Voice of British Muslim Women

Nooresahar Ahmad, Hartlepool

Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, it is estimated 1.6 billion people are in “immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed”. In contrast, the number of billionaires in the world has reached 2095- none of whom, I would assume, will feel any impact on their economic livelihoods. Previous to the pandemic, the question of whether individuals should be able to amass such vast amounts of wealth had been debated. The cut off point for how much money one person should possess now seems to be, for some people, one billion dollars. As one article in the New York Times put it, “A billion dollars is wildly more than anyone needs… It’s far more than anyone might reasonably claim to deserve, however much he believes he has contributed to society”, adding, “At some level of extreme wealth, money inevitably corrupts. On the left and the right, it buys political power… [and] serves primarily to perpetuate ever-greater wealth, often unrelated to any reciprocal social good.” There are examples which bear testament to these assertions- such as that of the Koch Brothers, American billionaires who have funded an organisation which has tilted the whole landscape of American politics to the right. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is another example- whilst he is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026, employees have complained of the high pressure environment Amazon enforces, with Muslim workers in Minnesota reporting having to “choose prayer over bathroom” in their short timed breaks so that they don’t lose their jobs because of a dip in their packing rate.

Though my knowledge of Islamic economic thought is certainly limited, one thing I’ve learnt from Islam’s pure and just teachings, is that wealth is not ours to hoard, but given to us by Allah and best used when serving humanity. Take just one example from the Holy Qur’an: “…And those who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah — give to them the tidings of a painful punishment,” (9:34). His Holiness Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad described the meaning of this verse, saying, “the verse… refers to the gold and silver that did not give any benefit to the general public. God says that on the day of judgement this gold and silver is returned to you. But since gold and silver are of no use in the afterlife, it only ‘brands their foreheads and their sides and their backs’. In this way they find out how sinful it was to withhold wealth from the benefit of mankind.” [i]

Whilst there are cases of philanthropic billionaires who donate huge amounts to charity, such as Bill Gates, who founded the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’ which focuses on improving the health of those living in extreme poverty, research at Oxford University has warned that philanthropic interventions can skew public health programmes ‘towards issues of the greatest concern to wealthy donors…which are not necessarily top priority for people in the recipient country.’ Professor of Global Public Health at Queen Mary University, David McCoy, put it simply in saying, ‘Appealing to the mega rich to be more charitable is not a solution to global health problems. We need a system that does not create so many billionaires and… this kind of philanthropy is either a distraction or potentially harmful to the need for systemic change to the political economy.’ Indeed, His Holiness Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad noted, “if certain economic problems cannot be corrected through voluntary actions… then legal means should be adopted to rectify such situations and bring them in line with the divine will.” [ii]

In short, there seems to be a growing feeling that a billion dollars in the hands of one person creates far more moral, political and social problems than it solves. And as governments all over the world plan how best to deal with the economic aftermath of the coronavirus, I find myself wishing politicians would take inspiration from Islamic teachings: “Whatever Allah has given to His Messenger as spoils from the people of the towns is for Allah and for the Messenger and for the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, that it may not circulate only among those of you who are rich…” (59:8)

[i] https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Economic-System-of-Islam.pdf

[ii] Ibid