Professor Umar Ibrahim Vadillo

Dr. Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, Pioneer of the Dinars reintroduction and director of E-Dinar Ltd, is known as the designer of these coins. e is also the author of books, written on Islamic finance and Economics. !mong his books are "The Fatwa on Paper Money", "The Return of the Gold Dinar" and "The Esoteric Deviation in Islam", "ublished b# $edinah Press.

% - &he 'udgment on (iba * - Pa"er $one# + Legal 'udgment ) + &he -uture .f Islam 0 - Priorities in the -i1h and the $uamalat 2 -&he (eturn of the 3uilds 4 - &he -allac# of the 5Islamic 6ank

) , %/ %2 *% *,

6iogra"h#
Umar Ibrahim Vadillo was born in %740. !fter attending the !ugustinian 8ollege in 9a:arre he went to stud# agronom# at the Uni:ersit# of $adrid. ;hile still at uni:ersit# he embraced Islam. &here followed a long "eriod of stud# a""l#ing the commercial "arameters defined in Islams founding legal document Imam $aliks !l $uwatta, to modern financial "ractice. &his led to his studies on <akat, which im"lied the necessar# use of the Islamic 3old Dinar and =il:er Dirham. e has lectured e>tensi:el# in :arious uni:ersities, notabl# in $orocco, $ala#sia and Indonesia. is "romotion of an Islamic real wealth currenc# was ado"ted b# Dr. Erbakan, &urkish Prime $inister until de"osed, as well as the late ?ing assan II of $orocco who undertook to restore <akat to its correct legal "osition, @ust before his death. Umar Ibrahim Vadillos stud# of Dinar-based finance was used as a working "a"er b# Dr. $ahathir, the former Prime $inister of $ala#sia. e is currentl# engaged in "romoting the issue in Indonesia . e resides in 8a"e &own, =outh !frica.

&he 'udgment on (iba

Introduction This paper on Riba' is of primordial importance, a necessary step on the path to Islamic recovery in our time. It is by 'Umar Ibrahim Vadillo whose great near-thousand page study, 'The soteric !eviation in Islam', mar"s the historic turning-point which ta"es us beyond the two false and twin positions of terror and 'tolerance'. 'Umar #asha's boo" can be purchased from$ #ortobello %oo"s &'( #ortobello Road )ondon *+, -RU Tel../a0$ 122 3,4',( 562 &+66 &he 'udgment on (iba It is generally assumed that from the point of view of material wealth, things have never been better than today. That, despite 7ust crossing over the most murderous century in human history which saw the first-time use of weapons of mass destruction on civilian population, the colossal annihilation of the eco-system and fauna, and the largest numbers of starvation victims "nown in history. 8ll past and present miseries are forgotten before the general assumption that the average person today en7oys a standard of living not e9ualled in any other time. :et, it has not been the same for all people of the world. *hile a material improvement has been achieved for a relatively small portion of man"ind, the bottom half still lives on an income inferior to the poverty line of ' U;! a day, and collectively inferior to the income of the &(< largest individual earners. This dise9uilibrium in wealth goes hand in hand with an e9ual in political and military imbalance that has turned one nation in particular into the police ruler of the world. !uring this period of massive shift of wealth to a small corner of the world, =uslims have lost an immense part of their past economic and political status. The political unity represented by the >halifate that granted =uslims a voice in world affairs was devastated, and instead a trail of tiny nations emerged under the auspices and new legal frame of the U?. )arge parts of our population belong to the bottom half of world earners and our combined @!# does not reach +.+, of the U;. #olitically divided, and losers in the economic sharing, =uslims only face the prospect of being underdogs in the present economic system. Under this regime a continuous erosion of our social and cultural life is inevitable which in turn results in the increased anger and frustration of our youth. This present system of economic dise9uilibrium is self-preserved by diverting attention away from economic matters into political matters. The economic system which causes the imbalance is ta"en for granted and individual political tyrants become the focus of political struggle. Under these circumstances the economic system remains un9uestionable and therefore its continuation is granted. 8t its core this system of dise9uilibrium which we call capitalism is based on usury. Usury is in itself dise9uilibrium. =echanised usury through the ban"ing system has turned a criminal contract into a means of economic domination. /or as long as we remain slaves of riba our =uslim nation will remain enslaved. 8 society which misunderstands the dynamics of the world will find it difficult to focus in establishing its goals. These are swept away in the emotion of the moment. 8nd so, acts which are intended Ato do goodB are lost by the lac" of direction. In these circumstances, no amount of effort will prove fruitful. Understanding Riba is essential to understanding capitalism. The Islamic understanding of riba opens the path to restore our own muBamalat and thus create the tools that can overcome the present system. Riba is not only negative. It opens the path to the positive construction of the halal. Cnly when we remain confused between the halal and the haram can our enemies find it easy to destroy our efforts. In this document we intend to cast some light on this matter of Riba. 8llah says in the DurBan$ E8llah has permitted trade and forbidden usuryF Riba represents the opposite of trading, it is the corruption of trading. There cannot be trading with riba, nor riba with trading. :et, riba has become the core of todayBs face of "ufr$ capitalism. /or this reason, riba is the most important political issue facing our =uslim nation today. Riba affects every aspect of our life and it is traceable to two main institutions$ the %an" and the ;tate. !espite its importance this understanding remains superficial for most =uslims. =ost people simply thin" that riba is merely interest. The reality of riba is a much more comple0 affair. This misunderstanding is not 7ust a miscalculationG it is the product of a mis-education and indoctrination which has resulted from two phenomena$ one, the destruction of the political power of the >halifate, and two, the process of the so-called

EIslamic reformF which followed. This misunderstanding opened the gates to the islamisation of the most important institution of capitalism$ the ban". *hat the open mar"et-place is to trading, the ban" is to riba. 8 Areformed ribaB would allow the new promoters of the Islamic ban" to 7ustify their actions. It is for this reason essential to return to a correct understanding of this "ey term in the fi9h, that can allow us to discern what is haram and what is halal. This is crucial to overcome capitalism, and its illusion of power. This brief introduction will try to outline as plainly as possible the issue of Riba in Islamic )aw, and to undo the misunderstanding created by the AreformersB and modernist scholars. Riba literally means 'e0cess' in 8rabic. Dadi 8bu %a"r ibn al-8rabi, in his E8h"amul DurBanF defines it as$ any e0cess between the value of the goods given and their countervalue 3the value of the goods received4. This e0cess refers to two matters$ +H an e0tra benefit arising from un7ustified increase in the weight or measure, and 'H an e0tra benefit arising from un7ustified delay. These two aspects have led our scholars to define two types of riba. Ibn Rushd said$ EThe 7urists unanimously agreed about riba in bayB 3trade4 that it is of two "inds$ delayed 3nasiBah4 and stipulated e0cess 3tafadul4.F That is to say, there are two types of riba$ +H Riba al-/adl 3e0cess of surplus4 'H Riba al-?asiah 3e0cess of delay4 Riba al-fadl refers to 9uantities. Riba al-nasiah refers to time delay. Riba al-fadl is very easy to understand. In a loan, riba al-fadl is the interest that is overcharged. %ut in general it represents when one party demands an additional increase to the counter-value. Cne party gives something worth +,, in e0change for something worth ++,. This is also the forbidden case when two sales transactions are lin"ed by a single contract 3"nown as Atwo transactions in oneB4, in which one party is obliged to sell something at one price and to resell it after a time to the original seller for a decreased value. 8s a matter of fact, this is only a subterfuge to disguise the loan with interest under the pretence of a sale. ?obody needs these subterfuges today because you can get the loan directly in the ban". %ut the Islamic ban"s have resorted to this old tric" to deceive their customers under the misinterpreted name of murabaha. Understanding Riba al-nasiah is more subtle. It is an e0cess in time 3a delay4 artificially added to the transaction. It is an un7ustified delay. This refers to the possession 3Aayn4 and its non-possession 3dayn4 of the medium of payment 3gold, silver and food-stuff -which was used as money4. A8yn is tangible merchandise, often referred to as cash. !ayn is a promise of payment or a debt or anything whose delivery or payment is delayed. To e0change 3safr4 dayn for Aayn of the same genus is Riba al-nasiah. To e0change dayn for dayn is also forbidden. In an e0change it is only allowed to e0change Aayn for Aayn. This is supported by many hadith on the issue. Imam =ali" related$ ':ahya related to me from =ali" that he had heard that al-Dasim ibn =uhammad said, I'Umar ibn al->hattab said, '8 dinar for a dinar, and a dirham for a dirham, and a sa' for a sa'. ;omething to be collected later is not to be sold for something at hand.'I :ahya related to me from =ali" that 8bu'J-Kinad heard ;a'id al =usayyab say IThere is usury only in gold or silver or what is weighed and measured of what is eaten and drun".I The hanafi scholar 8bu %a"r al->asani 3d. -(<L4 wrote$ E8s for riba al-nasaB it is the difference 3e0cess4 between the termination of delay and the period of delay and the difference 3e0cess4 between the possession 3Aayn4 and non-possession in things measured and weighed with different genera as well as in things measured and weighed with the uniformity of genera. This is according to al-;hafiBi 3may 8llah bless him4, it is the difference between the termination of the period and the delay in foodstuff and precious metals 3with currency-value4 specifically.F' Riba al-nasiah refers particularly to the use of dayn in the e0change 3sarf4 of the same genera. %ut the prohibition is e0tended to sales in general when the dayn representing money overpasses its private nature and replaces the Aayn as a medium of payment.

Imam =ali", may 8llah be merciful to him, illustrates this point in his '8l-=uwatta'$ ':ahya related to me from =ali" that he had heard that receipts 3su"u"un4 were given to people in the time of =arwan ibn al-La"am for the produce of the mar"et of al-Mar. #eople bought and sold the receipts among themselves before they too" delivery of the goods. Kayd ibn Thabit, one of the Nompanions of the =essenger of 8llah, may 8llah bless him and grant him peace, went to =arwan ibn La"am and said, E=arwanO !o you ma"e usury halalPF Le said, EI see" refuge with 8llahO *hat is thatPF Le said, EThese receipts which people buy and sell before they ta"e delivery of the goods.F =arwan therefore sent guards to follow them and ta"e them from people's hands and return them to their owners.' Kayd ibn Thabit specifically calls riba those receipts 3dayn4 'which people buy and sell before ta"ing delivery of the goods'. It is allowed to use the gold and silver or food to ma"e the payment, but you cannot U; the promise of payment. In it there is an e0cess that is not allowed. If you have dayn, you have to ta"e possession of the Aayn it represents and then you can transact. :ou cannot used the dayn as money. In general the rule is that you should not sell something which is there, for something which is not. This practice is called RamaB and it is Riba. =ali" continues$ ':ahya related to me from =ali" from A8bdullah ibn !inar from A8bdullah ibn AUmar that AUmar ibn al->hattab said$ E!o not sell gold for gold e0cept li"e for li"e. !o not increase part of it over another part. !o not sell silver for silver e0cept for li"e, and do not increase part of it over another part. !o not sell some of it which is there for some of it which is not. If someone as"s you to wait for payment until he has been to his house, do not leave him. I fear ramaB for you. Rama is usury.F' RamaB is today the common practice in all our mar"ets. !ayn currency 3paper money, receipts4 has replaced the use of Aayn currency 3!inar, !irham4. This practice is what Umar ibn al->hattab meant when he said 'I fear ramaB for you.' ;elling with delay is not restricted to metals, it also includes food. =ali" said, 'The =essenger of 8llah, may 8llah bless him and grant him peace, forbade selling food before getting delivery of it.' Therefore, what is prohibited in Riba al-nasiah, is the addition of an artificial delay that does not belong to the nature of the transaction. *hat does AartificialB and Athe nature of the transactionB meanP It means that every transaction has its own natural conditions of timing and price. 8 loan involves delay but not 9uantity e0cess. Cne person gives an amount of money, after a period of time 3e0cess4 the person returns the money without increase. The e0cess in time is 7ustified and is halal, but adding an increase in the 9uantity to be repaid is un7ustified and is haram. This is Riba al-fadl. 8n e0change involves no delay and no 9uantity e0cess. Cne person gives an amount of money and without delay the e9uivalent is given. !elays are not 7ustified in an e0change. If you want to delay the payment, you have to ma"e a loan, you cannot obtain a loan disguised as a Adelay e0changeB. !elayed e0change is Riba al-nasiah. 8 rental involves delay and e0cess and it is halal. *hen you rent a house, you ta"e possession of the house for a time 3e0cess4 and you return it plus the payment of a rent 3e0cess4. These e0cesses both in time and 9uantity are 7ustified and they are halal. %ut you can only rent merchandise that can be hired. :ou can hire a car, a house or a horse. %ut you cannot hire money or food stuff 3fungible goods4. To pretend to hire money is to corrupt the nature of the transaction and it becomes Riba. Thus every transaction has its conditions relating to its nature. :ou cannot ta"e the conditions of one type of transaction and try to apply them to the other without corrupting the transaction. To add un7ustified conditions or e0cess to a transaction is Riba. ;ince dayn is in itself a delay, the use of dayn is restricted to private transactions and it is prohibited as a general means of payment 3money4. *hile dayn per se is halal, it is not halal to use is as money. !ayn is a private contract between two individuals and must remain private. The transfer of dayn from one person to another can be done Islamically, but only by the elimination of the first dayn and the creation of a new one. The dayn cannot circulate independently of what it represents. The owner must ta"e possession of the goods and li9uidate the dayn. !ayn cannot be used in an e0change and it cannot be used as a means of payment. It is specifically forbidden to use dayn to pay Ja"at. &he misunderstanding of (iba b# Islamic reformers Islamic reformers and modernist scholars have made a deliberate effort to e9uate riba with riba al-fadl and ignore riba

al-nasiah. ;aying Ariba is interestB is part of this misunderstanding. Their misunderstanding starts with the early reformers, especially Rashid Reda. Rashid Reda presented a new classification of Riba. Reda made a distinction in the legal treatment of what he called the Ariba of the DurBanB and the Ariba of the ;unnahB. Reda maintained that the primary form of Riba was the one prohibited by the DurBan, and this prohibition is to be maintained at all times. Cn the other hand, the te0ts of the ;unnah prohibit a lighter or secondary type of riba - according to him - which is generally prohibited but may be permitted in case of necessity 3darurah4. Le maintained that the riba prohibited in the DurBan was the riba "nown as Ariba al-7ahiliyyahB 3when a person did not pay his due after the stipulated time, the seller would increase the price4 which he wrongly e9uated with riba al-nasiah. 8nd he wrongly said that riba al-nasiah 3completely misunderstanding its meaning4 was only haram when it involved compound interest, and therefore single interest was e0cluded from the prohibition. Le therefore concluded that simple interest charged or paid by ban"s was not prohibited by the provisions of the DurBan at all, nor by the ;unnah. Le also maintained that the remaining prohibition from the ;unnah referred to the specific event of the e0change. Thus for e0ample if two persons were e0changing gold with each other, the amount of gold must be e9ual in weight on both sides and the two 9uantities must change hands on the spot, at once. Le argued that unli"e the riba al-7ahiliyyah, this type was not "nown to the 8rabs, since it was difficult to conceive of why two persons would e0change e9ual 9uantities of the same commodity at once. Riba al-fadl was seen as part of the abandoned practice of barter when people would e0change gold for gold 3and similar4, yet it is not practised any more. The famous hadith of Ahand to handB and Ae9ual for e9ualB, referring to riba, has not been understood by the modernist scholars. They could not understand the relevance of the argument and the form in which it is described. @old for gold, e9ual for e9ual and hand to hand, is a description of the balance of the transactions. Cne aspect refers to the e9uivalence in the 9uantities which refers by default to riba al-fadlG the other to the immediateness of the transaction which refers by default to riba al-nasiah. It discards the possibility of e0changing Agold which is not presentB 3dayn4 for Agold which is presentB - Aayn. It is very relevant because this is how =uslims got cheated away from their gold, by e0changing it for false promises of gold 3the original form of paper money4. It follows that in order to ma"e paper money halal, the modernist scholars had to ignore the relevance of this hadith and this formulation. The hadith refers in the positive to the specific event of e0change of dinars and dirhams of different denominationG in the negative to the impossibility to use promises of payment in the e0change. %oth cases are relevant and important to us. In conclusion, RedaBs views were that$ 8H Riba al-nasiah was only riba al-7ahiliyya. 8nd only compound interest was forbidden by it. %H Riba al-fadl was relative to the e0change. It was secondary in nature and it could be accepted in case of necessity 3darurah4. The followers of Reda basically adopted the same classification but differed with him on the issue of the compound interest. They agreed that single interest was also haram, but they agreed that darurah can be applied. 8nd they saw riba al-fadl as being secondary, related to what they saw as barter. The truth is that both riba al-nasiah and riba al-fadl are prohibited by the DurBan. In fact the Riba of the DurBan and the riba of the ;unna are e0actly the same. The ;unna simply acts as a living commentary of the DurBan. The riba "nown as riba al-7ahiliyyah contains both riba al-nasiah and riba al-fadl. In this transaction, the payment is delayed 3nasiah4 in e0change for an increase 3fadl4. %ut riba al-nasiah involves more than 7ust the riba al-7ahiliyyah. Im"lications of the modernist "osition %y ignoring the true nature of riba al-nasiah, modernist scholars have avoided confronting the issue of paper money. )et us loo" at this issue which the modernists have missed. #aper money can be considered as Aayn or as dayn. 8H If we accept the fact that paper money is dayn, meaning that it is an obligation to pay a certain amount of Aayn, then paper money cannot be used in e0change and it is forbidden in two practices$ +. !ayn cannot be e0change for dayn. #aper money for paper money is a debt for a debt, which is prohibited. =ali" said$ 'QThe disapproved transaction ofH delay for delay is to sell a debt against another man for a debt against another man.'

'. !ayn based on gold and silver cannot be e0change against gold or silver, because that is against the fundamental command$ ':ahya related to me from =ali" from ?afiB from 8bu ;aBid al->hudri that the =essenger of 8llah, may 8llah bless him and grant him peace, said, E!o not sell gold for gold e0cept li"e for li"e and do not increase one part over another. !o not sell silver for silver, e0cept li"e for li"e and do not increase one part over another part. !o not sell some of it which is not there for some of it which is.' %H If we accept that paper money is Aayn, then its value is the weight of the paper, not what is written on it. If the value of the paper is increased by compulsion, the value is corrupted and the transaction is void according to Islamic )aw. #aper money is used by the ;tate as an 3illegal4 ta0 and it cannot be presented as an Islamic means of payment. Understanding riba al-nasiah is fundamental to being able to understand our position regarding paper money. The reason why the modernist ulema too" their twisted position on riba was clearly to validate the unthin"able$ ban"ing. This 7ustification later turned into Islamic ban"ing. The principle of darurah combined with the elimination of riba alnasiah has allowed them to 7ustify the use of paper money and in turn to 7ustify fractional reserve ban"ing which is the basis of the modern ban"ing system. 8 proper understanding of riba al-nasiah reveals paper money to be a form of riba in itself, because it is intended to be used in a way that is not permitted.

Pa"er $one#A ! Legal 'udgment

The first aspect of arriving at a 7udgment is to understand the sub7ect matter, in this case what paper money is. 8fter that we can loo" at the Dur'an and the fi9h. #aper money has evolved in nature through history. *hat we "now today as paper money is not what it used to be. This evolution has passed through basically three stages$ +H 8 promissory note bac"ed by gold or silver. 'H 8 process of unilateral devaluation leading to a complete revocation of the contractual agreement. &H 8 piece of paper not bac"ed by any specie, whose legal value is determined by the compulsion of the ;tate )aw. )et us e0amine these three stages one by one. +. /irstly, paper money was issued by ban"s and it represented a certain amount of gold or silver, "nown as the RspecieS. ven though it never was +,,T bac"ed by the specie, the issuing ban" was obliged to pay the amount on demand. In this sense it represented a "ind of debt. *hen paper money was a debt, was it acceptableP *hat issues concerning Islamic )aw are relevantP 8t this stage a certain amount of gold was held by typically a ban"ing institution and it issued a paper certificate giving the owner the right to withdraw the specie on demand. 3*e will ignore the fact that this was a ban"ing institution and it would have been dealing with Riba. *e will pretend that they did not deal with interest in order to concentrate on the issue of paper money itself.4 84 The first issue that arises is the one of amana 3trust4$ :our gold is in trust with a treasurer. *hat does Islamic )aw have to say on this issueP 8llah taSala says in the Dur'an in ;urat al 'Imran 3&, <24$ !mong the Peo"le of the 6ook there are some who, if #ou trust them with a "ile of gold, will return it to #ou. 6ut there are others among them who, if #ou trust them with a single dinar, will not return it to #ou, unless #ou sta# standing o:er them. &hat is because the# sa#, B;e are under no obligation where the gentiles are concerned.C &he# tell a lie against !llah and the# know it.

The hu"um 3legal 7udgment or command4 of this ayat, according to Dadi 8bu %a"r ibn al-8rabi in his R8h"amul Dur'anS, is as follows$ UIt is forbidden for =uslims to have amana with the "uffar outside !ar al-Islam,V that is, Uwithout standing over themV under the power of a =uslim authority. 8nd the e0planation for this is found in the ayat itself$ UThat is because they say Rwe are under no obligation,S that is to say, because they can.will repudiate the agreement. ;ince this has been proven to be historically the case, we may conclude that this is of vital importance. *hat this means is that it is not acceptable for =uslims to have money deposited with "uffar anywhere since we do not have a !ar al-Islam in which to e0ercise Rstanding over themS. 8 lighter interpretation would suggest that it would be acceptable to have amana with a "afir if the deposits are under the power of a =uslim authority. *e accept the latter version. %ut what it categorically denies is the possibility of having amana with the "uffar when the wealth is stored under "afir authority. *e can conclude that when paper currenciesWdollars, pounds, francs, etc.Wwere a debt, because the specie they represented was stored in trust away from our control, they could not be accepted by us, since we would fear that they would repudiate the agreementWas in fact later happened. %4 ?ow, assuming that the amana is under a =uslim authority, the second issue that arises is whether the promissory note can in itself be treated as money. In other words, whether the note can be used as a medium of e0change according to Islamic )aw. In this case the law of Rtransfer of debtsS becomes relevant. 8ccording to the ;chool of the 8mal of =adinah we find

the following 7udgment and e0planation in the =uwatta of Imam =ali"$ =ali" said, UCne should not buy a debt owned by a man whether present or absent, without the confirmation of the one who owes the debt, nor should one buy a debt owed by a dead person even if one "nows what the deceased man has left. That is because to buy it is an uncertain transaction and one does not "now whether the transaction will be completed or not.V Le also said, UThe e0planation of what is disapproved of in buying a debt owed by someone absent or dead is that it is not "nown which un"nown debtors may have claims on the dead person. If the dead person is liable for another debt, the price which the buyer gives on strength of the debt may become worthless.V =ali" said, UThere is another fault in that as well. Le is buying something which is not guaranteed for him, and so if the deal is not completed, what he has paid becomes worthless. This is an uncertain transaction and it is not good.V The general idea is that in order to transfer a debt the original issuer of the debt 3the person who has the obligation4 must guarantee the value of the debt to the transferee 3the person receiving the note4. Thus, the first contract is li9uidated and a new private contract is created. !ebt is always "ept as a private contract between the parties. It does not circulate without the creation of a new private guarantee 3a new contract4. The reason is that the person who has issued the debt may have more obligations than he can fulfil. Low would this in7unction have applied when paper money was issued by the ban"s as a debtP ;ince every ban"Wand this is the whole idea of credit moneyWissued more obligations than the amount that they held in specie, it would not be acceptable to use any of its notes for trading. The reason is, that the person would be accepting a debt that is not guaranteed for him, especially when it is "nown that it cannot be guaranteed for him since the issuer 3the ban"4 has more obligations than what it can fulfil. If every depositor in the ban" were to demand the value of their notes, as is the case in a Rrun on the ban"S, the ban" would be unable to fulfill its obligations. Nonclusion. *hen money was a debt, in Islamic )aw you would not have been allowed to use it. :ou would not be allowed to use a dollar, or a pound, or any note, whether it came from a "afir ban" or a =uslim-owned ban", whether the specie was stored in a "afir country or in a =uslim country. %an"ing notes are not permitted to circulate. %ut if the note is issued not by a ban", but instead by a person, and that person is present and can privately guarantee the physical possession of the goods, can in this case the note be transferred, sold or circulate in generalP *hat aspects of the )aw are relevant to the analysis of this caseP 8gain we have to go to the transfer of debts. *hat is relevant here is$ what is the specie that is held as guarantee for the obligationP In other words, what is the specie of the noteP If the obligation is in gold 3money4 then another set of restrictions come into place. If it is food then, again, another set of restrictions come into place. This is because gold, silver and food have a particular significance to tradingWthey are commonly used as a medium of e0change. The case is the following$ In the chapter called =oney-Nhanging of the =uwatta of Imam =ali" we read$ U:ahya related to me from =ali" from Ibn ;hihab from =ali" ibn 8ws ibn al-Ladathan an-?asri that he once as"ed to e0change +,, dinars. Le said, RTalha ibn RUbaydullah called me over and we made a mutual agreement that he would ma"e the e0change with me. Le too" the gold and turned it about in his hand and then said, UI cannot do it until my treasurer brings the money to me from al-@haba.V RUmar ibn al->hattab was listening and RUmar said, U%y 8llahO !o not leave him until you have ta"en it from himOV Then he said, UThe =essenger of 8llah, may 8llah bless him and grant him peace, said, R@old for silver is usury e0cept hand to hand. *heat for wheat is usury e0cept hand to hand. !ates for dates is usury e0cept hand to hand. %arley for barley is usury e0cept hand to hand.SVV The first restriction is that you cannot use the gold or food in an e0change 3sarf4 unless the specie is physically present there. :ou cannot use the claim of gold or food stored with a treasurer. The items e0changed have to be present. This matter rules out any possibility of using paper notes representing gold or silver to buy physical gold or silver. In addition, the e0change of paper notes with other paper notes is prohibited because it is !ebt-for-!ebt. This prohibition of using promissory notes in an e0change is further reinforced by the following words$ :ahya related to me from =ali" that he had heard that al-Dasim ibn =uhammad said, URUmar ibn al->hattab said, R8 dinar for a dinar, and a dirham for a dirham, and a sa' for a sa'. ;omething to be collected later is not to be sold for something at hand.SV :ahya related to me from =ali" that 8bu'J-Kinad heard ;a'id al =usayyab say, UThere is usury only in gold or silver or what is weighed and measured of what is eaten and drun".V 8ll this clearly indicates that not only gold and silver but also any food that could be used as payment is included in the prohibition, that is to say, the prohibition e0tends to any form of Rcommon moneyS. 8ny note that represents any form of Rcommon moneyS cannot be used in an e0change. *ith that restriction in mind, it means that a ban"ing note cannot really be used as money, but only as a private contractWwhich is the basis of our argument.

%ut what about a note held by a =uslim treasurer and guaranteed$ can it be used in a transaction other than an e0changeP Nan it be used, for e0ample, to buy other goods in the mar"etP U:ahya related to me from =ali" that he had heard that receipts 3su"u"un4 were given to people in the time of =arwan ibn al-La"am for the produce of the mar"et of al-Mar. #eople bought and sold the receipts among themselves before they too" delivery of the goods. Kayd ibn Thabit and one of the Nompanions of the =essenger of 8llah, may 8llah bless him and grant him peace, went to =arwan ibn La"am and said, U=arwanO !o you ma"e usury halalPV Le said, UI see" refuge with 8llahO *hat is thatPV Le said, UThese receipts which people buy and sell before they ta"e delivery of the goods.V =arwan therefore sent guards to follow them and ta"e them from peopleSs hands and return them to their owners.V This means that you cannot use a promissory note and use it for trading as if it were money. The purpose of the promissory note is not to be money, but to be a private contract that must remain private and not public. ;o, what is the use of the promissory noteP *hat is the halal usage of itP It is halal to have a contract or a debt, and it is also halal to transfer that debt, provided that the person who issued it is accessible and can guarantee the payment of the debt by signing a new contract 3promissory note4 with the new recipient. If the guarantor is not a =uslim, then in addition to what we have said, he also has to have his amana within =uslim territory and under the overall supervision of an enforcing =uslim authority. '. The second stage refers to the process of those years in which paper money was constantly devalued from its initial obligation 3they paid less than they had promised4, up until the debt was finally completely revo"ed 3they withdrew their obligation4. This final elimination of the obligation too" place with the dollar in +5<&, when ?i0on unilaterally revo"ed the obligation of paying one ounce of gold for every &- dollars. *hat is the Islamic position regarding a promissory note when one of the parties unilaterally revo"es its obligation, whether it is complete or partialP That is to say, what is the Islamic ruling when a debt is unilaterally revo"ed or devaluedP It is not acceptable. It is a violation of the contract. If this is done with premeditation and no responsibility is accepted, it amounts to pure theft. Theft is punishable in Islam. To use the note to transfer it to other people, falls under all the restrictions that we have e0pressed before, with an added element. :ou are dealing with the promissory note of a "nown thief who does not admit his guilt or past obligations. &. /inally we arrive at the money which we have today. There is no promise of payment in specie of any "ind. It only has a legal value based on the obligation of the citiJens of the country to accept the national currency as a means to redeem debts. This is the R)aw of )egal TenderS. It gives the ;tate the uni9ue ability to confiscate anyoneSs wealth within the nation and to pay for it in compensation with its own legal note. Is this an acceptable means of payment in IslamP Imam =ali" said money is Uany merchandise commonly accepted as a medium of e0change.V This implies two things$ 84 =oney has to be a merchandise. Therefore it could be paper. %ut paper only for the value of the paper itself, not for what is written on it. =oney must be something tangible 3Rayn4. =oney cannot be a liability of any "ind. %4 =oney must be commonly accepted. Therefore it cannot be imposed. ?o-one can say it is obligatory on you. ?o-one can even ma"e the @old !inar obligatory on the people. The @old !inar and the ;ilver !irham become a currency out of free choice, not as the result of decree. #aper money is imposed on people. This obligation is not accepted in Islam for two further reasons$ WThe fraudulent nature of the offer$ they oblige you to accept something above its value 3its real value is Jero4. WThe obligation of the offer$ you are obliged to accept it whether you li"e it or not. This unlawful behaviour is further reinforced by the application of ;tate laws that restrict the use of any other merchandise as a means of payment, thus enforcing the ;tate monopoly on the currency, particularly in regard to gold and silver. @old and silver are either ta0ed, or their use is regulated and sometimes disallowed. In some e0treme cases we have seen gold confiscated by law from the private citiJens, as has been the case in the U;8. /inal conclusion #aper money is not valid money in Islamic )aw, whether in its present form or in any of the forms in which it has e0isted in the past. The ;hariRah money is the @old !inar and the ;ilver !irham. 8ny merchandise commonly accepted as a medium of e0change is also accepted as a valid money in Islam. Umar Ibrahim Vadillo

&he -uture of Islam

%ismillahi rahmani rahim 8ssalaamu Ralay"um wa rahmutullah ;hay"h 8bdal9adir has as"ed me to give some words on the topic of the future of Islam. Cf course, Islam is eternal, so therefore Islam is always the same. Islam was established finally at the death of Rasul, sallallahu Ralayhi wa salam, and the !een of Islam will be the same up until the end of time. *e change. The =uslims change. Low we live our Islam and how we interpret our Islam has changed through history and has made the history of Islam possible. *hat is important when we loo" at ourselves and want to pro7ect ourselves into the future, is first to understand what is at sta"e when we spea" about Islam. *hat is this e0traordinary thing that we share, that is eternal, that it was borrowed, that was ta"en from Rasul, sallallahu Ralayhi wa salam, up until our daysP The first thing that we have to understand is that Islam is complete. :ou cannot ta"e a bit of Islam, neither can you ta"e it from what it was before its completion, nor from one of its sections. ;ome people you may have heard saying that we are living in times of difficulty, and therefore we have to go bac" to the times of =a""a. %ut the time of =a""a is not the full !een of Islam. The !een of Islam is =adinah at the end of the time of Rasul, sallallahu Ralayhi wa salam. Islam is therefore complete, it is all there, it is all ready for us to use it. The command of 8llah is also eternal and cannot changeWe0cept by Lis own *ill, naturally. The command given to us, the ;hariSat that we have, is forever. The promises that 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, has given us through the !een of Islam are also eternal, and therefore are as present today as they were at the time of Rasul, sallallahu Ralayhi wa salam. The Tawhid of 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, is eternal, is today as it was, as it will always be. ;o the important matter is how we place ourselves before this e0traordinary message. Islam does not need change, it does not need reforms$ we need the reforms. !uring the greater part of the twentieth century, a group of individuals spo"e about the necessity to reform Islam, while their own words were the very proof that they were wrong, because it was not Islam that needed reform, it was our way of life. Cur destiny as =uslims does not depend on what the "uffar do. It does not depend on their strength, their mischievous behaviour, how they appear to control media communication, sometimes wanting to tell us what Islam is, their economyWnone of this matters to the destiny of the =uslims. *e do not depend on them. They do depend on us. The "ey to understanding this destiny is therefore not in interpreting the events as they come around us or in the time that we are living in, but it is something much more subtle yet much more profound. The "ey to interpreting everything, ourselves and everything around us, is the relationship with 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala. This is the secret, this is the very matter on the basis of which we will succeed in our tas", or we will fail. Cur tas" with 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, is very simple yet e0traordinarily overwhelming in its outcome. *e are here to worship Lim. There is no other purpose. Cur destiny, our life, the entire purpose of life is to obey Lim, to submit to Lim, to fear Lim. 8nd to fear Lim is to have ta9wa of 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, this is the coding message, it is the very tool to interpret the nature of the comple0ity of the world around us. 8nd therefore it is through this tool, through this basic tool, that we have a chance or we do not, to create a satisfying destiny for ourselves. ;hay"h 8bdal9adir, 7ust before I left on my 7ourney about two months ago, delivered a number of lectures on this very topic, on the Tawhid in DurSan. Cne of the matters, one of the "ey conclusions of his study was that if you want to "now, if you want to understand life, if you want to understand yourself, you need ta9wa. The understanding of the world, what ma"es the =umin different to the "afir is Ta9wa. *ithout ta9wa you may have the entire "nowledge of the !een, you can memoriJe the entire ;ahih of %u"hari, but that will not ma"e you a =uslim. :ou will still need something much more primal, much more profound, which is ta9wa. /ear of 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala. ?ow /ear of 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, means also that you do not fear anything else. Rumi said, U:ou worship what you fear. ;o watch where you place your fears.V I have 7ust come from !ubai, and there they will tell you Uthe 8mericans, the 8mericans, the 8mericansV, and you have to tell them, U:esO The 8mericans are amaJing but I do not believe in )a hawla wa la 9uwatta illa United ;tatesWit is simply not true.V It does not matter how wonderful they appear, how great their voice is of lies, they are not the power, they are not the source of my life. It is only in saying U)a hawla wa la 9uwatta illa billahV that you have a chance of creating some clarity in your life. In your life as an individual and collectively as =uslims, the only chance is precisely to understand this, to understand ta9wa. 8nd this is the very element on the basis of which we can understand what I was saying before, which is that we do not depend on the "afir. ?either do we depend on their state of affairs, because none of this matters. This is otherthan-8llah. *e depend entirely on how much we become Lis slaves. 8nd becoming Lis slaves is of the nature of

eliminating your attributes. This is what we are here for, to share this e0perience, to taste this matter, to go one step every time to be able to understand what it is to eliminate the nafs, as an individual and also as a collectivity. The very matter that will create a successful destiny for the =uslims, is to be able to eliminate who we are, to eliminate ourselves from the picture in anything other than being slaves of 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala. specially in these times, because almost everything that identifies you as being other than a =uslim is wor"ing against you. ;tarting from the fact that you are ;outh 8frican, or #alestinian. )oo" at their misery, and there is no outcome to the #alestinian issue as long as they insist that they are #alestinians first and foremost, and they ta"e onto the whole cultural element that was already written years before their time by the Irish and by the struggle of other nationalistic nations. They created the very concept of a nation and a flag and a national anthem, and what you still see on 8rab television, every night, at the end of the whole session of this stuff they produce for you, is that there is this ceremony of standing before this flag, and this national anthem, that you "now very well as ;hay"h 8bdal9adir has many times pointed out to us. There was a time in )ondon that there were people 7ust ma"ing money in ma"ing flags and national anthems for these people. ?ow you find them standing up in a "ind of ecstasy before this ridiculous nonsense. %ut this stands against them and against all of us individually and collectively. :ou tal" to them and they have a thesis, they have made a whole history, they have mapped out the world in terms of what ma"es money. %ut when you loo" into it, it is all riba, it is all haram, from the beginning to the end. 8nd those people who have attempted to redeem themselves from a life of disaster, what have they doneP They have islamised capitalism. ;o today, out of their own e0perience, with their #h!s from that third-rate university in 8merica where they became economists, they come bac" to their land and they ta"e a little bit of %u"hari here and there, and they started islamising ban"s and insurance, and the stoc" e0change. ?ow there is even an Islamic !ow Mones, 7ust in case you do not "now. ;o =icrosoft has finally been islamised. :ou can invest in %ill @ates and it is halal 3in their dollars naturally4, in this gambling machine called the stoc" e0change. They have islamised credit cardsWanything you can possibly thin" of has been islamised$ constitutions, parliaments, human rights, everything. Their "nowledge wor"s against us. Their e0pertise that ma"es this viable in this society wor"s against us. The only thing that helps you is your identity as a =uslimWthe very identity they want to erase from you. )et me tell you that if you want to spea" about constitutions, the idea of an islamic constitution is as ridiculous as islamic ban"ing, or islamic whis"ey. very time you spea" about constitutions, remember that this is the very tool invented ',, years ago in the /rench Revolution to eliminate religious identity, it is the very essence of anti-religiousness. It is the very essence of saying, U?o, noO :our identity is as a ta0-payer. *hat matters is who do you pay the ta0es toP 8nd what matters is what currency you use, and in which environment you are going to be ta0ed.V Religion is secondary to that, secondary to the e0tent that tolerance, for e0ample, the whole fantasy of tolerance, is the very essence of saying Ureligion does not mean anything any more.V There are Rhindu muslimsSWthis, that and the other, and the first idiotic sect that you can possibly imagine coming up with another theory, and all are seen in the same light or weight as you are. It is all the same. Therefore it is nothing. *hich means the only religion that e0ists is capitalism. This is another issue which is very important to understand. ;o what is left when you abandon these attributes, these false attributesP *hat is left is the !een of Islam. This is for very few, and yet only a handful is necessary to be the leadership. To open the path. To undo what has been done wrong in &,, years. To restore it in our generation. This is possible. The person who does not understand that this is possible, he has already lost the !een, or lost part of the !een. Remember what Rumi said$ UThe munafi9 is the person who says, RThat which is halal is not possible.SV Indeed it is totally impossible in itself, because as Rumi argues, how can it be that 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, has given us the order and not the meansP Cf course Le has given us the means. It is in fact the easiest to do what is halal. Lis famous recipe was, UIf you do still not understand, hit your head against the wall. 8nd if you still do not understand, then hit harderOV %ecause your head does not wor". ;o Islam is possible. 8ll the means that we re9uire, and which you re9uire as an individual, are available to you, are within your reach. This may be a hard thing to see, but you have to force yourself to understand that all the means that you need to the success in your life and to lead other people to success in 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, are within your reach. If you do not see, open your eyes. *hen you wa"e up every morning you must force yourself to see it, and you are forced to see it even farther, and you move on and you move on. :ou will "now when you are moving on when you can loo" in retrospect and say, UC my @odO This is where I was and this is where I am now,V in the understanding that you can go farther and farther and farther, that the re9uest of means goes at the same speed as you eliminate your self. 8nd therefore what are we sayingP 8ll the obstacles that you as an individual and we as a collective will encounter, from here to the success, to the final success, the ultimate success, to the full establishment of the !een in our time, all the obstacles that we will encounter are created by ourselves. The nature of those obstacles is nothing else but our own false fears. *hat you will be watching every time you encounter that obstacle is your self, magnified in Rcine-ima0SO It is completely in front of you. *hat is hidden comes before you, it manifests, and you become overwhelmed. /or the =umin, instead of getting stopped in that event, he realiJes and he moves on, because he "nows what to do with his obstacle, which is to turn to 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala. *hen you turn to 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, that door which was closed becomes twenty doors opened. 8nd then you realiJe that UI am moving forward.V This is the very tool, the very essence of the matter which is what we celebrate here in

this gatheringWthe elimination of everything that is ourselves, everything we call ourselves, that false identity made of historicity and culture, and false images, other than being =uslim. The elimination of all that is what will ma"e us succeed. *hat do we e0pect to see every time we go deeper into ourselves, every time that our relationship with 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, is turned one bit farther, every time we come closer to 8llah, subhanahu wa taRalaWwhat do we e0pect to seeP Nlarity. Nlarity. ;hay"h !ar9awi many times in his letters, e0plains what it is to become close to 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, in abandoning the nafs, in the countless ways in which he analyses this matter, to the e0tent of science. Those who want to go deeper into this matter, go to ;hay"h !ar9awi. I do not thin" it could be made more clear for the people of today. :ou can see, he goes and says, U;trip it outO Ta"e it outO @o awayO !isappearO !o not put your self before your obligationsOV in this e0traordinary way. %ut rather eliminate it. 8nd what he says is, U*hat you will see is certainty. Nertainty. Nertainty which becomes li"e light. Nertainty in U)a hawla wa la 9uwatta illa billahV. That certainty, which is reality itself, is li"e starting to see the whole world in a completely different way. verything that was before a prison, is turned around. verything that before became an obstacle, becomes a solution, a door. %ecause remember, it does not matter how difficult it becomesWagain we see ourselvesWwe should realiJe that the more difficult the situation is, and I must agree these are e0traordinary events in the history of Islam. *e never lived without >halifate. The tas" may sound big, but the =umin must realiJe that with this big tas" comes big means. In other words it is for an e0traordinary generation that this gift comes that 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, has given us to bring forward the !een in these times. It is for e0traordinary people. UInna maa al-RUsri, :usraV Wwith the difficulty there is the ease. 8nd in this particular difficulty there is easiness to it. There is a path and there is benefit for the people of this time li"e there has never been. /or the people who had it all done, there has been benefit, naturally. %ut what is to come are e0traordinary matters for e0traordinary people. This is how we need to see these events. vents that will turned with the ease with which we turn a page in a boo". The difficulty is not going to be in turning the page, it is going to be in ourselves, in turning ourselves and opening our hearts in order to see that the boo" is there, and that all we have to do is turn the page. The difficulty is in turning ourselves, not in the things before, what the hand will have to do is much, much less than what the heart has to do. That is why ;hay"h !ar9awi in this very matter says, UThe affairs of the heart ma"e the affairs of the limbs irrelevant. *hat you turn with your heart, whatever you can do with your heart ma"es whatever you can do with your hands irrelevant.V ;o therefore, do not be of those who see themselves and say, U*hat do I haveP *hat do I "nowP *ho am IPV to determine what you can do. %ecause let me tell you, you should not waste your time. :ou can do nothing. Kero. :our hands will not lead you to anything, anywhere. %ut you have one tool that can turn everything aroundWeverythingO Things that you could not turn with your hands, even collectively, all of us put together, you can turn with one thing, with this, your heart. :our heart has the e0traordinary 9uality of ma"ing something big, huge and enormous into something tiny. ;omething tiny and unimportant, great and big. ;omething distant, to bring it close to you. ;omething close to you that is imprisoning, to throw it bac", throw it away. :ou can do that with the heart, you cannot do it with the limbs. This is what we have. This is our tool. It is with this that we can move forward. 8nd see clarity, see what to do. The thing will open before you li"e the very essence of everyday-ness unfoldsWli"e you breath, then the things will come and they will open before you in a way in which there is no doubt. :ou will "now e0actly where to go. The things will come with clarity. !oubt is the very means of the mess we find ourselves in. ;uccess is in identifying what are the things worth changing, in recognising the problems before us, the very big monsters that we have self-generated, which seem to stop everything to do with the !een of IslamWin understanding that each one of those enemies that we have created, they are the very tools to our success. *e must understand that we can turn things that loo" li"e a big problem, 7ust li"e that, into the big solution. That we can turn around every bit of our incapacity in our means to move forward. It is not difficult to imagine that part of this struggle of the =uslims in moving forward has got to do with the economic system that we are living in. 8n economic system is nothing. *hat is an economic systemP RibaO Riba. *hat is RibaP Riba is nothing, but it has become a religion, it has become the way of living of everybody else. *hat I said about the constitution is the very essence of this false deen, that enforces everybody to follow it without any tolerance. %ecause tolerance is only applicable to all the other religions, not to capitalism. Napitalism can be ruthless, non-negotiable. :ou cannot go and say to your ban" manager, U:ou "now something, this month I am not going to pay you the interest because I do not believe in it. I am actually agnostic. This interest, you "eep it. I am not going to pay anymore.V They will not loo" at the matter with a great degree of tolerance. %ut they will put you in 7ail. 8nd if you refuse to go to 7ail, they will "ill you. This is the full e0tent of their deen. Their commitment is total. This method as a whole is capitalism. ;o it is not strange if we say that a great part of the things to be moved in our future will be how Islam appears to be the end of capitalism, and that we will be fighting capitalism, not christianity. Nhristianity is finished. There is nothing left. There is a tric"le of romance and a little bit of emotion left. They do not have ;hariSat, they do not have anything. 8ll you have to see is one of these programmes of the evangelists, and in five minutes you see what the whole thing is about. It has become 7ust emotions. Lands up, and doing this horrible stuff they do. It is the same for the 7ews. The great ma7ority, as 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, tells us in the DurSan, are atheists.

8nd we do not need to spea" about the hindus or the buddhists, or whatever this new lot is that appear, because they are absolutely nothing. *e will have to do it. *e will have to change. 8nd this will happen, because 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, in DurSan already spea"s about this matter of Riba, with great clarity and with great power. Le first of all informs us$ U*a ahall allahu-l-bayRa wa harama ribaSVW U8llah has permitted trade and forbidden riba.V 8nd here he tells us what to do. There is the halal and the haram. Therefore the tas" of the =uslims is to establish what is halal. Le also informs us that 8llah and Lis =essenger have declared war on riba and the people who practice riba, which means that even if we do nothing, still riba will not survive, riba will collapse. This is the very nature of the thing we are fighting. It is a fantasy whose only destiny is to collapse. Therefore, you do not want to build your house on such an illusory fantasy, you want to move out of it. This will be done by those people who capable of leaving this matter for what will be the successful affair, and they will the people who will lead the way for others. In the events to come in our lifetime, we will see the most important crisis capitalism has ever had, the biggest one. It will ma"e the events of the previous century, in +5'5, loo" li"e a little hiccup. Those events which brought about a total transformation of the world and the political realities of the current world, which brought about fascism and Litler in @ermany, which completely changed the political picture of people, will be repeated again but on a much larger scale. The crisis that will come will be associated with the dollar and the financial systems, the fantasy systems of the United ;tatesWironically, according to some, now islamised$ the stoc" e0change and all these fantastic gambling machines. 8ll these things will be wiped out. It will be in those events and the years to come that Islam will be the force, but stronger. %ecause fascism was not an answer to all these disasters, and it was still part of "ufr. Islam will be the voice that will come out of this event. 8nd we are the people preparing the path, preparing ourselves for these events to come, building the lifeboat that you will desperately need in those events, because all this cosmetic economy that we are living in today will be wiped out. The more dependent you are on the technical machine, the more you will suffer. ;o those closer to the centre of gravity in urope and in 8merica will suffer more than people in, for e0ample, 8lbania. It is more probable to say that when this event happens, the people in Tirana will tell you, U8 crisis in which stoc" e0change, did you sayP ?ew :or"PV %ut this will not be an affordable commentary for those people living in )ondon, for instance. Cr those who have made their living out of this cosmetic economy. 8 handful will be prepared. 8 handful of people will be ahead of their time and they will be building up the tools that will drive us through. 8t that time you will need community. Today it is easy for people to say, U?o, ?o. I do not need to belong to any sect. Cr any group. %ecause I am 7ust fine on my own.V *hich is absolute nonsense if you are a =uslim. If you are a =uslim you need an 8mir, you need 8mr, to belong to a community. There is no personal morality li"e the christians have, we have a social reality. 8s individuals we can do nothing. These events will tear us apart, and throw us left, right and centre, li"e everyone else. %ut as a collectivity, we will be able to answer. To be able to come together will be not 7ust a matter of choice, it will be a necessity. 8nd I welcome this necessity, because although it is actually as necessary today as it will be then, it will force the =uslims to wa"e upWsome of those who are 7ust hanging in the periphery, playing the game of UI am a =uslim on my own,V and ma"ing their own rules of how they determine their own destinies and that type of personal morality which you find today among people. To have a community will be necessary. =urabitun is one of the few that is loo"ing at this matter, people that are coming together. Cne of the few who have forged 8mr in this time. *e have also forged in this time an understanding of ourselves and our community, and the celebration of this science of tasawwuf, bringing it forward from the past and ma"ing a path through these dar" ages into a new day on which we can celebrate once more the >halifate, and we can see again one nationWnot '<Wwith one flag, and one ;hahada. Cne nation gathered for the sa"e of 8llah, subhanahu wa taRala, for the fulfilment of Lis ;hariSat. 8 nation that will reform the world, because it does not need to reform the ;hariSat. The ;hariSat will be the very tool, the very essence of our e0istence. 8nd the abandonment of our affairs will have been fulfilled, in as much as we have eliminated all the traces of this false culture that we carry forward, collectively and as individuals. *e will have created the one identity that will ma"e us human beings, which is being slaves of 8llah, to submit to Lim, which is to be a =uslim. 8ssalaamu Ralay"um wa rahmutallah.

Conference Papers - Priorities in the -i1h and the $uamalat

-rom the ,th International -i1h 8onference held in Pretoria, =outh !frica on the %,-*/ .ctober *//)

8ll #raise is due to 8llah, the most Nompassionate, the most =erciful, the )ord of all the worlds, the >ing of the !ay of Mudgment, *ho has gathered all "nowledge in Lis ssence and *ho is the Nreator of all "nowledge for eternity. 8ll peace and blessings be upon Lis beloved #rophet, =uhammad, who was not taught by man but by Lim. Le was the last and most honoured #rophet, the last in the chain of prophethood that was brought to this world and who has guided us to the right path. =ay abundant peace and blessings be upon his /amily and his Nompanions, who were chosen among the good and benevolent. 8llah says in ;urat al-/ath$ It is e who sent is $essenger with the 3uidance and the Deen of &ruth to e>alt it o:er e:er# other deen and !llah suffices as a witness. $uhammad is the $essenger of !llah, and those who are with him are fierce to the kafirun, merciful to one another. 3DurBan, 2($ '(-'54 8llah has chosen for us Islam as our !een. 8llah has filled this !een with immense rewards and secrets for the =uslims, while Le has cursed the "afirun. The =uslim is the one that submits to 8llah, and this includes obeying Lis Nommands. The "afir has negated submission to 8llah, and for that reason lives a life of ignorance. >ufr is a lower form of e0istence, and for this reason there is no way in which "ufr can stand supreme over Islam$ this is an impossibility. Cn the contrary, Islam in all circumstances reigns above "ufr and determines its nature, possibility and e0istence. Throughout history the =uslims have en7oyed times of great splendour followed by times of decadence, yet our !een has never been compromised, and the promises of 8llah have remained intact. Cnly the =uslims, in their test of life, are the ones 9uestioned. This is the difference between Uhud and %adr. Cur test consists of trusting and obeying 8llah and the result is our failure or success. %ut Islam always remains above the test. Islam is not in 9uestion, we are in 9uestion. Cur failure as =uslims is not a failure of Islam, but our own failure$ we are the source of our own tribulations. /or the "afir, on the other hand, success is impossible. It does not matter what the circumstances are. Lis only chance of being successful is to enter Islam. @iven these premises, the measure of our success is our trusting and obeying 8llah, independent of what the "afirun might or might not do. The "afirun, on the other hand, no matter what they do, depend on the behaviour of the =uslims to find their place in the world. Cur behaviour as =uslims is not dictated by reaction to the "afirun, but only by our obligations to 8llah. *e follow and fear 8llah, but not the "afirun. The "afirun are there as a mercy to us, so that we can come nearer to Lim. Cur tas" is therefore simple$ trust and obey 8llah and be merciful to the muminun. 8nd then the result is inevitable$ victory over "ufr. Victor# as an aim Cur !een is so immense that if you loo" in it for victory you will find victory. If you loo" for victory, the ;hariAah will reveal to you the path to victory. The "ey issue, therefore, is how we approach the ;hariAah. The 9uestion is on us, on our approach. This means that if we want the full establishment of the !een of Islam, with the restoration of a !ar alIslam and the >halifate, the possibility of success is there before us and attainable, independent of the circumstances. Lere Rumi, rahimahullah, spo"e with great clarity when he said$ E*hat is halal is possible. The hypocrite is the one that says Athat which is halal is not possibleB. %ut how could it be impossibleP 8llah has given us an obligation, how could Le have not given us the meansP If you do not understand that Awhat is halal is possibleB then you should hit your head against the wall. 8nd if you still do not understand then hit harder.F The hypocrite cannot guide us. 8llah says in ;urat an-?isaB$ &he munafi1un are in the lowest le:el of the -ire. Dou will not find an# one to hel" them.

3DurBan, 2$ +224 *hen we loo" at the fi9h as the great body of 7urisprudence by the greatest 7urists of Islam, we may at first be overwhelmed by the immensity and detail of the affair. verything is there. 8lso, the fi9h has remained essentially the same for hundreds of years, during which great periods have been followed by lower periods. It is how the =uslims have approached the fi9h that has changed. 8t the beginning of the last century, during the last days of the Csmanli >halifate, some reformers from gypt and ;yria started to 9uestion the fi9h and consider it to be outdated. They embar"ed on a programme of reform in order to create a new fi9h based on a new pragmatic methodology, using X as the protestants also say X direct access to the sources$ the DurBan and the te0ts of hadith. %ut the fi9h was not outdated, they were outdated. These reformers, in 9uestioning the fi9h, started to change the approach to the fi9h. Instead of victory they were loo"ing for a way to accommodate the =uslims to the world of the "uffar. In doing so, the reformers became an instrument of the "uffar. These reformers failed to understand the fi9h. They were not loo"ing at the fi9h with the right eyes. :et we live in a world still dominated by the wor" initiated by these reformers. The fi9h, in its vastness, re9uires a direction, an aim, otherwise the most insignificant point may carry the same weight as the most fundamental and essential issues X or even more weight. This aim which orientates our approach to the fi9h can only be the present, full establishment of all the aspects of the ;hariAah, including those political and economic matters that are now presented as non-religious matters. That is in itself our definition of victory. The aim is victory and aim re9uires leadership. )eadership is not a title, but vision$ to be able to see. That is the uni9ue ability for understanding and implementing victory. If one does not have a road-map to victory one cannot leadG that is why it is impossible to fa"e leadership. The leader comes with a visible sign$ victory itself. The unification of the =uslims will come from victory, its carrier will be our leader. It is important to "now that all the attempts to create leadership among the =uslims during the twentieth century have failed since they were founded on a false basic premise$ that leadership can be elected or brought out of consensus. The idea is that unity will originate from a "ind of parliamentarian mechanism where all the ideas are represented and a consensus between all the different positions will be commonly reached. %ut that which is common among all the most disparate ideas is by definition baseless and therefore irrelevant. That baseless commonality is then placed on top of everybody as a tool of control that paralyses any real initiative. This consensus approach is therefore essentially anti-leader, lac"ing the uni9ueness and direction that leadership provides. Therefore consensus is the means of defeat. This parliamentarian philosophy so alien to us has been sold to us under the 8rabic name of AshuraB and has become the present means of interacting among =uslim groups and nations. It has produced organisations such as the Crganisation of Islamic Nonference and the Islamic !evelopment %an", which guarantee the preservation of the present status 9uo. Puritanism 8nother aspect of the religious reform is its personal morality$ puritanism. This morality places the isolated individual deprived of leadership at the centre of the decision-ma"ing or moral 7udgement. This way of thin"ing implies a fundamental shift in the approach to the fi9h. *hen the individual has to decide in isolation, automatically it puts all social issues out of reach. /or e0ample, the issue of the restoration of the !inar and the !irham, seen from the perspective of the individual, is a non-issue since it re9uires a whole community for it to be applied. Thus personal morality means that most social issues are abandoned, especially those that carry the highest political or economic weight 3e9ual to their importance4. Cnly the individual belonging to the 7amaBa can act in these matters and for that, once more the figure of the leader, the 8mir becomes necessary. To illustrate this point a bit further I will relate to you a recent case I e0perienced in ;outh 8frica. 8 well "nown car dealer approached me with great concern. Le had realised that the sale of his cars involving finance through the ban"s was ribaB. Le was distressed by it and had approached most of the leading Aulema in the country. Le had received three answers but none of them could satisfy his concern. Cne group said$ E verything is alright. This is the way of the country and we cannot change it.F %ut he thought that that solution cannot be right, something must be done. 8nother group had said$ E8bandon your car sales and open a shop where you do not have to sell with finance.F Learing this he thought that the answer could not be to become another Indian shop"eeper, many of whom are in any case closing down due to the fierce competition of the big supermar"ets. 8nd the third group said$ ERefer your clients to an Islamic ban" for the finance of the cars, instead of an ordinary ban".F Le was not happy with that either because he had already discovered that the interest charged by the Islamic ban" is in fact similar to or higher than the ordinary ban"s. ;o he then as"ed me, E*hat is your opinionPF I put it to him simply$ E!o you have an 8mirP If you do not have an 8mir and a community under him, you are not e9uipped to deal with this matter. I cannot advise you on your own, but I can advise you with your 8mir. 8nd by the way, what you do with your car business, which is part of capitalism, is irrelevant to what needs to be done in the restoration of the halal. The first step will have nothing to do with your garage. The first step will have to be the minting of the !inar and the !irham.F I was amaJed that none of the other Aulema had understood that the 9uestion cannot be solved within the boundaries of personal morality, but that the matter which not only affects him but all of us X including all the Aulema who answered

the 9uestion X needs A8mr. *hen it comes to the use of the fi9h, this alien personal morality imposes a particular view that forces a reduced interpretation within the parameters of a code of personal practice which implies that "ey issues are simply not seen. The !inar and the !irham, for e0ample, are not seen by them, no matter how many times they appear in the fi9h. The fi9h must be approached from the frame of the community led by an 8mirG only then are all the matters given the understanding in which they were formulated in the first place. *ithout A8mr there is no understanding of the fi9h. #uritanism must be re7ected. ;econdly, the reading of the fi9h must entail a sense of purpose$ an aim that only the 8mir can provide. In conclusion, Islam re9uires A8mr.leadership, and without it our approach to the fi9h will be necessarily deficient. &he (ole of the Leader /irst, the leader is obligatory. There is no alternative to it. Then the leader must be allowed to lead his community. The leader may have his own Nouncil but he is not dictated by it. The 8mir dictates his Nouncil and everyone else. Ultimately the ummah also needs a leader. That leader cannot be fa"ed with a mere title or a throne, for he will be able to show his genuineness by a single and irrefutable act$ the achievement of victory. This necessary 9uality cannot be hidden. Lis sign will be clearly manifested. Unity of all the =uslims will necessarily follow. Le will be the only path to unity. This outward manifestation of his leadership is the reflection of an inner state that allows him to see what others cannot. Lis uni9ue ability will be to ma"e easy what others find difficult and to be able to find the wea"ness of the enemy when others only see overwhelming strength. Cur leader will carry a different mentality to what is common today. Le will not be of those who suffer from what the /rench call ressentiment 3resentment4, those are the people who 7ustify their goodness by the badness of their oppressors, a mentality that has become an essential part of the iconography of the reformist Islam of the twentieth century. Thin" of all those magaJines with pictures of people bleeding, "illed or about to be "illed, where the =uslims are always placed in the role of the victim. The leader will be able to bring a new mentality which is not reactionary but self-confident and self-dynamic, best represented by that famous e0pression of ?ietJsche, Ethe laughing lionF. The leader does not try to please man"ind or the world, but to please 8llah, and thus he will not be a populist, but a man of contemplation with an Aibada pure and complete above the rest. 8llah says in ;urat al-8nBam$ If #ou obe#ed most of those on earth, the# would misguide #ou from !llahs ;a#. &he# follow nothing but con@ecture. &he# are onl# guessing. 3DurBan, 6$ ++<4 !unya will be at his service, not the other way round. !unya must serve him because he is not part of it. Le will be more li"ely seen in the wildness of the hadra in a night of samaBa than in the conference rooms of the CIN, because the dhi"r is where he finds the comfort of the abandonment of himself, once more to return more ready to lead the =uslims. The leader will discover the fi9h by his own ability to lead, because he will be able to reveal the missing means that everyone was loo"ing for. This reading of his will allow us to reveal insights not only about ourselves but also about the enemy in a way that up until now has escaped us. Le will show us an easiness that we have not encountered before. That easiness will be the very path that will lead us to victory. -orging the Leader *e are not waiting on the leader, li"e we are not waiting on the =ahdi or the =essiah. Cur tas" is to create the environment in which this leader will emerge. 8fter all, we have the leader X or the lac" of it X that we deserve. *e must deserve a good leader. *e should stop worshipping those political and economic institutions that have made their way through the reform of the twentieth century. *e should abandon the illusion that they will bring unityG they are the very instruments of failure. *e should encourage leadership among ourselves by accepting the authority of those among us with the ability to rally the community and establish the fard of Islam on the basis of 8llahBs command, particularly when it relates to the Ja"at and the salat. The MumuAa must be the voice of the leader, not the preaching of morality by newly created priests. The leader must run the mos9ue and all mos9ue committees must be abolished. Then we must go one step further. *e must redraw the map of our world. *e must force ourselves to see that 8llah has given us all the means to succeed. 8nd anyone who does not, must be politely invited to hit their heads against the wall. It is not a rational battle before us, but a more primary battle in which the meanings of every rationale are in 9uestion. #ragmatism at hand must be erased as a formula for decision-ma"ing, and must be substituted by a higher vision of strategy that has an aim that reaches beyond us. In this battle of the meanings the tools of tasawwuf are absolutely necessary. The elimination of the nafs in the hadra must translate as the elimination of our worldly concerns when we face the world$ a worldless world in which the presence of 8llah is our guidance. The people with this 9uality will not fear the world, which does not matter to them, they will fear 8llah, and it will be among them that the leader will arise.

They will be the ones who will be able to turn the rules of the game in their favour and recognise what others have been blind to$ that the entire creation, the good and the bad, is in our favour. :es, the entire world is in our favour. ?ot only the fervent Aibada of the =uslims, but also capitalism. Napitalism can be seen as a problem, but for the leader it will be seen as a blessing. LowP %ecause capitalism is false. *hen you see your opponent playing a bad strategy in chess, you will not oppose his moves, but rather encourage them. :ou, on the other hand, will not follow his strategy, but define your own. That is why it is as foolish to oppose capitalism as it is to defend it. *e must play our own game. *hen they say that paper is valuable, and gold is worthless, we should say to them, E:es. *onderful, all the paper is for you, but we, primitive and ancient people, we will "eep the gold.F It has never been easier in the history of the =uslims to ta"e the wealth from the "uffar, because they believe in fantasies. They believe their own lies. 8a"italism as an .""ortunit# It is fundamental to understand capitalism because it has become the dominant religion in "ufr. It does not matter what religion you follow, capitalism is the muamalat of all us$ the same ban"ing system, the same money system, the same credit cards, interest, mortgages and protocols. *hat this means is that what we understand traditionally by religion has become a form of personal choice and morality that has nothing to do with the social and economic process 3these processes belong totally to capitalism4. /urthermore, the attempt to bring religion into politics or economics is seen as a sign of intolerance 3tolerance here playing the role of a new capitalist moral.4 Thus, you are allowed to 9uestion @od, but you are not allowed to 9uestion V8T, interest or ta0ation. Imagine the situation$ you wal" into your ban" and when the ban"er as"s you for the payment of the interest on your mortgage, you say to him$ EI am sorry but I am not going to pay you, I have become an agnostic of interest.F ?o, they do not tolerate your argument, because their system is an orthodo0y and cannot be 9uestioned. Religion, on the other hand, can be 9uestioned because it is a matter of personal choice according to them. This is when you realise that capitalism has become the muamalat of todayG the saying of E8d-!een al-muamalatF means that capitalism is the religion of today. &he Dollar 8risis 8nd yet, capitalism is false. Napitalism is facing what will undoubtedly amount to the biggest crisis in its history. This crisis, already named as Athe dollar crisisB, will be of critical importance to the reshaping of the world around the plan of a world state 3this plan is already set in place4. This crisis will be so important that we are obliged to understand it. The cause will be ribaB itself. Its being haram will manifest once more in the form of a crisis the nature of which we "now from previous cases, e0cept this one will be the biggest one. ssentially, this crisis is based on the e0istence of far too many dollars. In derivatives alone 3a prolific type of financial instrument4, there is a bubble of +6, trillion U; dollars, which represents 2, times more than world trade 32 trillion U; dollars in value4, that is, 2, times more than everything tangible that the people of the world trade with each other over a year. The problem is that this dollar bubble multiplies by two every two and a half years. ;o it will continue an unsustainable progression reaching 2,, (,, +6, times the volume of world trade, up until naturally, mathematically, it will have to e0plode. The second problem is that this bubble cannot be stopped from growing. Therefore the crisis is inevitable. The timing is un"nown. *e only "now that every day that passes will ma"e the crisis worse. *hat can we do before this important eventP The logical conclusion is to ta"e a position before the crisis comes using the only asset that withholds its value in crisis$ gold. @etting hold of the commodity, that is of the mineral production, at this stage will give us a tremendous tool in the after-crisis period. This position will involve ac9uiring gold in e0change for the present paper money, or even better, e0changing a borrowed dollar for future gold. *hat is future goldP @old mines, or buying at the present low prices the future production of the mine for ', or '- years. This position will benefit us in two ways at the time of the crisis$ one, from the sliding value of the dollar, and two, from the rising price of gold. 8 strong position in gold mining will not only allow us to survive the crisis, but will give us a solid position to mint the new gold and silver currency$ whatever the price of gold might be, we will have our own supply. The second element in this crisis strategy is obviously Ato ma"e gold function as moneyB. This ob7ective entails$ first the minting of the currency and the establishment of payment systems based on the metals, such as for e0ample, the present e-dinar payment systemG secondly, the setting up of the architecture of a gold economy, which implies what we call the Ainfrastructure of Islamic TradingB. The "ey to this infrastructure is the setting up of a networ" of Islamic.Cpen =ar"ets that will enable us to create new wealth based on trading. *e must remember the hadith of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam$ E9ine-tenths of ris1 E"ro:isionF comes from trading.G *e cannot afford to live without trading, as we are today. *hat the *orld Trade Crganisation calls trading is not trading but monopolistic distribution. Trading can only e0ist with Islamic.Cpen =ar"ets. This affair has been elaborated in detail, and most of it can be obtained in written form through the =urabitun media. The networ" of Cpen =ar"ets will

allow us to recreate caravans, guilds and our halal forms of finance 39irad4. The result is the formulation of a real alternative to capitalism, based on the ayat$ !llah has "ermitted trade and e has forbidden usur#.

3DurBan, '$ '<24 Trading is the alternative to capitalism. The steps to create the trading infrastructure have already started and programmes under my directive have been put in place with regard to the currency and the establishment of the infrastructure. This initiative of ours is the only one I am aware of in which =uslims are planning to deal with the crisis. Cur strategy aims at the revival of the muamalat of the =uslims which has been ignored and buried under capitalist practices for the last +,, years. The restoration of the muamalat of the =uslims will be in itself the opening of new doors and horiJons toward the ultimate aim$ the restoration of the >halifate. This =urabitun initiative represents the end of the reformism of the last one hundred years, and the birth of a new force towards the return of the Islam of =adinah, based on the =adinan model and the =adinan values. This is what we refer to when we spea" about the A8mal of the 8hl al-=adinah, one of the "ey elements of the =urabitun agenda. The problem that we face today is not a problem of the fi9h, but a problem of the reformist values that have forced us to compulsively imitate the "uffar. These reformist values are behind this trend in which, if the "uffar have ban"s, these modernist reformers tell us that the fi9h actually allows Islamic ban"sG if the "uffar have stoc" e0changes, these misguided reformers busy themselves trying to formulate with their fi9h a new Islamic stoc" e0change. 8nd the same goes for Islamic constitutions, Islamic credit cards, Islamic parliaments, Islamic human rights, and so on and so forth. 8ll these people and ideas are part of the past. To those who ma"e the haram halal, we warn them by reminding them what 8llah says in ;urat al-?ahl$ !o not say about what your lying tongues describe$ A&his is halal and this is haram, in:enting lies against !llah. &hose who in:ent lies against !llah are not successful H a brief en@o#ment, then the# will ha:e a "ainful "unishment. 3DurBan, +6$ ++64 These people have mislead the =uslims for over a hundred years since =uhammad 8bduh. Their time is over. ?ow is the time to forge the leader who will read the fi9h with the eyes of victory and who will unveil for us what is clear, yet hidden to many$ the real Islamic model, not based on a copy of the "uffar but on its own intrinsic order. !inar, !irham, ;u9s, Naravans, Dirad, *a9f, @uilds, A8mr, >halifate. These are the new.old instruments of con9uest with which we will create the space for the leader to emerge. These are the elements which constitute our muamalat. This spirit of construction and growth based on our muamalat will do away with all the false leaders who have been the curse of the twentieth century and who still linger on in our present day. These are the false leaders who have been telling us to wait for the ;aviour, the =ahdi or whatever they want to call it. These people have been telling us that the time has not yet come, that we are not ready, that our Iman is wea", when in fact it was their Iman that was wea". They have forgotten that 8llah says in ;urat al-?isaB$ Do not sa#, 5Dou are not a mumin, to someone who greets #ou as a $uslim, sim"l# out of desire for the goods of this world. 3DurBan, 2$ 5&4 Cur muamalat will also do away with those blind leaders who, because of their incapacity to see victory, have launched the =uslims into helpless and irrelevant battles pre-designed to fail. These are the people who from the comfort of their home have sent their followers in their thousands to a suicidal death, yet they disguise the failure in their suicidal tactics as a success of martyrdom, intended to lure the ne0t lot. 8nother group are those false leaders who are blind and cannot see the victory. They apparently invo"e secret powers. These people give to themselves special powers from the Unseen and say$ go and fight and the angels will help you, and if you 9uestion them about their strategy then they reply, E!o you not believe in angelsPF *e should say to them, EIf you have an army of angels why do you need usP @o and fight your battle yourself.F They should see" wisdom, but instead they shortcut it by bluffing their trusting followers with false pretences. 8llah says in ;urat al-8nBam$ =a#A 5I do not sa# to #ou that I "ossess the treasuries of !llah, nor do I know the Unseen, nor do I sa# to #ou that I am an angel. I onl# follow what has been re:ealed to me. =a#A 5!re the blind the same as those who can seeI

=o will #ou not reflectI 3DurBan, 6$ -+4 /inally, a last word. The "ey to our success will not come from loo"ing at the world. It does not matter what great enterprise 8llah puts before us, our centre must remain in our Aibada. Cur Aibada is our strength and our guidance. There we can withdraw endlessly and deeper and deeper for the meanings that we re9uire. Cur Aibada is essential to us, and it is everything to the leader. 8llah says in ;urat al-/ath$ &rul# ;e ha:e granted #ou a clear :ictor#, so that !llah ma# forgi:e #ou #our earlier errors and an# later ones and com"lete is blessing u"on #ou, and guide #ou on a =traight Path. and so that !llah ma# hel" #ou with a might# hel". 3DurBan, 2($ +-&4

&he (eturn of the 3uilds

The guild is the natural professional organization of free societies. For hundreds of years civilized societies organized their trade through guilds. Throughout history the guild system represented the natural impulse of society to govern itself against the cyclical eruptions of central power. However, the guilds themselves suffer from their own illnesses which combine to give them an inner dynamic of prosperity and decline. They reached maximum perfection and prosperity in Islamic societies, where they were harmonized and disciplined by the framework of the shariah. The resolute transformation of central states into banks during the 18th and 19th centuries gave birth to the modern fiscal state and produced the extraordinary rise of capitalism. They could not allow the existence of the guilds as a force (of the people) competing with their own ambitions for absolute power. Today that idea of the modern state is in deep crisis. Disguised under the hollow term "privatization", the now "old" model of state is being systematically and rapidly dismantled. "Everything is for sale" resounds like the long anticipated defeat of this form of organization. This phenomenon of self-abdication could lead towards a harmonizing of society through the devolution of powers, or else these powers could be reabsorbed by an even mightier world state. What is very clear is that in this historical threshold the reestablishment of the guilds and their success will play a fundamental role in shaping the new society. Leading corporations calling for efficiency are rediscovering the superiority which autonomous workteams have over employees. Political trends have made newly fashionable the idea of the "privatization" of welfare responsibilities, and have transferred them back to society. Intellectuals are now rediscovering the guilds as an alternative to both the old welfare state and the old corporate structure. However, as in the past, Islam will be the guilds' most powerful supporter. The guilds did not survive the fatal pressure put on them in the 19th century. Their spirit, however, never disappeared completely. The modern university system has its origins in the guilds. The professional colleges are also reminiscent of the guilds. In Germany, the guilds maintained their predominance and expansion well into the middle of the 19th century. In the rest of Europe, however, the evolving centralist state system had already diminished their influence. The death of the guilds in Europe and the Muslim world is often misrepresented as "death by natural causes". A more appropriate analogy would be "death by assassination". The totalitarian ambitions of statism combined with the capitalist abuse of society through the effects of banking emerged as the natural and most ferocious enemy of the guilds. Their disappearance was the condition sine qua non for the further expansion of the fiscal state and the capitalist system. Another way in which the importance of guilds has reached our time is through architecture, of which Brussels is a beautiful example. The importance of the guilds in Belgium is most evident in the Grand Place in Brussels, where the scale of the guild houses belonging to the boatmen, archers, tallow merchants and hosiery makers leaves little doubt as to their wealth. From the thirteen century onwards the guilds were far more than just organizations of tradesmen. It is still remembered in Belgium how the guild militias played a decisive role in the Battle of Golden Supur in 1302. Their guilds also created almshouses

and other charity institutions, created their own courts of justice, levied fines on the members who breached their statutes, and regulated the quality of products in the market and conditions of work. Their heritage is fundamental for understanding the development of industry in Europe. The importance of the guilds as an instrument of social transformation has been a constant factor in European political literature right up to the Second World War. The political supporters of the guilds saw the French Revolution as a phenomenon that was designed to act against the guilds. It was seen as the key drive behind their abolition. The results of the French Revolution made possible the abolishment of those laws that forbade usury thereby encouraging monopoly; the introduction of a national and artificial inflationary currency; and the systematic expropriation of all guild properties and their welfare institutions. On this was based both the model and the method for the emergence of the new capitalist or modern fiscal state. The Scotsman Thomas Carlyle, the Frenchman J.P. Proudhon and the Russian M. Bakunin are some of the famous political writers who wrote to some extent against the concept of the modern state, insisting on "government without state". They saw that the alternative to central authority was the devolution of sovereignty to the workplace. The Russian Kropotkin made a most profound analysis of the medieval guilds as the ideal model for a society without a working class. In the beginning of this century, a movement emerged called 'guild socialism', intellectually inspired by Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris, the aim of which was to transfer the powers of capital and government to self-governing associations of workers through the tactics of direct actions. The end of this Christian millennium is marked by numerous indications which anticipate the resurgence of the guilds. The two principal ones are the downfall of the American capitalist cycle, and the shrinking budgetary and welfare activity of the state. The four capitalist cycles (Genoa, Holland, Great Britain and now the United States) expanded through free trade but they ended in the grip of monopoly and were suffocated by usury. In America, as well as in its European satellite, the sign of social and economic decline has already manifested itself- "they make more money out of money (usury) than out of legitimate productive activities". The debtor state on the other hand is crippled by its fiscal responsibility, alienating the people through heavy taxation and the inability to meet the welfare needs of its constituency. The end of the American cycle is bringing about a mutation in social values. In the beginning of this century, to be a salaried worker was considered as "alienation or slavery". Now, chronic unemployment has presented another feature which is that "a person may not be worth exploiting". Therefore, "to be worth exploiting" is considered a personal triumph, i.e. to be considered a wage-slave is considered a triumph. In this climate of absolute resignation in the face of rising unemployment, and at a time when entire nations are being auctioned off to the highest bidder it becomes apparent why the re-emergence of the guilds resonates as a powerful and necessary alternative. This will become possible when, firstly, the worker recognizes that nobody is capable of saving him from his state of servitude other than himself (in this respect politicians have lost all competency). Secondly, when he finds no resources available to him other than his own companions or co-workers who are faced with the same reality. It is under these extreme conditions that the essential character of the guild becomes apparent. The need for co-operation and mutual group-centred reliance in a hostile environment will eventually lead to a strengthening of enterprise and brotherhood.

THE GUILDS IN ISLAM

In Islam the guilds reached a level of perfection and balance thanks to the Shari'ah. As an example, in Europe, in Al-Andalus, the guilds enjoyed a great splendour for several centuries. The manufacturers of this region achieved a degree of fame higher than their scientific and literary counterparts. The ceramic work, with its mosaics of vivid metallic colours and their golden glazes; crystal work, that was invented in the 19th century by Ibn Firmas from Cordoba; the metalwork, with its glorious lamps; the jewellery; the arms produced in famous centres such as Toledo, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Almeria and Murcia; textile work, which produced magnificent tapestries and rich material from wool and silk; and the leather work, plain and printed, especially from Cordoba with its renowned cordovan leather were the most appreciated products as specialized items in the West. A desire to know and to improve led the guilds to technical advancement in most areas of production, including agriculture, where they developed the most efficient systems of irrigation in the West during that epoch. The Sufi tariqas were integrated into the guilds, and this added a spiritual dimension fundamental to their development which in turn contributed to the birth and growth of new guilds. Each guild had its own internal statutes which incorporated four basic categories: masters, officials, apprentices and a chief, sometimes called the amin, who had no salary but whose job was to regulate the fulfillment of the statutes by the members and to resolve disputes among them. Brotherhood. The guilds were essentially a brotherhood in the workplace. In this arena the guildsmen sought to emulate that highest existential expression of brotherhood found among soldiers on the battlefield in jihad, where men are ready to share in the ultimate sacrifice for Islam in the name of Allah. This parallel between the guild and the army was not only an ideal but was realized every year, as each guild constituted a military brigade inside the Muslim army. They fought together for one month in the year and they worked together for another eleven months. This was the unifying of common cause and purpose. This was the profundity of their understanding of brotherhood. It is said that all the money in the world cannot gather the hearts of the people, but Allah gathers the hearts of the people. In many ways the guild resembles the tariqa, in that the aims of the guild and those of the tariqa were mutually tied by common elements such as brotherhood, the presence of a shaykh (head of the tariqa and the guild), and the zawiya. All this was aimed at achieving closeness to Allah. By sharing with and showing generosity to his brothers, the guildsman makes possible the cleansing of his nafs and abandons his reliance on the perishable dunya. In so doing he is able to direct his efforts exclusively towards his duties to Allah. The ultimate generosity that encompasses all other forms of generosity such as giving ones time or giving ones wealth, is to give ones life itself in the name of Allah for the benefit of others. Thus, jihad, which is an obligation on the Muslims once a year under the command of an amir (according to Ibn Rushd it is a sixth pillar of Islam), encompasses all other forms of sacrifice for the community. This became the symbol of the guild. The arena of the guild is like the physical battlefield where the common goal supersedes individual interests. Clearly the person that gives his life in jihad for the sake of Allah has abandoned any individual interest. This is one of the reasons why a person who dies in jihad is called shahid. The shahid who lives and dies in this way has achieved the ultimate goal as a Muslim. Naturally, the people who have fought together in jihad and know that they are going to fight together again do not relate to each other in the same way as ordinary people do. Brotherhood in this sense does not resemble an ordinary association of people. In this context it is interesting to note that even a kafir writer like Junger, who was the hero of two world wars, recognized that the only place where he experienced

brotherhood was in the trenches. For that reason he loved war. The expression of this kind of brotherhood in peacetime was the guilds. In this regard, therefore, jihad is fundamental to the guilds because it is the most powerful means by which the hearts of men can be brought together. The Sufi gathering of brotherhood is the best means of getting close to jihad, not to replace it however, because it encourages total commitment- hasbuna'llahu wa ni'ma'l-wakil. On the other hand, without jihad the guilds soon degenerate into rigid and closed organizations that eventually allow privileges which then turn the apprentice into an employee. This is the precursor to the creation of monopolies which eventually transform the master into an employer, and in many instances an employee as well. The workplace today has been secularized, deprived of any religious meaning, and has been removed from the zone of the Shariah. The Deen of Islam has now assumed the status of a religion confined to the daily rituals of ibadah, whereas the mu'amalah _the zone of the Shariah that deals with human transactions and especially those transactions that deal with trading_ has been abdicated in favour of the laws of kufr. Hundreds of years of Islamic civilization established the workplace at the centre of religious commitment and the result was the birth and development of the guilds. Our task is to bring the acts of work and trading under the light of the Shariah, and to redevelop them accordingly. A Service To The Community. Work is essentially a "service". Work is not merely, as imagined today, the occasion and the means to gain a salary or to produce some goods. Rather, work is the name we give to the things done as a service to the people. That is why work is not considered an activity of the muscle or the brain, but of the spirit. For this reason, access to work and the workplace has a spiritual dimension, and it cannot be restricted to a class nor can it be measured according to category of income. Since only free men can serve, we distinguish the worker who serves the people from the wage-slave who fulfills some prescribed automaton-like task for a salary. Replacing the worker by a machine merely implies replacing one type of overhead for another. In this sense the machine and the wage-slave whom it replaces share a common nature. However, the machine cannot own or decide for itself and, therefore, cannot replace the owner or the worker. Those who say that the machine has created unemployment are veiling the fact that unemployment is a result of modern economic principles which foster monopoly in trade and industry; which epitomize the idea of a working class or class of employees (hence mass employment itself breeds unemployment); and, finally, which necessitate the need for huge capital input for trade and production (capitalism rewards those who possess money for the mere possession of it whereas guilds allow for mutual benefit through co-operation and partnership). Consequently, politicians who promise full employment to their people are in fact promising full enslavement to society. Employment can hardly be the solution to unemployment when employment itself is the lowest form of economic activity, meaning that because the wage-slave is deprived of any real personal initiative and is confined to a life of predetermined procedures, the work process is reduced as well to mechanically given procedures. Work understood as a service means that 'work as an activity' is a benefit to society. Thus, it cannot act to the detriment of society. The worker does not take something from society, he contributes to society. In this way society also serves and takes care of the worker. This symbiotic relationship of service and being served is expressed in the knowledge that Allah is the Provider. Allah provides for us. We are not capable of providing for ourselves. When we serve Allah by serving His creation we in turn are served.

Just as work is a service, knowledge too is part of that service to society. Knowledge cannot be the privilege of a class and used to exploit other people. On the contrary, knowledge needs to be shared in order to free people, to help them decide on right action, and to enable them to be masters of their own situation. Knowledge and the possession of knowledge do not separate classes but unify them. Conversely, the current view embraces the monopolization of knowledge through patents and copyrights. The guilds offer the antidote to this sickness. Patent privileges will be abolished and copyright turned into "copy-lefts" as the Turkish publishers Ihlas Waqf have shown. Only then, without coercion, can the inventors be truly rewarded and honoured by society. On the other hand, the guild is based on shared knowledge. How could the masters be masters with patents? Impossible. The master shares his knowledge with the apprentice who himself becomes a bearer and transmitter of knowledge and skills. Today the employer keeps his employee ignorant so that the employee cannot emancipate himself and become the equal of his employer.

THE GUILDS AND THE OLD WELFARE STATE

Privatization has put the old welfare state in crisis. The guild system allows for the devolution of responsibilities to the individual. It reinforces horizontal co-operation between equals (between workers, between guilds, between regions). It implies the gradual dissolution of old state institutions in favour of social institutions much nearer to the individual. The political dynamic of the guild system implies that the self-empowerment of the individual will be accompanied by a gradual, parallel disempowerment of the old state system which was based on territorial centralism and the concentration of the functions of society in the hands of a few. This dynamic is what the guild socialists of the early century called the politics of "encroachment". The raising of the guilds implies the raising of all the functional aspects of society. The guilds advocate the multiple and direct expression of people according to the function they play in society. This must be understood against the idea of the undifferentiated representation of people through political representatives which is dominant today. This is based on the belief that the general will of a person cannot be represented by another, only by himself. Only a particular function or a particular will can be represented, and this is a part of the social model that the guilds recall. The guild represents the direct expression of the individual through his own contribution to society. Thus functional expression replaces political expression. The guilds have a recognized position in society which is directly related to their activity and they can, therefore, influence society directly on the basis of their particular activity. Waqfs. An essential part of the guild is the creation of the waqfs (or awqaf) that replace the old idea of centralized welfare with a system of autonomous direct-welfare institutions. The waqf of the guild, created by contributions of the members, was intended partly for the unreachable future, partly dedicated to the profession, and partly for social assistance and welfare for the members and their families. Contributions by members to the waqf were proportional to the operational needs and suitability to the guild. It varied from 1/5 to 1/3 to 1/2 of an individual's income. The nearer one gets to the origin of the guild, the higher is the individual contribution to the waqf. As the guild consolidates its position, the members increase their private income. It is not rare to see that in the beginning of a guild the initial group contributed 100% to the waqf- they mixed their needs and their incomes. Then, like a seed that germinates to create a full grown plant, the undifferentiated core of the guild "germinates" into the different elements that constitute it, i.e. waqf, master, apprentices, statutes, courts, markets, pensions etc. Note that since in Islam there is no taxation obligated for awqaf, it implies a nobility of character that guild members take on the gifting of awqaf funds, another Sufic dimension of the guilds. It is zuhd - doing without - to help those in

need. A false approach to the establishment of the guilds is collectivism, that is believing that the guilds will be promoted by the collectivization of property. This would be an error, because property does not transform a salaried worker into a master. Jihad creates brotherhood, collectivization does not. Open markets, free currencies (dinar and dirham), caravans, amirate, and halal contracts- these are the instruments to recreate the guilds. The workers who come together and aspire to the highest purpose of establishing Islam will be able to call upon the owner of the factory to join them. But it is very unlikely that it will work the other way round. It would be better to keep the employee who is "happy" as an employee if this is his choice. This is also perfectly acceptable in Islam. Our programme to establish the guilds should be directed at those who have a genuine desire for Islam and want to work in brotherhood for their own liberation and the liberation of others.

THE GUILDS AND THE OLD CORPORATE STRUCTURE

Just as the old states diminished under the banner of privatization in relation to their traditional tasks, there is another, equally important movement which tacitly leads towards the return of the guilds. This movement is generally referred to in corporate terms as "reengineering". In addition, a new industrial revolution called "the information revolution" is now in process, and is shaking the foundation of all productive processes. This amounts to a historic opportunity for the guilds to be re-established. They are the logical conclusion after re-engineering. The guilds can adapt more flexibly to the advantages offered by new technologies in all forms of production. This synergy between technology and traditional guild principles is the key to surpassing the crisis of obsolete organizational structures. Under the impact of the globalization of trade, the factory system has shown itself to be anachronistic and unable to meet the socio-economic demands of the future. Mass production has crumbled under the impact of saturated markets and, most importantly, by "competition". Competition has destroyed mass production, and revealed it be an inefficient system. Under these conditions, corporations have been forced to re-engineer their production systems by adopting production methods that allow for better efficiency and profitability. This has been achieved by recreating those manufacturing methods found in the traditional guilds. This "cell production" consists of independent work teams competing against each other within the same corporate framework. This is devolution of responsibility to small process-based teams, but it is not independence. Independence is only achieved when these work teams no longer require the control and patronage of the corporation. Today, Toyota is made up of thousands of small semi-autonomous work teams who design, requisition, produce and package complete parts and utilities but do not enjoy the right to sell. Toyota, in fact, does not manufacture any more, it only sells. It is the supermarket for all the autonomous workshops. And what is the next step, therefore, "beyond re-engineering"? It is to transform those autonomous workshops into guilds and to eliminate the supermarket by transforming it into the Islamic market, which is the market place free from rent and ownership. There the guilds can thrive. Only then it will the dream of customized production be possible, when cars will be manufactured and assembled cheaper and in greater variety than factories did in the past. A misconception is to associate the guilds exclusively with "manual crafts", which is not the case. This is just another way of thinking of them as medieval. The guild as a production entity is simply more efficient. This is already demonstrated. But it needs to operate with the correct methods and technologies in order to improve performance in comparison with

the less efficient use of human resources in mass-production factories. If a chainsaw is given to a wage slave and an axe to the master woodcutter, the slave will produce more, yet it is wrong to conclude that slavery is better than mastery, it only proves that the chainsaw is much better than the axe. But if you give a chainsaw to both of them, the master will win. Employment is the lowest form of economic activity because, as Socrates pointed out, an army of free men can defeat an army of mercenaries, even if the mercenaries are twice as numerous, because they are free. Guilds manifest themselves in all vocations and professions. It is crucial for us at the point of implementation to be able to choose advanced methods and techniques of manufacturing. This is unavoidable when one considers that already large corporations are re-engineering production techniques that facilitate small processed based teams or cellular networks which assume greater responsibility, and make independent decisions. This is almost a cyclical return to the guild system with one fundamental difference - which highlights the superiority of the guild - which is that guilds are not corporations, they assume direct ownership of their functions. It is important to recognize that many guilds collapsed during the industrial revolution because of competition from employee-oriented mass production factories. They did not adapt to the new technologies the way the factories did. In this regard machine technology, as a basic process of systematization and thus acceleration, has accelerated the disaster inherent in capitalism while it could have accelerated the better qualities inherent in the guilds if it had been guided by the guilds themselves.

THE RETURN OF THE GUILDS

Ibn Khaldun said that a period of prosperity is followed by a period of decadence. The market, for example, flourished in an environment of openness and accessibility to all, and collapsed when it became the privilege of an elite. The fact that we are now full of supermarkets is the most clear indication that Islamic markets will come and will flourish again. It is the natural cycle. It is similar with the guilds. In the middle of a hostile environment the guilds emerge out of a strong spirit of brotherhood and they flourish. Then privileges are introduced which replace partnership, and soon apprentices are transformed into employees and unemployment becomes inevitable. We are now in that situation which is hostile to the individual. The individual is not necessary because it is possible to make more money out of money than out of genuine work. It is the end and the beginning. It is the time of the return of the guilds. 'Modernist' Islam has effectively removed guilds, open markets, and gold and silver currencies from the Islamic ethos. The dynamic of these institutions has been removed from the current political discourse, and in its place the modernists have brought "Islamic banking", the "Islamic Stock Exchange", "Islamic Insurance" and "Islamic capitalism" to the agenda. This old doctrine with Islamic labels is being revealed as a fraud, however. Modernist Islam has died alongside that obsolete model of society that they wanted to "islamise". The time to restore the Islamic social nexus is upon us. It is within that wider framework of Islamic social life that we can fully appreciate the implications of the guilds. Thus, the return of the guilds entails the return of Islamic markets, caravans, the dinar and dirham, shirkat and qirad contracts, qadis, amirs etc. And the establishment of Islamic Amirate leads inevitably to the establishment of a Dar al-Islam and the restoration of the Khalifate. May Allah give us the right guidance to achieve it soon. Amin.

&he -allac# of the 5Islamic 6ank

The so-called EIslamic ban"B is a usurious institution contrary to Islam. The AIslamic ban"F is an absurd attempt to resolve, as was done in the case of Nhristianity, the unswerving opposition of Islam to usury for fourteen centuries. ;ince its origin, the AIslamic ban"B has been patroniJed and promoted by usurers. Their only intention was to incorporate the thousand million =uslims of the worldYwho in general would scornfully avoid using any ban"ing or usurious institutionYinto the international financial and monetary system. The artificial creation by the colonial powers of the so called AIslamic statesB, itself a contradiction in terms, whose character is mar"edly anti-lslamic, was the historical result of the end of territorial coloniJation and the beginning of the financial neo-colonialism. The universal establishment of the western constitutional model 3the model of the /rench revolution4 brings with it the establishment of artificial and unnatural boundaries, the creation of a repressive ministerial bureaucracy, the e0acting of ta0es, the imposition of artificially legaliJed money and the legaliJation of usury 3the ban"ing system4 Y measures which are all profoundly contrary to Islam. The Islamic %an" is thus nothing more than a typically degenerate and belated product of the so-called AIslamic statesB. In order to spea" on the EIslamic %an"F, the new science of so-called AIslamic economicsB has emerged from the 8merican and uropean universities. Lowever fallacious these two selfsupporting concepts of economics are concepts regarded with scorn by the =uslims of traditional education they have served as a 7ustification for the new class of state functionaries and bureaucrats who have come to constitute a "ind of AIslamic modernismB. 8 few years of mediocre education in western universities will not allow many of the Islamic economists to discover that the foundations of economics have been shattered as a science and in practice in the very urope which saw it come into e0istence. The rationalistic framewor" of the positive sciences which has been called into 9uestion in urope has been currently defended by those neo-bureaucrats who are still fascinated by their years of education in the *est. ven though the sincere, albeit naive, faith of the ma7ority of those who participate in these modernist movements cannot be denied, time and a greater maturity has shown them the bitter side of the ideological and scientific modernism in which they have placed their trust. The return of the Islamic tradition has not only been the best antidote against this modernism in those =uslim countries but in the hand of a new generation of =uslims in the *est it has also resulted in the transcending of modernism and brought about the culmination of our western civiliJation which today is of Zuniversal character.[ In contrast to the modernist confusion, the position of the ;hariBa of Islam clear and does not admit any controversy. 8llah says in the DurBan$ ECh you who believeO Lave fear of 8llah and give up what remains of what is due 3to you4 of Usury. If you do not, then ta"e notice of war 3against you4 from 8llah and Lis =essenger.F ZDurBan ','<([ /rom this it is clear that the =uslims must not only abandon Usury but that he is also obliged to

fight against usury. The AIslamic ban"B is a totally crypto-usurious institution and li"e all the other usurious constitutions must be re7ected and fought. %esides the falsehood of its very name we can enumerate at least three reasons why its practice is considered usurious. 8. The creation and utiliJation of artificial paper-money whose use is a confined monopoly. The ;hariBa prohibits the forceful imposition of one single money on the mar"etG what is e0plicitly stated is that money can be any "ind of merchandise which is socially accepted as a means of e0change. If besides this we add to this the character of monopoly inherent in a 3paper-4money X without any value as a commodity X whose value is imposed by the state, then it becomes clear the manipulation and acceptance of this system has nothing to do with the deen of Islam. =oreover given that there does not e0ist a single state in the world where the monetary system of paper money is not applied then this is sufficient reason for affirming that the =uslims live in a world where authentic Islamic governance is absent. There e0ists no 7ustification of a strategic or a political "ind in the imposition of paper money as a prop for a possible Islamic government since this imposition is based on a deception of the people who support this government$ moreover it is a contradiction that a 7ust and e9uitable government finance itself by means of robbing from the very people whom it is governing. The use of paper money by any institution is contrary to the nature of Islam. In the case of the ban" however there is an added element to this contradiction X namely the capacity of the ban" to freely create paper money by means of credit X which is independent of whether this paper-money is used for honest business or usurious loans. The use of credit to artificially e0pand the monetary resources is emphatically forbidden in the ;hariBa. EIt is not permitted to pay a loan by as"ing the lender to receive payment from a third person who owes money to the lender\.F Nonse9uently it is not allowed to settle a debt with another debt. EIt is not permitted that you sell something that you do not possess on the understanding that you will buy it and will give it to the buyer.F 3A8l-RisalaB of Ibn 8bi Kaid al-Dayrawani, chap. &24. Imam =ali" says, E8 person should not buy a debt due to another person, be he present or absent, without the confirmation of the person who owes the debt. Le is buying something which has not been guaranteed to him and so if the contract is not completed what he has paid loses its value. This is an uncertain transaction and is not good.F 3A8l =uwattaB of Imam =ali", chap. &+4. The confirmation of a debt is an indispensable condition for its transferG the confirmation occurs with the guaranteeing that the debt can be and will be paid. In other words notice will be given that someone with a debt which is unpayable will be able to transfer it to another person. ?ot even in debts of sale is the lac" of confirmation of guarantee permitted. Imam =ali" distinguishes between someone who becomes indebted for something that he possesses and someone who becomes indebted for something which he does not have in his possession, this latter "ind of debt is disapproved of since it leads to usury and fraud 3A8l-=uwattaB, chap. &+4, li"e in the case of the ban"s. The ;hariBa prohibits the commercialiJation or multiplication of a debt without the means to guarantee it. Thus, the ban"ing business as such cannot e0ist in IslamG the only function it could have would be to restrict itself to being an institution for transferring money but without the capacity to e0pand the amount of credit. %4 The usurping of part ownership The second reason why the Islamic ban" is a fallacy is the constitutive structure of its ownership. In Islam the constitution of any business must guarantee the identification of ownership and the respect of this ownership. There thus e0ist two forms of constitution for a business by two of more persons.

+. The loan 3or 9irad 4 by which the investor transfers the property of their investment to an agent who manages the business. '. No-ownership in which all the investors have made a prior agreement as to the e0ecution of a specific business 3by means of a contract4 and in which ownership is based on e9uality of conditions between all the co-owners. The structure of the AIslamic ban"sB is based not on the strictness and e0actness of the ;hariBa but rather on the model of the corporation in the *est in which the e0ercise of property is not carried out by those who Ynominally Yare the owners but is carried out by means of a system of usurpation which we can call by the ma7oritiesB. This means that the innocent investor who ta"es part in this type of business contract has no protection of his investment since neither establishes a business loan 39irad 4, in accordance with the way this type of contract is defined, nor is he able to ma"e decisions with respect to the very business in which he is a co-own.owner 3unless this same person is the ma7ority4 since this is not decided beforehand in the contract. Thus this type of contract is not a business contract but a sophisticated and unprotected surrender of oneBs right of ownership. *hoever is the ma7ority at any one time, then that person 3or group of persons4 and only that person is the authentic owner of the business. That is to say, in accordance with our understanding only the person who can decide is the owner in fact. /or this reason the system of ma7ority is neither co-ownership, Cr, as we shall see, a loan. The business loan 39irad 4 is not a loan of money for a specific period made without "nowing what is going to be invested in, but rather it is made for the establishment of a specific business$ Imam =ali" says, EIt is not permitted for the agent to stipulate that the use of the money of the 9irad is his for a certain number of years and that it cannot be withdrawn from him during this period of time.F Le says, EIt is not correct that the investor stipulates that the money of the 9irad should not be returned for a certain number of years which are specified since the 9irad is not for a specific time.F 3A8l-=uwattaB of Imam =ali", chap. &+4. The contract of the business loan on 9irad implies the specifying of the person who is the agent or new owner and on whom the total responsibility of the investment rests. Thus the loan cannot be established by an indeterminate ma7ority or with the persons who represent it if they, between them, form a single co-ownership4 without 7eopardiJing the e0ercise of co-ownership of the minority coowners, who are bound by the decisions 3of the ma7ority4 despite disapproving of them. This means that firstly before someone invests in a business it has to be "nown what that business is, prior to investment 3according to basic conditions which arc made "nown in a reasonable way beforehand, and which are complete,with w condition wanting in any way4G secondly it means that the person 3or persons4 who is the decision ma"er in such a business is the owner 3or co-owners4 and that reciprocally only the owner 3or the owners4 decides with respect to the businessG Thirdly, that in every co-ownership the owners en7oy the same status 3the fulfillment of the contract which they have and agreed to4 even though they participate to different degrees 3such that the profits are distributed proportionally4G and fourthly it means that those contracts in which, without there occurring any loan, the owner is deprived of the right of ownership to e0ercise control, then in these contracts there is a usurpation of ownership. In short, the structure of co-ownership of the AIslamic ban"sB in which the shareholders are invited to participate is not acceptable G in Islam since it consists of an un7ustified usurpation of the ownership of the minority shareholders in favor of the e0ecutive council or administrator which represents the ma7ority. N. The payment of the usurious interest !ue to the very structures and the arena in which the AIslamic ban"sB deals in a contract , fluctuation in value is generated which affect the individual transactions the ban" ma"es. 8s a result an

contracts made by the A Islamic ban"B are usurious. ;hort of removing ourselves completely from the monetary system then we are of necessity 7ustified in affirming that every commercial contract made with in this system is already usurious since the values ma"es of one of the commodities which is interchanged, namely completely the paper money is being increased by pressure , force and the state monopoly. The usurious nature of these institutions is much deeper however. very loan of a commodity open to devaluation and whose value was superior when it was received, is usurious. In general a loan cannot be made of a commodity whose value is changeable. If however a devaluation happens une0pectedly the payment of a compensation e9ual to the devaluation of the lent merchandise will have to be established 3and this cannot be confused with the interest4. This fact denies the validity of the principle of Ainterest-freeB on which AIslamic ban"sB are based, since paper money cannot be ta"en as a authentic money with a stable value. very time this ban" borrows paper money for a time, it gains the devaluation suffered by this money during the time of the loan. It is li"e the typical usurious tric" which consisted of the loaning of wheat when it has limited value 3during harvest4 and stipulating that it be given bac" when wheat has attained a better price on the mar"et 3several months after the harvest4. This however does not mean that the ta"ing of an interest which is e9ual to inflation ma"es the operation of loans in paper-money permissible since this commodity can never become the ob7ect of a free and fluctuating evaluation. The payment of dividends, e0cept when considered as the sharing out of the profits of the business and when accepted unanimously by ad the co-owners is payment of usurious interest The ;hariBa contains no doubt in this respect$ the only possible 7ustification for the increase or decrease at the time of the return of the loan is the resulting profit or loss of the business, connected with that loan. ?one of the parties can reserve the use of a pan of the profits without them having been previously distributed$ EThe person who ma"es an investment cannot stipulated that he retain part of the profit without sharing it with the agentG li"ewise the agent cannot stipulate that he retain a pan of the profit without sharing .F 3A8l-=uwattaB of Imam =ali", chap. &+4 This however is what happens when the agent does not distribute all the profits but rather an estimation of them. The profits are simply the difference between the value 3or mar"et price4 of the invested goods and the value of the goods and the value of the goods obtained by the business. Then the results or profits are not an Aob7ectiveB estimation but rather a demonstrable reality. It may be however that the parties to the business contract want to e0tend the contract and continue the profit already made by establishing a Amutually acceptableB payment as if it were the same as partial payments of the total profit. %ut this Amutually acceptableB payment means that if even one of the parties was not in agreement with the proposition to continue the business or not in agreement with the calculation of the profit which has been Aob7ectivelyB estimated by someone X or even a ma7ority of the co-owners X then he can, by e0ercising his right of ownerships dissolve the business and verifyY by the sales of the business goodsYif the estimate was correct or not. This will not violate the right of ownership of the rest of the co-owners since the contract will have been completedG besides this can be continued by buying it again from the sale of li9uidation of the person who does not want to continue or who does not accept the profits which have been estimated. The calculation of the resulting profits is logically identical for all types of business whether they be established by way of a business loan 3or 9irad 4 or as co-ownership. The 9irad in general is established for a particular business with a particular person, where the results are clearly defined but it is not to be thrown to a bas"et of other business that the investor cannot clearly identify in full, that is not only the nature of the business and the identity of the agent but specially the e0act results of the business. In short the system of calculation or estimation of the dividends of the modem corporations adopted by the AIslamic ban"sB, are not the actual resulting profits of the business and as such, by their

e0cessive estimation or underestimation, they represent a usurious interest. ven besides the fact that this estimation cannot possibly always be correct, there is the fact that the very contract itself is unacceptable, since in the type of contract that the corporation ma"e with the shareholders the fact that the latter have to renounce their right of co-ownership without even being able to refuse what they consider to be an incorrect estimation represents an illegitimate usurpation of ownership. Usury has corrupted the mar"et, transforming it into a usurious system. There is no way of establishing an 3e9uitable4 mar"et without going outside of the modem monetary and financial systems. 8ll attempts to recuperate an 3e9uitable4 Islamic mar"et with 3e9uitable4 Islamic business and transactions must be based on the DurBanic principle of 9uity 3al-B8dl4ZDurBan ', '('[ which is also defined in the ;hariBa. Islam, besides being the situation of the =uslims themselves, a situation based on the DurBan and our tradition of fi9h, is and has been for centuries an impregnable fortress Cf guidance and source of unparalleled "nowledge for the =uslims. The AIslamic ban"B is a Tro7an horse which has been infiltrated into !ar al-lslam.