Universality of the Mahdi's Mission

The Economical System of Salawat

Introduction

In the awaited time of the 12th Imam - may he return soon - a very special form of economy is predicted. On the one hand nobody will find any poor to give his Zakat to him and on the other hand he will be able to receive whatever he wants by articulating a "Salawat", greetings to the Holy Prophet of Islam and his pure family, the Ahl-ul-Bayt.

Scheich Mufid quoted a tradition [hadith] by Abu Abdillah (a.) which al-Mufaddhal ibn Umar had heard, that a time will come in which earth will show all its treasures. And man will search for somebody to give him his money or to spend his Zakat but he will not find anybody in need . Wealth will flow like water, everyone will be independent and have surplus wealth and property to the extent that nobody will be in the need of Zakat and Sadaqa thus receiving of Zakat and Sadaqa will be discarded.

The today's question regarding this prophecy is: How can we imagine such a time? Will it be a miracle, or are we able to prepare it partly? Is this form of wealth a special one for the time of Imam Mahdi (a.), while earth hides this wealth until he returns, or does this already exist in parts, but is misused? And the most important question in this regard shall be: What can we do to prepare that time, also in our economy?

Examples of specific Islamic economy

Since the existence of mankind, we never have seen a time, where the whole mankind has been provided inside a worldwide economy. There have been always lots of poor starving and dying of thirst, and on the other hand extreme rich people, who did not help the poor. This is one aspect of the story of Cain and Abel.

It is also the story of Moses and Pharaoh. The same story exists in the time of our Prophet in Mecca, when the poor have not been provided or even helped by the Sufyanis. The story remained through all the Islamic history from Umayyads over Abbasids and all the dynasties ruling in the several parts of Muslim world. In our today's world every single day about 30.000 people die in average, because they have not enough to eat or no clean water to drink.

So we have no comprehensive example, neither in history nor today, for the awaited time of the Salawat-System. But nevertheless there are some exemplary events, which can give an idea of such an economy.

In Islamic history an event about a necklace of the blessed Fatima-tu-Zahra (a.) is known very well, which she gave to a poor man. The necklace on its way gave food and clothes to a poor, freed a slave and performed several other blessed things before returning to its owner Fatima (a.). Although she had "spent" the necklace, she received it back without any further payment and the necklace on its return way fulfilled several other "payments", like freeing a slave.

Another example is known from the time of Imam Hussain (a.). A few days before the battle of Kerbela, Imam Hussain (a.) gave water to Hurr al-Riyahi and his companions. This water freed Hurr from his jails of falsehood and returned to the Imam (a.) in the hands of Sukayna, who got the water from Hurr's wife at the evening after Aschoora. Imam Hussain had left this world, but the water he gave, came back to him.

These two examples show that the economy of truth works within other principles than our today's economy. Nevertheless it is possible, that even today's economical situation can give signs according to a future of just economy. Today's economy work with money. Any economical work without money seems to be not thinkable. To understand this aspect, at first it has to be asked, what money is?

What is money and why is interest [riba] forbidden?

Money today is any good that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts. Money also serves as a standard of value for measuring the relative worth of different goods and services and as a store of value. One can say that money is a form of standardised certificate of debt. Person A gives person B any good and person B hands over to person A a standardised certificate of debt for this good, which person A can use in a defined economy.

In former times money had its own value. The standardized coins have been produced out of gold or silver, so that the money itself at the same time was a good itself. But today's money is no longer the same as real value. The papers in our hands have no own value. It is only a standardised certificate of debt and has its value only if there is someone to honour this money with any goods. Nevertheless, it is used as a good itself to get interest [riba].

Interest [riba] is another part of today's world economy. If someone is ready to lend his existing standardised certificate of debts - called money - to another person, this other person has to give back the lend money one defined day. But in addition to this lend money, he has to give back an additional money, which is called interest or "Riba" as Islamic term.

As we know, interest is forbidden in Islam. To prove how wrong and defect the system of "Riba" is, on can assume, what would happen, if someone living in the time of Prophet Muhammad, more than 1400 years ago, and had invested only one single Tuman with 5% interest. The result would be that his today progeny would posses nearly 5 Quadrilliarde (4,62401 x 1029) Tuman. This is a 5 with 29 zeros behind! And you can imagine that this is much more than today's existing money in Iran.

This corrupt system of "Riba" can only exist for some decades and needs afterwards a world war to start again by zero. Today we live in the era of such a crash. But this era gives us a good chance to understand, why the Salawat-System could work even without miracles. Therefore we need a short view into the recent existing government debts.

Government debts

Germany today has about 1500 milliard (American: billion) EUR debts. The leader of the Western World USA today has about 8500 milliard (American: billion) EUR debts, and Japan 7000 milliard (American: billion) EUR. If we add only the debts of these three countries (Germany, USA, Japan), the result is 17 billion (American: trillion) EUR, it is a 17 with 12 zeros behind.

This money - or let us remember: standardised certificates of debts - has been given by someone, who does not need it today and who lives from the interest [riba]. We can say that this world even today has debts of much more than 17 billion EUR (American: trillion), which nobody needs actually. If we would have a look into the situation of much more countries the result would be enormous; let us assume around 35 billion EUR.

If we divide this debts to the existing world population of 7 milliard (American: billion) every single person in this world, every child, every old, every woman and man, every one of you would have a starting capital of 5000 EUR which is the annual salary for the majority of world population. A family with 5 person could get 25.000 EUR.

This short calculation was only to show, how the already existing money or debts in this world could lead to a moderate richness of recent mankind if distributed justly. Instead, unfortunately all these debts are used to oppress the people of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and several other countries of the world. The problem of unfair distribution enfolds not only money, but also goods and the valuing of it. A typical example is the payment for fuel.