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Name
Hind
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Profession
Question
As the rate of poverty is rising, how does Islam work to reduce and limit it?
Answer
In most of the poorest Muslim countries poverty is in fact and unfortunately rising. It is declining in East and south East Asia.
The Islamic approach to dealing with poverty is to tackle it from several angles. One is the Zakah that is a right to the poor, 2) is the way Zakah funds are distributed, i.e., by creating capital investment owned by the poor and poor also are employed in these projects. 3) Education that has become costly should be financed through Waqf (Endowment) Funds the way it was done in our history. Also health services to the poor should be financed by Awqaf (Endowments) too. 4) creating a form of micro-finance institutions that combine distributing grants for immediate consumption needs and interest-free financing to the poor to create micro projects 5) finally creating social awareness and sense of social responsibility towards the poor and the need to raise their economic fate to bring it to the level of others in our contemporary life.
Name
SAAD
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Profession
Question
Could Zakah alone help eradicate poverty?
Answer
Dear Br. Saad
Yes, it can under normal non-drastic situation of chronic poverty and great income disparity. But under such drastic conditions, there are other means too such as: 1) collection of Zakah in advance, 2) international collective responsibility toward the poor 3) addressing the issues of waste and corruption in government, and of course Awqaf and micro-finance.
Name
Shadi
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Profession
Question
Salams dear Dr. Monzer. In the light of the world financial crisis, what are Islamic solutions to such a problem?
Answer
Dear Br. Shadi,
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh
To begin with, the problem would have not taken such dimensions if the Islamic principle of prohibition of sale of debts was activated. This is also where the solution in my opinion should begin: 1) stop future securitization of debts, and 2) some wholesale finance institutions shall fall the same way we've seen recently, but we should go back to the root of the problem by helping house buyers pay their debt.
Notice in this crisis, the big bankers are falling apart not the retail bankers, big bankers are those who bought the debt securities. Also pooring government funds should go (ok through banks) to final users such as goods producing companies and businesses those who are squeezed now because big bankers feel uneasy about getting their money back.
Of course there are many other measures but I believe that the republican self-centered mind of the American administration is not going to care much about the economy or the country but only about the big while the majority of us is willing to neglect these big blood sukkers!
Wa Allahu A'alam
Wa Alhamdu Lillahi Rab al Alamin
Wassalam
Name
Jack
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Profession
Question
Will the world financial crisis raise the rate of poverty in the world?
Answer
Dear jack
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh
Yes, of course, it has already started squeezing commodity production and consequently increasing unemployment and the chain is rolling...
Wa Allahu A'alam
Wa Alhamdu Lillahi Rab al Alamin
Wassalam
Name
Su`aad
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Profession
Question
Some countries--such as Egypt--witnessed decrease in the prices of some food stuff last few days. Is this the impact of the world financial crisis? Frankly, people are happy with the decrease of prices. Would prices witness sharp rising again?
Answer
Dear Sr. Su'aad
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh
It is the impact of a combination of reduced oil prices, expectation of good agriculture seasons especially of rice and other main food staples, reduced speculative demand because of the financial crunch, etc. I think there will be further reduction in food prices through 2009 but we also must remember that the price elasticity of food items is generally low, so we do not expect high decline.
Wa Allahu A'alam
Wa Alhamdu Lillahi Rab al Alamin
Wassalam
Name
Masoet
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Profession
Question
As Muslims living in a rich country, yet the govt cannot support all the way it should. What are our duties as Muslims. Should we see to the needs in country first or send money to those who are more in need like Africa, Asia, etc? Even though we pay lots of taxes should we have the attitude we don't care about what happens in our own country.
Answer
Dear Masoet
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh
The answer to such situations is always multi facets. we are tax payers but even tax payers still help beyond thinking about the tax they pay to governments.
Yes, of course we have responsibility toward poor people in our own countries and we should care about poor in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We have moral and religious responsibility towards all the poor and we must give here and there, although I argue that Zakah should be given to Muslims only, but zakah is not the only duty when there are need for more as during these times we live through now.
Wa Allahu A'alam
Wa Alhamdu Lillahi Rab al Alamin
Wassalam
Name
Heba
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Profession
Question
Poverty is very bad situation to the extent that the Prophet used to ask Allah's protection against Kufr (disbelief) and poverty. Should a Muslim be keen to be rich even if he would give limited time to spirituality such as reading Qur'an, making dhikr, etc.?
Answer
Dear Sr.
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh
The concept of Worship ('Ibadah) in our religion does not limit itself to rituals, it rather include work, business and all economic activities, it even includes all pleasure activities of human being as long as one does all the above with the inside feeling and aspiration that one obeys Allah by these actions/activities and make them in accordance with the Shari'ah in matter of contracts and what to produce, use or trade.
In addition the concept of remembrance of Allah (Dhikr) does not make it only in the form of sitting and mentioning the Name of Allah many times. Remembrance of Allah is in seeing Him vivid while you do your normal life activities and feeling that He is with us and seeing or watching us all the time. The whole five daily prayers and reading Qur'an and other religious worships do not take more than few minutes a day. I don't see any conflict between working to become rich and reading Qur'an or praying.
After all, you can't be like a machine all day long and every one of us needs certain change every little while, let this change be prayers, reading Qu'an, Dhikr and the like and then go back quickly to your work. This is the rich life of anyone of us, isn't it?
Wa Allahu A'alam
Wa Alhamdu Lillahi Rab al Alamin
Wassalam
Name
Editor
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Profession
Answer
Finally, we would like to thank our guest for speaking to Islamonline viewers today, and we also thank all those who participated in this dialogue. We request our readers to join us in the upcoming sessions.
