yaAAeedukum laAAallakum yadhakkaroon faadhkuruni yadhkurukum wa ashkoori wa
takfuroon aqeem alssalaah Straighten lines, fill in the
gaps.
Straighten lines, fill in the gaps.
Brothers in the back two rooms, please come
inside.
If you're standing inside the lobby area, please
make sure the rows are straight.
Brothers in the back two rooms, please make
sure that the rows are straight.
Sisters, please make sure the rows are straight.
Any sisters inside the multiple rooms hall, please
come inside.
Madad Rasool Allah.
Hayya ala alssalaati Hayya ala alfalaah Qad qaamati
alssalaati Qad qaamati alssalaam Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar
La ilaha illa Allah As-salamu alaykum wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Allahu Akbar Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen
Ar-Rahmani Ar-Raheem Maliki yawm al-deen
Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een Ihdina
al-sirata al-mustaqeem Sirata al-lazeena an
'amta alayheem Ghayri al-maghdoobi alayheem wala al
-dalleem Qul a'uudhu bi rabbil falaq
Min sharri ma khalaq Wa min sharri ghaseeq
Idha waqab Wa min sharri nafathaati fil aqad
Wa min sharri hasid Idha hasad Allahu Akbar
Sami'Allahun Iman Hamidah Alhamdulillahi
Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahmani Ar-Raheem Maliki yawm
al-deen Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta
'een Ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem Sirata al
-lazeena an'amta alayheem Ghayri al-maghdoobi alayheem
wala al-dalleem Qul
a'uudhu bi rabbil nas Maliki al-nas
Ilahi al-nas Min sharri al-waswas Al
-khannas Allazi yuwaswisu Fi suduri al-nas Mina
al-jinnati wal-nas Allahu Akbar Sami
'Allahun Iman Hamidah As
-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah As-salamu alaykum wa
rahmatullah Astaghfirullah Astaghfirullah Rabbana
fi nafsan yuhsafna As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi
wa barakatuhu Allahumma inna azeem