The Reconstruction of the Islamic Mu‘amalat in the Midst of the Crisis of Capitalism

 

The Reconstruction of the Islamic Mu‘amalat in the Midst of the Crisis of Capitalism

By Umar Ibrahim Vadillo

Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

First, I would like to briefly explain the title of my Paper: the Reconstruction of the Islamic Mu‘amalat in the Midst of the Crisis of Capitalism. The title clearly points to the future, and this is appropriate for a Youth Conference. The word Islamic Mu‘amalat means the behaviour of the Muslims. This is how we conduct all our social and private affairs. The second part of the title is the Crisis of Capitalism. This concept is not something new. Capitalism had many crises before, and it will certainly continue to have them again. This is because it is the nature of capitalism to evolve through crisis. The next one, however, will be without parallel, because of the size the speculative economy has reached in relation to the real economy. That is, the financial markets have never been so out of proportion with the world of trading and production of physical things. Just to give you an idea: in derivatives alone, the size of the market is around 160 trillion USD, while real trading world-wide is a mere 4 trillion dollars. The problem is that the size of the derivatives market keeps multiplying by two every two and a half years.

Now, how does all this relate to our Mu‘amalat? Well, let us begin by saying that Islam is the deen of Allah. Allah has given us this deen to live in accordance with His Will, and to succeed in doing so. The domain of Islam encompasses all of existence. Islam expresses a world-view that places an order over the land of the Muslims and the land of the non-Muslims, under expressions such as Dar al‑Islam and Dar al‑Harb. Thus it commands over all existence, everything is in its place.

What is important is that Islam not only provides the guide, in itself identifies the means to achieve the objectives. I am saying this to reassure you that those people who say: “Yes, we now what it is, but it cannot be done,” say that because they are not looking at Islam, they are looking at themselves. And this expression is the very expression of hypocrisy. Remember the wonderful saying of Rumi: “The hypocrite is the one who says what is halal is not possible. Because indeed, what Allah has made halal is possible. If you do not understand this, then hit your head against the wall. And if you still do not understand, then hit harder.”

This signifies that you cannot separate the guide from the means. They are together. They are the same in the most intricate way. To understand this, you have to understand the nature of the Shari ‘ah. The Shari ‘ah is Allah-made. Not man-made. The Shari ‘ah is not only expressed in books of Fiqh, it is embedded in nature itself. What is halal is threaded together with existence, and so is what is haram. Your body, and nature, and all of existence revolves around this order, because it comes from the same Creator. We can say that the world was created with the Shari ‘ah and man built into it.

Now, this is very important because when we say something is “just”, it also means that it is “true”, and also, when something is “unjust” it is also “untrue”. The significance of this is that when we look at Riba’, we see something “unjust” but also “wrong”, “false”: an error. Riba is an error with nature. It is an error with the nature of the commercial transaction itself.

This implies that when the individual person engages in Riba, he is not merely making “a bad choice” and therefore feeling “morally wrong”. No, it is not only that. He is not only morally wrong. He has gone against nature itself, meaning his own nature and the entirety of existence. On the other hand, when you do something halal you are with nature. This could compare with swimming in a river, with the current or against the current. Swimming with the current seems easier and is more productive, swimming against the current demands an extra and continuous effort.

All of this means that Islam is in nature and therefore cannot be abolished, nor does it need human legislation to exist. It is already there. We need to enforce it, but the arena in which to enforce it is our own behaviour. That is why you cannot change or reform Islam. You may try, but Islam is still there unchanged. Some people have for example decided that we will have Islamic Banks, but what Riba’ is, and what is forbidden in Islam, will not change despite their futile efforts.

Another important thing is power. Power relates to the means. We know that La hawla wa la quwatta ila billah. This means that there is no power except by Allah. Power belongs to Allah. So, there is no need to quarrel. It belongs to Allah. But some people will tell you: “Yes, yes, but in reality, in practical terms the Americans have the power.” A‘udhubillah, such a statement is an expression of kufr. Muslims cannot say it. The truth is that Allah has power over everything. Before Him we are just specs of dust. Because of this knowledge the Muslim has one virtue that the kafir cannot have. The Muslim can borrow Allah’s power by submitting to Him. You abandon your attributes, and then you can borrow His. The more slave you are to Him, the more powerful you are by Him. The more you submit to Him, the higher you will rise. And this is the key to understanding “the means”.

The means are not hidden. We veil them with our ignorance. They are there. Present in nature itself. It is all around us. As Shaykh Abdalqadir told me, when I just became a Muslim: “Umar, all the means fisabilillah are within the reach of your hand.” Within the reach of your hand?—I asked myself. This compass is so small! I did not understand it then, but I knew it was true, and I forced myself to make it real to me. It was only later, with the experience of this wisdom, that I could understand it.

What we are saying is that the guide is there and the means are there available to us. For us to find them, we have to unveil ourselves: we have to think right. We have to force ourselves to see them and thus make them accessible.

Let us look at what we call “problems”, or difficulties, or tribulations. You have to know that all the difficulties that we shall encounter from now up until the full establishment of Islam, all those tribulations, have one single origin: ourselves. What we encounter in every “problem” are our fears. And those  fears must go one by one, until only one remains: fear of Allah. Any other fear is false. Mawlana Rumi also says, “What you fear is what you worship”. So do not fear anything except your Creator. When you are going fisabilillah and one door is shut, another one is open which is better. So do not despair, but look around, because somewhere there is an open door. Tribulations are signals along the path, for those who know.

And the “enemies”, what are the enemies whom we are fighting, who oppress us? Shaykh Darqawi in his Letters says: “For the ‘arifin, his enemies cannot harm him.” This is because he and they are in different worlds. It is like saying that they exist in different dimensions. They do not reach each other.

Now we look at our life’s environment and there we find things that are bad/haram, and those that are oppressing us. Our task is to get rid of them. We have to fight them. But before we engage, let us look at them more carefully. As we said before: the things that are bad are also false.

Let us take an example. Taking a mortgage on your house is one of the worse things you can possible do: it is riba and it is haram. But people find themselves obliged to do it, and everybody does it. We can argue—when we look at the larger picture—that the system as a whole is terrible. It enslaves people in the most extraordinary way, for some people for most of their productive lives. But it perpetuates itself by creating an alternative which is even worse: not to have a mortgage. This logic raps around itself. There is no escape to the trap. Isn’t there? Of course there is.

We could go around on a tour saying publicly the system of mortgages, the banking system that runs our life, is bad for us. But believe me, it would not matter what we would say, we would only be diminishing the nature of the problem and therefore perpetuating it. Because the people who really know how to get rid of it, are doing it, instead of talking about it. Because even if you try to express how bad a mortgage is, it is nothing in comparison with the tragedy of the people who suffer from it. There are no words to describe the catastrophic reality of it. And this is the fine point: First, it is unjust, but also anti-natural, contra natura. Second, it is an act and it can only be fought with another act, the nature of which is natural.

Take another example, the dollar. It is false. It is ridiculous. It perpetuates an immense injustice in the world. But again, with a certain sarcasm, some people have said: “To have dollars is bad, but it is worse not have them.” And here again is the logic of the trap.

Let us now look at this matter from a different perspective. This problem is false, and therefore it is an error. In tactics, let us say, in a chess game, when your opponent makes a wrong move—when he makes a mistake—it is a good thing. You would in fact exhort the enemy to make errors, because it is in your favour.

These things we call ‘oppressing problems’ are against nature. So go on the side of nature, that is, go in the way of the Shari ‘ah. Then, all those problems are in your favour.

Let us look at the dollar again. From one perspective it is the trap that has ensnared the world. The world is enslaved by this false piece of paper. But from our perspective, this is not a problem but instead a magnificent opportunity. It is an opportunity of a magnitude as large as it is when seen as a trouble. Thus, the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.

Look at this paper money again. It could not be more worthless. Whether it is valuable or worthless depends on us. It does not depend on the paper. It depends on the Muslims, not on the kuffar.

The alternative to paper money is the Islamic Gold Dinar. The issue is simple: take the Dinar and throw away this worthless paper away. The Gold Dinar is the Shari ‘ah. Paper money is the religion of false fears.

But before you rush and throw the paper down the toilet, let me tell you something. This is not an individual affair. This is not your personal affair. This is our affair. “Ours” refers to the Muslim community. A Muslim community is a group of Muslims with an Amir. Without Amir, there is no community, only a bunch of individual Muslims at the mercy of kufr, which is not merciful at all.

Amr is the pillar without which you cannot even start to think about the Shari ‘ah. The Shari ‘ah without amr is not our Shari ‘ah. The  Shari ‘ah takes shape and order—it becomes efficient—only with an Amir. The Amir points towards the aim. Without that pointing at the aim, there is no aim—you cannot even begin to move. It is like a football team without order, they will never win. You need order and an aim.

And this is when we come to speak about leadership. This, I hope, is especially relevant to you, because from among you are our future leaders. To be a good leader you need to be this, that, and the other, and so on and so forth. But I will tell you what you need above everything else: understanding of victory.

If you do not understand checkmate, you cannot play chess. It is obvious. You have to know where to go. If you do not, do not try, and please do not confuse others. Without understanding victory you will be leading your people the wrong way, or—which is the same—you will not be doing anything at all. It is better to say “I do not know.”

But today we want to know. We want to understand victory. Victory is the word that is missing. When you mention it you already are on the path to it. Because when you mention it you already want it. And to want it is the first condition: Will to victory. The result of victory is the full establishment of a Dar al-Islam.

In this path of victory we know that we have all the means and all the guidance. The means and the guidance are our Shari ‘ah. A victorious Shari ‘ah. A Shari ‘ah with a leader. A leader who can indicate the means, a leader who takes the means and uses them. In using them successfully, in leading, he is the leader.

Among ourselves are leaders of communities in different parts of the world, and to you particularly I dedicate this part of my talk.

You have achieved leadership and the respect of your community that follows you. This is already very strong. I want you to think victory with me.

You must know that it does not matter what comes before you, it is all under the power of Allah. He is in charge. Every bad thing or problem created by the kuffar is your opportunity, everything good done by your people is your strength. Good and bad are your strength. Look at the larger evils, because in them you will find your greatest opportunity.

The enemy today is not represented by Christianity or Judaism. These religions are over. The only religion today—the way we Muslims understand religion, that is, as a way of life—is capitalism. This is a false way of life. Make no mistake. Do not fight phantoms. What people live is a life of capitalism, and this is what matters. The good news is that everything in capitalism is wrong. Everything, because it is founded on wrong. It means everything is for the taking.

Capitalism is a dream for you, it could not be easier, because it is so wrong, and so clearly wrong. To dismantle capitalism could not be easier, because it is dismantling itself. If you do nothing it will collapse, because it is anti-natural. The dollar will return to its natural value, zero, even if you do nothing.

But if you do something you will change the world as it is. Capitalism is against the flow of the river. It is anti-natural. Every little effort that you do in the way of the Shari ‘ah will have tremendous effect: it is like swimming with the current.

Take gold, dump the dollar. But with brains. With order. With a sense of victory. This is where you come in, the leader. You have the most ignorant opposition in the history of kufr, since they are more ignorant than ever before. The existence of a Dar a-Islam was a good thing even for the kuffar, but now they do not even have that.

Gather strength with what you have, and seek what you need if you do not have it. It is all available. Preserve the purity of what you do, because this is your strength. Gather, gather, gather. Put the elements together and then explode with fury when you are ready to make a decisive move. Do not blow your trumpets before time, before you are ready. And you will know you are ready because ‘you do what you say’. The day you use the Dinar in your life, that day you can speak about the Dinar. That day everyone will listen to you and follow you, but not before.

In the meanwhile, prepare and plan for things to come with the highest expectations. The order of capitalism as you see it today is crumbling at a rapid pace. Its reaching its next natural crisis. This Crisis of Capitalism will be the opportunity to contest the system, for that we need to master our Mu‘amalat. Do not bother yourself with how small you are. Bother yourself only about how pure it is. You already have achieved something extraordinary: you are the leader of your community. With you, because of you, reconstructing the Mu‘amalat is possible.

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