Inner Voice

Justice & Generosity

“Verily, God commands (you) to do justice and be generous…...” (Qur’an Chapter 16, Verse 90).

Islamic code of conduct is based on justice and love in every sphere of life. For example, it commands the trade to “give full measure and weight”. It is justice. Then it exhorts him to give more than the agreed quantity while, side by side, the buyer is encouraged to try to take less than that. It is love. In this atmosphere, friction and litigation are things unimaginable.

Another example: Islam prohibits hoarding food grain when there is a shortage in the market. It is justice, and it rules out that possibility of artificial famine and black market which are the cause of our present day society. But our religious leaders have gone further, setting the example of Islamic love and sympathy.

Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (A.S.) used to purchase his one year’s requirement of food grains at the beginning of the year. Once there was a danger of famine in Madina. He asked his men how much grain was left in his store. They assured him that there was enough to suffice for long time. Hearing it, he ordered them to take out all that grain and sell it at once at a much cheaper price. They protested that his family would have to suffer from the famine if the grain was sold out. Imam replied: “Let us alleviate the present calamity as much as we can. Afterwards, we will be just one of the public, sharing with them the hardships of the famine. We shall eat when they will eat; we will be hungry when they will be hungry”. This was the love. And what is our behavior these days? Famine conditions are created artificially to raise the prices. Such people literally feast on the dead-bodies of the poor. The present day economy of the world, which is based on un-Islamic principles, encourages human greed instead of suppressing it. Islamic love and sympathy have no room in the structure of today’s commerce and industry.

The people are taught from the childhood the God-less theory of the struggle for self-preservation and the survival of the fittest. Everybody is made to believe that his survival depends, not on co-operation with others, but on killing the weaklings. In this background, the strives and conflicts are inevitable.

This way of life, which denies the authority of God in our daily life, offers no solution to the sufferings of our times. The only refuge is in the precincts of Islam which accepts the authority of God in every Sphere of our life, be it material of spiritual.