The rights of the Poor in Islam

In the 2016 US Presidential Election Cycle, progressive candidates have taken to making the case for supporting the poor by taking back the earnings of the wealthy and helping support the poor. From the social standpoint of Islam, supporting society’s poor is a constructive value. Three foundational sources eminently manifest Islam’s unremitting admonition to its adherents to uphold this core ideal.

1 Islam puts forward a set of foundational concepts and moral values for supporting the poor.

2 A wealth of Scriptural Texts exhort Muslims to stand ever on the side of the poor.

3 Islam lays down a set of statutory rules to actuali]e communal and individual support for the poor.

Let us take a closer look at these three sources of material and psycho-social backing for the needy in Islam.

I TH( FOUR PR(C(PTS THAT VINDICAT( SUSTAININ* TH( POOR 1 The Right to Defend Oneself Against Wrongdoing (Al-Inti ṣâr Baʿd Al-

There is no cause for blame or punishment against those who defend themselves against wrongdoing, for they do what they do by [divine] right. Such defense is, therefore, in the very nature of the case, neither an act of excess nor wrongdoing. Blame and punishment, rather, attach only to those who wrong people and commit injustice without any right.

The First Form of Authority for Self-Defense: Bodily Injury: There is no blame on one who suffers wrongful corporal harm at the hands of another if he avenges himself against the one who has wronged him, provided he does this in a manner proportional to the injury inflicted on him.

The Second Form of Authority for Self-Defense: Transgressing One’s Right: A crime against one’s person, right, or property, for which there is a prescribed divine punishment ( ḥadd) (e.g., adultery, fornication, theft, etc.), entitles one to redress. However, the community [not the individual] is responsible for administering the punishment for any of such crime.

The Third Form of Authority for Self-Defense: Financial *rievance: The aggrieved party has the right to fight for his usurped financial right until he extricates his right from its usurper. Hence, one of the primary forms of āulm, or wrongdoing—which Muslims are duty-bound to remove—are social injustices inflicted on the poor. ʿAlî ibn Abî >âlib, a Companion renowned for his discerning juridical acumen, and the Fourth of the Rightly *uided Caliphs, said, in this regard:

Allah has indeed imposed upon the wealthy the [divine] duty to dedicate part of their wealth to fulfilling the basic needs of the poor in their communities. Hence, whenever the poor of a community can find nothing to protect themselves from the ravages of hunger and homelessness, then such is sufficient proof of [wrongful] neglect of the commands of Allah on the part of the wealthy, for which Allah will call them to account and duly punish them on the Day of Judgment. ʿAlî also said: “Never have I seen [the aggregation] of vast wealth, save that I have observed a usurped right [of others] along with it.”

2 Championing the 9alues of Equality and Justice (Al-Difâʿʿan Qiyam al-Musâwah wa’l-ʿdâlah) There are many Texts of Revelation that exhort Muslims to equality (musâwah) and that praise equality. Abû Hurayrah narrated: “The Messenger of Allah was once asked: µWho is the most honorable person, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied: µThe one who fears Allah most’” (Muslim). [This is against a social backdrop in Arabia, wherein honor was attached to lineage, tribe, association, and wealth. Here, taqwa, pious fear of *od, becomes the great equali]er among people, for no other attribute elevates one man over any other.

3 Emphasi]ing the Leadership of the Poor (Imâmat Al-Mustaḍʿafîn)

Islam’s foundational concept of vindicating the support and sustenance of the poor, who are invariably downtrodden wherever (yes, wherever!) the rule of Islam is not applied, is implicit in the âyah: Yet We intended to confer favor on those oppressed in the land and to make them exemplary leaders in faith; and to make them inheritors of Our commandments (Sûrat Al-Qa ṣa ṣ, 28:5). This concept points out a divine sunnah (pl. sunan)—the manifestation of Allah’s will in human history. Here sunnah means Allah’s unalterable and established ways. whose materiali]ation is inevitable—provided their conditions are satisfied.

4. Rejecting the Leadership of the Affluent Elite (Rafḍ Imâmat Al-Mutrafûn) Contrary to the leadership of the mustaḍʿafûn (based on economic and political deputation, or istikhlâf), stands the leadership of the mutrafûn (the affluent elite, or power elite), a leadership premised on insolent arrogance and economic and political oppression).

II T(XTUAL PROOFS OBLI*IN* SUPPORTIN* TH( POOR

The nu ṣû ṣ, or Revealed Texts, exhorting Muslims to support the poor abound. There is the category of nu ṣû ṣ that censure a negative view of the poor and of poverty—a view based on social discrimination, which was rampant in the ignorant pre-Islamic Arab communities. Allah says, quoting the Makkan polytheists:

And they said: Why was this Quran not sent down upon a great man from [one of] the two [leading] cities, so that we could be sure of its truth? (Sûrat Al-Zukhruf, 43:31).

III RUL(S (AH.AEM) THAT MA.( SUPPORTIN* TH( POOR A R(ALIT< The First Application: The *overning Authority’s Responsibility to Alleviate Poverty from Society—and Available Mechanisms Islam puts the weighty force of divine rule and inspirational exhortation into its core moral value of supporting the poor. It does this by providing specific communal and individual mechanisms that oblige paying the poor their due right in the wealth of the community and in the wealth of the individual. Islam, moreover, defines wealth as any surplus that rises to a relative amount—for a sustained time—over and beyond the ordinarily recurring basic needs for oneself and one’s dependents. It also sets up a hierarchy of the needy to which the governing authority and the individual must give:

Any authority that governs in accordance with Islam has the care of the poor as a primary task in behalf of the Ummah. As such, Allah gives it obligations and mechanisms by which it may fulfill its social mission. =akât: Allah said: “Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect []akah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler ±an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing and Wise” (Sûrat Al-Tawbah, 9:60).

Public Assistance: On the authority of Abu Hurayrah who quoted the Prophet as saying: According to the Book of Allah, I have the best title to the guardianship of believers. So if anyone of you die leaving behind a debt or poor dependents, let me know and I will act as his guardian (Muslim). Stipends (ʿAṬâ’): ʿUmar ibn Al-Kha ṭ ṭâb said: “By Allah! No one individual is more entitled to these public funds than another, and there is none save that he has a share in these public funds, whether I have given him of them or not. I will apportion monetary allowances to people according to their endeavors in furthering the cause of Allah and according to their needs. And by Allah! If I am to live, I shall make sure every person—even the shepherd in the desert—gets his rightful share of the public funds.”

Public Loans: Ibn ʿÂbdîn narrates in his Hashiyât Ibn ʿÂbdîn from Abû Yûsuf (Abû Ḥanifah’s student-associate and author of Al-Kharâj, or Property Tax): “The one who does not have the financial means to cultivate his kharâjî (taxable) land [that is, land on which kharâj “property tax” is leviable] should be granted a loan from the public treasury to enable him to cultivate his land.” The Second Application: Poverty Alleviating

Mechanisms Performed by the Individuals of the Community.

Voluntary charitable donations (Ṣadaqât): Allah states: So fear Allah as much as you can [O believers]. Thus, hear and obey [His Commandments]. And spend charitably on what is good for your own souls. For whoever is safeguarded from the avarice of his own soul—then it is these who are the truly successful (Sûrat Al-Taghâbun, 64:16). Sponsoring orphans and widows: The Prophet ﷺ said: I and the sponsor of the orphan shall be like this in the *arden of Paradise (he said the word “this” and raised up his index and middle fingers touching together [indicating closeness] (Bukhârî and Muslim).

Atonements (kaffârât): Allah states: Allah will not hold you accountable for unintended vows in your oaths. But He will hold you accountable for what you have [intentionally] bound yourselves to by oaths, the atonement of which is feeding ten indigent people with the average of what you feed your own families; or clothing them; or freeing a human being from bondage (Sûrat Al-Mâ’idah, 5:89). Endowments in perpetuity for the poor (Awqâf): The waqf emerged as a practical translation of the advisement of the Prophet :ﷺ “When a Child of Adam dies, all his deeds are severed save of three kinds: A charity in perpetuity ( ṣadaqah jâri’ah) [a charitable endowment from which the entitled continue to benefit]; [preserved] knowledge from which benefit is derived; and a righteous child who prays for one. (Tirmidhî)

OUT OF ALLAH’S PROVISION From the foregoing, it is clear that Islam leaves no loopholes, social or spiritual, in man’s moral obligation to pay the poor their due right out of whatever Allah has vouchsafed the believer and his community. R(TURN TO TRU( PI(T<

For the obligation, inspiration, and testimony to true belief that support for the poor represents are conceptually deep-set in the mentality that Revelation builds. An unrivaled plethora of Islam’s Scriptural Texts underlines this believing mindset. And a kingdom of entrenched institutions divinely designed to uplift and protect the poor actuali]es it—if indeed one is a true believer, and if, indeed, a society’s governance apparatus rules in the name of Allah.

Source: aljumuah.com