Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #24 Profitoriented Economy
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While we are talking about resistance, there is
one type of resistance again, which is part
of our life, every one of us at
the individual level as well as the collective
level. It has to do with economy. It's
the whole economic system that we have to
consider and the way we are dealing with
our money.
What we understand coming from the very essence
of our,
starting with God, Bismillah.
We are starting with God and we are
doing things in the name of God. Is
that what should be the final goal, the
ultimate
objective of economy is to serve humanity.
It's not to serve profit.
The very essence of the economic,
involvement should be to serve humanity. It should
not be to think only about in which
way I'm going to use the means,
money,
to make only money and to be obsessed
with money. When the center of the economic
activity is money and profit, there is something
which is distorting the whole system, the whole
understanding. So this is where we need to
come to a deeper understanding and not only
to try
to
Having said that, we come back and and
we understand that, yes,
production
and producting,
producing goods and spreading and distributing this this
economic activity. It's part of life, and there's
nothing wrong with this.
But to go from this
to promoting
and to be obsessed with profit and interest
and personal interest
without
understanding that there are rules and there are,
ethical ways of dealing with the whole process.
This is the very corrupting,
process within
the economic system.
And we have it in the Quran
when, for example, people, when you are telling
them, oh, what you are doing here is
corrupting the whole system.
And they are
saying,
that this is because they are saying,
which is a transaction, which is
offer
and demands and and and this way of
dealing with the goods, which is the natural
way,
which is trading.
It's like
the riba, which is interest. And they are
confusing the 2 and saying it's exactly the
same. No. 1, it's about protecting the life,
and this is a very natural procedure and
process within life. The other one is obsessed
with making money out of money, which this
is the the perverted way of dealing with
economy.
And then the answer coming the from the
Quran,
that god is saying that there is one
type which is right
when you are doing this in order to
survive, knowing that at the center, yes, you
are dealing with profit, but in order to
serve your own
way of surviving.
On the other side is using the means
money to make money and then to distort
the whole process.
It's a philosophy. It's economic philosophy that we
have here. And then
the call is
something which is important.
So this is just be,
come which is to this reverential
love. Remember God.
And remove,
stop
everything which has to do with interests, speculation,
and usury. This is not the way.
In Lemtef Alwin, if you are not going
to do this, then will be harbin min
allahiwarasooli.
If you are not doing this, you are
at war with God and his messenger.
That's essential.
The war here that you are promoting through
a distorted way of dealing with economy
is spreading corruption,
not respecting the people, and not having trade
to survive,
but interest, to be obsessed with your interest,
your profit, and forgetting the ultimate and higher
goal of economy.
At our level as human beings, the way
we deal with our money, the way we
trade, the way we are
trying to get money to to life,
to live,
and life and money for life and not
money for the sake of money,
to forget about the dignity of human being.
This is the essential thing, that it's so
important for us not to Islamize the means,
but remember
that there are ethical goals that we need
to
remember and that we need to promote. It's
up to us in our daily life, during
Ramadan,
during the whole year, but this is the
way it should be, resisting
an economy that is distorting the very essence
of using the means and making the means,
the goals. That's shirk in itself, and that's
not acceptable.
Remember to tell the people you love that
you love them, life is fragile.