By Abdullahi Jamaa
1000 or so years ago Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq, was the largest city in the world dominating London, Rome and Beijing in the field of science, economy, social and cultural development.
It flourished during the Golden Age of Islam, the period between 8th to 14th centuries. While Europe gnawed in the Dark Ages, Baghdad was at the heart of an exciting and diverse civilization. It was known as the world’s richest and most intellectual city of the time.
Baghdad thrived not only as a result of the predominant influence of distinguished Muslim scholars but also of honourable Muslim medieval merchants.
Both early and medieval Muslim merchants established wonderful economic systems, they followed stringent yet beautiful and ethical Islamic principles of business.
They cemented Islamic civilization, producing generations of mercantile populations, institutions and trading routes. The early Muslim traders charted a roadmap of commercial success and innovations.
They guaranteed the excellence of goods they carried and sold, they not only were beneficial in the cause of safe trade, but also stood as a symbol of pristine Islamic culture assuring the best service towards other merchants and consumers.
No businessmen in the world have ever committed so much importance to lawful trading as did the early Muslims, merchants and consumers alike. The trading and economic systems of Islam during its early and golden age paved the way for a magnanimous modern economy.
Merchants and consumers stood on firm grounds of well laid principles of business that were deeply entrenched in both the Quran and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
The prophetic warning that “whoever cheats us, is not one of us” still holds sway as it was some 1400 years ago. It has grown to be a popular adage among Muslims all over the world it is arguably the only reason why Muslims today form majority of the few honest business people.
Strong business ethics have motivated Muslims businessmen to be ahead of the curve. They follow religious principles, values and standards that guide behaviour in the world of business.
However, Majority of today’s Muslims are trading without following the Islamic guidelines of doing business. Such businessmen are always behind the curve, they think that they have a mountain of money oblivious of the fact that it may turn into ashes anytime soon.
Ethical foundation
The foundation of any good business is its values, principles and morals. The stronger the values the stronger the foundations, the weaker the values the weaker the foundations. In business, just like in other spheres of life, respect and reputation are earned through virtuous doctrines.
Islam encourages recycling of wealth from the rich to the poor, which means that the impact of wealth should trickle down and benefit all sectors of the society. Strong business ethics therefore lays the threshold for a just society.
Islam honours the wealthy as there is dignity in mercantile calling. However it has guided engagements in all realms, including businesses. With its definition of justice as giving each one’s due.
Pious Muslim merchants support the society in every facet of life. They deal decently with their customers, they are compassionate to their debtors and they support and empower their employees.
A religious businessman is the one who applies everyday ethical or moral norms that are practical in commercial exchanges as well as in general economic systems. These morals form a catalogue of injunctions to truthfulness and honesty or the prohibition against theft and envy.
Implementing Islamic business ethics requires one to learn and understand the rules of engagements, the rights and the wrongs, the pitfalls and paragons, all to guide a merchant to the right side of earning an honest living.
According to Imam Ghazali, a Muslim who makes up his mind to adopt trade as a profession or to set up his own business should first acquire a thorough understanding of the rules of business transactions classified in Islamic jurisprudence.
He said without such understanding one will go astray and fail into serious religious lapses that may render his earning unlawful. Knowledge is a rule in this dutiful game of business without which one cannot win it.
Deceit & Lies
Islam is most fervent in its condemnation of commercial dishonesty. It deplores, in the strongest possible terms, all sorts of deceitful dealings and illegal profits. It has disallowed all transactions not based upon justice and fair play.
Islamic commandments uphold trust and truthfulness in all transactions or trading exchanges. It inculcates respect for both the buyer and seller. It protects the quality of goods and service while allowing acceptable earning of profit.
The basic ethical principle in business is to fear the hearer and knower of all things living and non- living. For surely one cannot conceal anything from Allah. The unblinking eye of the Creator will sooner or later catch the soul that cheats.
Manipulative transactions and deals are affront to basic fundamental creeds of Islam. One can conceal damaged goods, or short-change an individual or defraud a non-suspecting customer but one cannot play games with Allah.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said. “Everything has its weak point, and the weak point of business is telling lies”. Bigoted presentation, temptations to list non-existent qualities, and concealing defaced and damaged goods and services forms part of the weak points that is truly against acceptable business ethics.
The Holy Prophet (SAW) based business dealings strictly on truth and justice. He has strongly disapproved all transactions which involve any kind of injustice or hardship to the buyer or the seller.
He wanted that both, the buyer and the seller to be truly sympathetic and considerate towards each other. The buyer or the seller should not take unjustified advantage of the simplicity or ignorance of the other.
The seller should not think that he has unlimited freedom to extort as much as possible from the buyer. He has to be just; he should take his own due and give the buyer what is his.
A businessman who lives on income derived through illicit means and fraudulent practices cannot be morally advanced and spiritually elevated. His earnings will never be blessed until he comes back to senses of morality.
The genuinely rooted believe among honourable Muslim merchants is the conviction that just as junk food spoils our physical health, similarly food earned through unlawful means spoils our spiritual and moral health.
In the world of today deceit and lies are common practices in most market places. Fixative and narrow-minded business individuals continuously short change consumers and other merchants in an endless greed of amassing wealth.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “Whosoever sells a defective product without disclosing its defect to the purchaser, shall earn the permanent anger of Almighty Allah and the angels continuously curse such a person.” (Ibn Majah)
False swearing
Some dishonest traders often have resorted to swearing falsely claiming that their produce is of good quality in order to sway buyers. Islam considers such an act as a major sin.
The prophet (SAW) prophet “Allah will not speak to three types of people on the Day of Judgement, nor will He look at them, nor purify them and they will have a severe punishment.” Amongst these types he mentioned those who “swear falsely in order to sell their goods.”(Saheeh Muslim)
Imagine the wrath and condemnation we will experience if Allah will not speak to us because we swore in deceit while selling an item in the markets.
How many businessmen in the world of today will fall under this category? It is not a bolt from the blue that unabated deceiving of consumers is a daily occurrence. It is a practice that we do without measuring the impending religious repercussions.
Abū Hurairah said,I heard the Messenger of Allāh (SAW) say “The taking of oaths makes the commodities sell, but it obliterates the blessing (therein).”
Distinguished Muslim scholars have further elaborated the rules of engagements in all types of commercial transactions. Imam Al-Ghazali considers false advertisement also as one of the evils of the markets which must be prohibited.
He admonishes the businessmen against false praise and attempts to hide the defects of a good. He said “they should not give false information about the weight, quantity, or the price, grading or marketing of goods, adulteration, and other kinds of cheating will be considered tatfif (defrauding).”
The practice of concealing damages, selling counterfeits and substandard goods, using wrong ingredients in manufacture and sell of expired products all fall under unethical business practices that are so common today.
Unfortunately, so many Muslim businesses continue to engage in this kind of fraudulent deal neglecting the code of conduct involved in commercial transactions. Such kind of wilful ignorance and recklessness is unacceptable in Islam.
As a result of a growing number of unscrupulous traders, our markets today are flooded with huge quantities of substandard goods and services. There is much to fear about our health if the proliferations of unqualified products is anything to go by.
The appetite to earn more money in more deceitful manner is seemingly a new profession in our towns. It looks as though successful businesses are measured by how much they sell but not by the quality of products they bring into the market.
The blooming deception of customers has been defined as smartness while the art of short-ganging and luring clients into buying things that they don’t need has been taken as a modern skill of operating business activities.
Many big cooperates have developed multi-level marketing and advertising departments that deal with enticing customers. Unfortunately some cooperates design and produce ad contents in a bid to part money for the unwary.
Pricing of goods
Islamic scholars state that market dynamics should be left undisturbed in determining prices of products and services. Market actors are prohibited to manipulate cost of goods in the interest of the public.
In Islamic scholarly parlance it is widely agreed that pricing of essential commodities such as food items should be within acceptable limits. Food should be made accessible to consumers in the most affordable way.
Double profiting from food commodities has been prohibited vehemently to protect the people especially the poor from exploitation.
Another unacceptable pricing conduct is the issue of hoarding. Keeping the commodities of general use in possession and not supplying them in the market for the sake of increasing the price is prohibited.
In times of shortage, hoarding items like wheat, barley, rice, maize, sugar and oil with the intention of selling them at higher rates to people who are compelled to purchase them is expressly haram and a big sin.
The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said that he heard from angel Jibril (AS) that there was a valley in hell and fierce fire blazed in it. When he asked the caretaker of hell about those who would be put there he said that it was for three groups: the hoarders, the drunkards and those who earned commission on unlawful deals.
Leveraging demand and buying physical inventory as well as purchasing future contracts with the intent of gaining undue profit is an escalation of injustice, a true avarice that will put a Muslim into the list of those who are cursed.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “The importer of an essential commodity into the town will be fed by Allah, and the hoarder will have Allah’s curse upon him.” Ibn Majah
Imam Al-Ghazali is very emphatic concerning truth in price quotations, contractual obligations, and in the use of prevailing market prices in all transactions. He strongly condemns any secret dealings and price manipulations on the part of buyers and sellers.
Al-Ghazali advises businessmen to be truthful in all economic transactions, and in this context, he reminds them of the Prophet’s (PBUH) statement, “A person will have the right to review the contract if he is deceived in any way.”
Narrated Hakim bin Hizam: Allah’s Apostle said, “The seller and the buyer have the right to keep or return goods as long as they have not parted or till they part; and if both the parties spoke the truth and described the defects and qualities (of the goods), then they would be blessed in their transaction, and if they told lies or hid something, then the blessings of their transaction would be lost.”
Weighing and measurement
The Holy Qur’an has stressed the importance of fairness in business: “And, O my people, give full measure and weight justly, and defraud not men of their things, and act not corruptly in the land making mischief. What remains with Allah is better for you, if you are believers” (Quran 85-86).
The almighty will have mercy upon he who is considerate of the buyer when selling and considerate of the seller when buying. This is a classical saying of the prophet (SAW). In every situation of transactions a Muslim is required to be considerate.
It is an unacceptable behaviour to withhold from people things that are due to them. Doing so is to commit evil on the earth with the intent of mischief. To be contended with the profit that is left with us by Allah after we have paid other people their due is an honourable practice of a pious merchant.
The companions of the prophet (SAW ) used to have strict adherence to the rule of law when it comes to weighting and measurement of products. It is reported that they use to scale things down to the customers side, sometimes increasing the measurement to avoid infiltration of haram into their earnings.
During the Golden age of Islam, Muslims produced a lot of fabrics like silk. It was a widespread practice to add extra measure of fabric to make sure that the customer is satisfied with the deal. If for instance one buys 20 metres of silk, they added a little more like 2 to 3 metres.
It is an Islamic adaab (conduct) to do business while considering the situation of the customer. Without consideration there will be mischief and injustice on earth affecting the entire socio-economic equilibrium of a community.
It was narrated from Jaabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: “May Allah have mercy upon a man who is easy-going when he sells, when he buys and when he asks for payment.”
Islam requires justice and compassion in trade transactions. It appreciates the role of both seller and buyer, each of which should be given their fair share of rights.
It accepts none of them to be put into loss situation, it should be a win-win situation where seller gets a reasonable profit and buyers gets quality service or product.
Abdullahi Jamaa is the founder of The Plu Media, the publisher of www.theplu.co.ke, a news and information portal for Kenya Muslims. You can contact him by mail: editor@theplu.co.ke or follow him on facebook at Abdul jamaa.
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