Interfaith Dialogue in Islam

Charity (zakat) should be collected from their rich and distributed among their poor. (Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith no. 1395 and Sahih Muslim, hadith no. 19) One unfortunate aspect of human relationships is that people tend to give to others only when they hope to gain something in return. Money, they feel, should be returned with interest. When such an understanding becomes a factor in our social organization, exploitation becomes rampant; everyone is ready to plunder everyone else. This results in society falling a prey to oppression and disorder. Society should be so ordered that the ‘haves’ are able to assist the ‘have-nots’. Believers have the assurance of God that if they give to others, whatever they give will be returned to them many times over in the next world; their trust in God’s promise is complete. In a society ordered in this way, feelings of antagonism and indifference are not allowed to develop: people are not bent on exploiting one another. There is never an atmosphere of mutual resentment and dissatisfaction, for everyone lives in peace with his neighbour. Such a society, in short, is a haven of contentment and well-being. Did the Prophet Muhammad live a simple and humble life, or did he have limited means and live a poor man’s life? For short, what was his wealth status? T he word used in the Quran for money is qiyam, which literally means a place to settle down. God has made wealth a means of qiyam for people, that is, it works to provide a base to people for their livelihood. We need money as a base for what we do in this world; we do not require money for luxury. Here, ‘base’ means that money forms a kind of material support for the purpose we have to achieve in life. For example, installation of an elevator in a house could be done as a display of wealth, or it could be done to facilitate movement of the elderly and those who may not be able to use the staircase. The former approach would be against the teaching of Islam. But the latter approach, which is to facilitate movement, shall be looked upon favourably. Everyone is allowed to earn money to acquire a base for the work they have to do in life. The quantum of wealth earned by an individual is not the concern of Islam; the individual must simply earn his livelihood honestly and spend it on utility rather than on vanities. Once Umar ibn al-Khattab came to the Prophet’s house and saw the latter lying down on a mat. The Prophet’s body had marks from the substance the mat was made of. This made Umar weep, as he realized that the Prophet, being a messenger of God, was living in difficulty while his contemporary kings were leading luxurious lives. The Prophet explained to Umar that we must be satisfied with what fulfils our need. Kings and emperors are concerned about living in luxury, but for the Prophet whatever fulfilled his need was enough. In today’s age, several things have