Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu:
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| Bayt al Mal - Ummayyad Period |
As Imam aDhahabi stated,
“Debate is justified only to unveil truth, so that the more knowledgeable should impart knowledge to the less knowledgeable, and to stimulate a weaker intellect.”
And Imam al-Shaaf’I reported,“I never talked with someone but sincerely wished that Allah guard him, protect him from sin and misdeed, and guide him; and I never debated with someone but sincerely wished that we would come upon truth, regardless of whether he or I should be the one to think of it first.”
It is in this spirit that the following report is issued responding to the question:
While I understand that the following question is not particularly easy to answer, I think it is important for us to address in furthering the worldwide Islamic Awakening.
Question: Given the inevitable collapse of the dollar, what practical steps can be taken to promote the worldwide adoption of a Gold and Silver standard (Dinar and Dirham) as oppose to the continued use of baseless FIAT money such as the Chinese Yuan or the Japanese Yen, and how can we convince the rest of the world to do so?
Response (link to pdf here):
Your question is one that is of extreme import and in order to address it so that there can be benefit for all those exploring the issue, I would like to take some time to lay out the type of platform that is already being developed from several circles in the world, to advance the cause of a “ribaa-free economic order,” and the primary conceptions that must be added or are missing from the call as it exists in the now.
In addressing the issue, I will attempt to steer clear of and document a differentiation that is, at this time, largely missing. This is in the reductionist mindset that oftentimes plagues those that speak of a gold-standard or intrinsic currencies (i.e. the Austrian school, Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, etc.) and tend to influence Muslim thinkers so much so that they become mere copycats of a foreign tradition rather than consciously understanding Islamic Economics as such. I will also attempt to utilize terminologies of import that I believe at this stage must be incorporated and understood alongside the movement for intrinsic or commodity currencies. These terms represent what would be topics in and of themselves and are subjects which, Insha’Allah, will be covered conclusively as time goes on by us or other institutions. So, I will answer the question with an explanation that should lead all those interested to more questions and thus create more opportunities for unique dialogue along these lines, inshaAllah. This type of response should serve as an apparent indicator that I feel there is much theoretical and educational work to do rather than that it is an appropriate time to call for absolute “worldwide application” or paradigm shift, although that must certainly be the ultimate objective.
I am not so sure that the “inevitable” collapse of the dollar would automatically lead to a liberating economic paradigm. In fact I think those in power are in the dollar only short term and so also feel the “inevitable” collapse may be presenting an opportunity. That is to say that people hold the dollar as a safe bet in the near term but virtually no one is investing long term in it, other than debt monetization from the US gov. itself. While this occurs many are investing in gold and silver as well and there is both a populist and elite (a small but powerful segment of them) push to restore tangible currencies overtime or at least to monopolize control of them through financial mechanisms or physical possession… However, it must be understood that gold and silver currencies are not important to the one billion that live on less than a dollar a day, to the majority of people affected by the imposition of neo-liberalism globally and in fact to most of the low income working class populations of even the developing world who absent savings care most about physiological needs and live paycheck to paycheck or benefit check to benefit check.
Therefore the struggle must be more than the adoption of the dinar and dirham and must be a call to implement Islam in its entirety. That is not to say that specific work and specialists are not required in the economic realm but to suggest that unless the reestablishment of the shariah is also a component of that movement, an indication that it would fail. We are witnessing a rapid rise in success for the call to the dinar and dirham, especially from circles like the Sufi group Al-Marabitun and its spokesman Umar Vadillo, Shaikh Imran Hussein, the work of ex- Prime Minister Muhattir ibn Muhammad and even non-Muslims like binary economist Rodney Shakespeare. However, these influences must be supported by efforts of Muslims across the globe to put forth the entire Islamic paradigm as a solution within their own societies. As there definitely will be an “inevitable collapse” of the pre-crisis, Western consumer driven economic paradigm of the 1971-2008 post Bretton Woods era.
Therefore a major effort at creating seminars, presentations, holding conferences and making the paradigmatic difference between fiat, monetary systems and alternative models clear and a sitting body of theory in and of itself is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, beyond knowing that ribaa is haram very little specific policy formulation has been conducted. The fact that the aforementioned groups and others are pushing forward in that direction suggests that we should participate in this dialogue, work alongside of and advance these efforts. Unfortunately, the puritanical mentality will concentrate on theological differences and criticize any that try this route. The Saudi backed ideological force is incapable of addressing political and economic issues of the society and so as the ulama are given the religion only if they separate it from the state, you see the concentration on theological disputation in areas that have not been resolved for hundreds of years, but absolute silence where the oppressive rulers implement systems far away from the model of Islam. It is much better that we participate with those that recognize this reality as Allah says,
وَتَعَاوَنُواْ عَلَى الْبرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى وَلاَ تَعَاوَنُواْ عَلَى الإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ
Help you one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa; but do not help one another in sin and transgression.
There is no greater example of adulteration of the shariah than in the economic propositions being put forth by kaffir King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia right now. The Saudi State is a continuous stimulus for foreign investors (http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article220509.ece ) where the proceeds should go to develop the ummah. Few have any understanding of the manipulation of the Saudi State and its London backers in getting the Central Bank of the Gulf Cooperation Council housed in the “Kingdom”, a rejection of what was previously agreed to be housed in Dubai. While outside the scope of this response, we need to understand the ramifications and reality of this movement. We initially started to expose the reality of the King Abdullah financial complex ( here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoLpEi1YIMQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rONswI43Jjs&feature=related) but would have to generate more practical successes before prioritizing a challenge to what is the manipulated and false “shariah compliant finance” industry.
«انْصُرْ أَخَاكَ ظَالِمًا أَوْ مَظْلُومًا»
“Support your brother whether he was unjust or the victim of injustice.” He was asked, "O Messenger of Allah! We know about helping him when he suffers injustice, so what about helping him when he commits injustice'' He said,
«تَحْجُزُهُ وَتَمْنَعُهُ مِنَ الظُّلْمِ فَذَاكَ نَصْرُه»
“Prevent and stop him from committing injustice, and this represents giving support to him.”
Today those addressing political reforms are branded terrorists and the complacent clergy sit silent. It is interesting to note that Orientalists once lamented that the original movement of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab sealed off the Peninsula from Christian (read properly as British East India Company) economic intervention in the Gulf. Sheikh al-Islam was in control of the finances of the first Saudi State; yet today the ulama are incapable of mounting any control over the purse strings whatsoever and King Abdullah is touted as a reformer, while political opposition to the House of Saud dictate gets one convicted and tried in a secret court (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/saudi-arabia/101221/terrorism-laws-political-reform).
For our part, we unfortunately face the dilemma of a Saudi-generated Sahwi movement that believes the ulama passing through the Saudi State institutions are independent and should be paid attention to. One of the ways we can continue to get people to separate form this view is to address the economic realities of the “Kingdom” and pose solutions. You will see that the mujahedeen have consistently noticed the void they are helping to create in the economic arena, and can see for example the West and the Dark Tunnel, last years 9-11 anniversary tape and a recent release from Adam Gadhan where they ask for economic advice on how to continue to help destroy the American economy. For those that support the mujahedeen, they must know that the more the ummah knows about development and economics, the earlier victory will bring sustenance and success for Muslims everywhere. One cannot base resistance solely on wanting to reject the other. At a certain stage in any struggle, absent pragmatic solutions, there is no ability to take the next step and the effort either mutates into one more oppressive than the one it seeks to replace or it collapses from within. We calling for shariah must be weary of this reality.
Parallel to the movement for the dinar and dirham there is also rapid success in criticism out of the Austrian economic school calling for real money and they have mounted a very successful attack on the neoliberal paradigm as well. A very interesting recent experiment, using the online celeb status of Max Keiser in conjunction with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has people buying silver in an effort to bankrupt JP Morgan due to its short derivative position on silver and as a reaction to the consequential deliberate suppression of the silver price. This movement has severe ramifications for those trying to mount internet, alternative media in ways that can compete with the mainstream elite. And while I think it will succeed in placing more awareness and more silver in more people’s hands versus saving or trusting fiat currency, I do believe it will fail miserably in bankrupting JP Morgan and think that the mentality of those advocating for this intervention are of the reductionist type aforementioned. As a counter I believe that a real economic movement based in justice must be expanded upon by developing root philosophical understandings. That is to say touting capitalism, a religion that worships the free hand of the market and appeals to the lowest self (nafs al-lawwama) as altruistic in consequence is an idolatrous ideology that should be refuted like any religion. There is a sufficient need in this area as well. For my part, I tend to agree with what is known as binary economics school as a means by which to concentrate of the greater issue, namely the distribution of wealth in societies which has become incredibly concentrated in that 1971-2008 era.
The unforeseen consequences of the Austrian school as well as Islamic paradigms that relegate comprehension of shariah compliant economics to gold and silver currency adoption as money generally could indeed lead to a world of extreme fascism or totalitarianism as well. Thus having addressed the need that we realize we are far from creating mass consciousness in rejecting the tawagheet, the remainder of this response will try to distinguish between the paradigm of those calling for a return to specie and those understanding that the paradigm itself needs altered, that a return to gold and silver could and should be a part of that paradigmatic challenge but that in and of itself it is not sufficient, and that much of what we think is evident and simplistic is actually far from such.
The clash that will inevitably occur and risk taking us off dollars as reserve fiat currency to a basket of fiat currencies is between those that start to call for a more balanced fiat system, this as a consequence of depleted demand in the West and increased interests in investment in developing countries. The IMF, by “bailing out” or actually placing forced austerity on Western countries like Ireland, Greece, etc. are obviously planning for a culmination of austerity imposed in America as well eventually, and as a means toward mobilizing to replace the dollar denominated system with a Standard Drawing Rights global fiat order which would indeed represent an imposition of World governance along the neoliberal paradigm, a fear that many hold and seems to be somewhat inevitable at this stage… This is the model international financiers see as the means by which they will retain global domination and empire and they are working towards it today quite openly. It is touted as “globalization” or “free trade” but essentially is the legalized process and continuation of 500+ years of European “civilization,” today a sophisticated form of “finance imperialism,” and with the dire straits global finance actually is in, probably would be responsible for creating a complete breakdown of the international economic order and in all likelihood culminate in something like a World War III. Thus the stakes of this debate could be no higher.
A primary problem that faces us Muslims today then, is in accepting that Islam is a comprehensive economic system based in the understanding of man as created rather than as evolved and with the Zakat-system representing a taxation system based on physical taxation of excess wealth and on physical production and possession (real capital), the prohibition of interest but the opportunities for investment (profit sharing mechanisms) represent the necessity that competent accounting concentrate on physical production and return. The reestablishment of intrinsic commodity currencies represent real wealth, and a necessary foundation for the development of them is to devise an entire new Islamic Economics that deals with improving the physical economy ad shatters all of what is known via the philosophies of the retarded monetarists that dominate the textbooks, papers, and CNBC talk shows since the 1960’s counterculture become the sex, drugs and rock and roll Freak Show transformed into today’s Neo-liberalism…
Take for example, the concept that the only tools of a government when it comes to macroeconomic policy are fiscal (taxes) and monetary (money supply) policy. This is a reductionist view of macroeconomics to the degree that there will be little to no mention of other policies like protection of industry, development of the workforce, large infrastructural development, or national money issuance and other possibilities. In theory, the student that questions the cult of the masters is told in the introduction to any economics textbook about the glory and the victory of free trade and open economies over closed economies with the end of the Cold War. What they are never told is that every truly successful economy in history was a mixed economy and that the government, when it truly serves the interests of its people, utilizes tools of policy directed at improving the physical economy, whereas today the private, central banking fractional reserve, monetarist system simply bails out bankrupt institutions with fiat paper, keeps afloat the oligarchic, insider trader ponzi scheme and then ravages the world with free money that no one can do or say anything about.
It is for this reason that the gold and silver dinar movement is so important, because it represents a paradigmatic challenge to the order as it exists However, the establishment and widespread adoption of gold and silver as currency would not represent an end in and of itself. As has been mentioned recently by Muhammad ibn Muhatir, ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia who tried to encourage Saudi Arabia to destroy the petrodollar scheme and settle current accounts in gold at the end of the year, the adoption of gold and silver does not end ribaa. It creates stability, the potential for additional developments but what the ummah really needs is thinkers that use the comprehensive understanding of Islamic Economics and can think dynamically, so that they can see how the Zakat and public Bayt al Maal institutions (using government money and interest-free productive loans) can develop the infrastructure of any nation, how the Qirad can create profit sharing models and make those that work in the factories at least partial owners of them, how binary economics allows for the spread of capital and capability in productive capacity and earned income from labor and thus two potential incomes for all people to create a new economics that measures success not in paper profits with no real effect on the actual economy but to developing the productive capacity of the society as a hole and thus improving the lives of real people not just boosted GDP numbers dependent on 50,000 dollar tax breaks for the rich so that they can spend on expensive champagne and prostitutes in Vegas (see Obama’s new “compromise with Republicans).
After realizing that economics is about physical, tangible production rather than profit denominated in monetary terms, individuals must advance both practical applications of and educational opportunities for real development of an alternative paradigm equipped with totally new definitions of growth, development, and employment and other economic terms. Of course this is a huge task, but has already been taken up by many. These efforts could initiate microfinance institutions, set up models for eventual relay between the micro and macro systems, and continue setting the agenda of Islamic Economic solutions for underdeveloped, developing and developed economies.
Another important point I feel necessary to mention here is that in order for this to be achieved, Muslims must be self-critical and honest. The Muslim ummah last contributed to the scientific realm over 200 years ago. It has been since the industrial revolution that any serious scientific or technological work has come out of the Muslim world altogether. In a worldly sense, however, the rest of the world has moved forward rapidly and much of the knowledge directly affects the worldly affairs, some in a positive and some in a negative direction. So, the isolationist refuses to review these progresses in policy, in the development of the state, in economics and the social sciences generally. They cry for sole reliance on the Quran and Sunnah and thus reject everything coming from without labeling the one that dabbles in scientific inquiry a “Marxist”, a “Mutazzila” a “Orientalist” and more. While it is a long discussion, they must then also reject nearly all the economic and administrative policies of the Khulafah Rashideen as well, for they borrowed extensively from the Persians and Romans in the early days of Darussalam and much of the so-called “Golden Age” of Islam was undoubtedly due to the ability of Muslims to discover, include and expand upon technologies invented or introduced by other societies. It is when this method was adopted with regard to the aqeedah that the ummah ran into issues, but the scientific realm, including economics was always to curious to reject “the other” something that made many open to Islam and something that made the Islamic state better able to advance its own civilization. That point cannot be stressed more, especially amongst our predominant audience.
Now finally we can ling this concepts to the most puzzling thing about this development, the reality that the last great paradigmatic breakthrough in human affairs and governance was in the system adopted as a result of the American Revolution and the development of the state that today emulates the oligarchic tradition it once wrested itself from. This paradox places the necessity that the competent mind differentiates from the idealisms of the Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky critical theory school and the centrist positions adopted by most of the liberal academic paradigms of university culture today. When one can competently achieve this division and weigh objectively, they come to the conclusion that that revolutionary American tradition and many of the principles perhaps never realized actually but at least identified philosophically is a power of intellectual liberation compatible with the incessant repetition that typifies those that call for hatred of all that is and ever was American.
In reality, there is economic theory that was developed along with the American Revolution, that was utilized by the founding fathers of America, by Abraham Lincoln and others coming out of the Civil War and culminating in the construction of transcontinental rail, canals, and dams and by FDR during the Depression and WWII which made America an industrial power afterwards. This system is called the American System of political economy, it is not socialism, not-neo-liberalism and free trade, not protectionist, it is an entire set of economic theory that has been written out of textbooks for very good reason. And it would serve as an effective inclusionary model for anyone trying to synthesize the practices of the Khulfah Rashiden and modern technological, industrial society and economics as such. To great astonishment to the reader, I would have to say that without consciously realizing it, the American System of political economy, firmly rooted in a thorough survey of economic history borrowed extensively from Islam.
We must therefore help to revive both a body of theory including our own traditions and a survey of the practices that birthed other great nations and as a contributing influence, efforts to pose solutions to the contemporary order. The American System, originally called "The American Way", was a mercantilist economic plan based primarily on the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, and expanded on by Friedrich List. Rather than open economies of the neo-liberal varieties, nations utilize high tariffs to support internal improvements in infrastructure and thus human industrial capability (workforce), and a national bank to encourage productive enterprise, form a national currency and create stability (bayt al maal). This system was intended to allow the United States, recently separated from the British oligarchy, to grow and prosper, by providing a defense against the dumping of cheap foreign products and financial imperialism from the old European oligarchy abroad ( LINK here for basic ideology and to see direct opposition it held for free trade imperialism).
This system is properly termed the National System, and although, there are patriotic Americans today that still teach it, they have classified it a sole American system and thus deduce that salvaging America is a necessary component of global economic recovery, as if to say if America and its overconsumption falls, so too does the rest of the world no matter the policy. While it falls outside the scope of this report, that sentiment is neither true nor the direction the world must head in.... Americans consume many times more than they produce, while the majority of innovation is still realized on American soil. However, so-called “capitalist innovation” is done by minds that come from distant lands (brain drain) predominately and on university campuses via government funded programs that then pass on the discoveries to the private sector where corporatist monopolies are formed.
Thus, for Islamic Economists that want to seriously consider how to develop the state in the modern era and in lines with the principles of the shariah, a comparable study must be conducted that reviews policy practice and those “mixed economic” paradigms (private and public) that birthed all great nations. For example much scholarship needs done on the practices of the Bayt al Maal adopted from the Persians by Umar (RAA), the way that Uthman (RAA) set up canals in Medina as infrastructural stimulus, the ways that Muawiyya developed the industrial capacity of Philistine and Damascus by taking control over the land with infrastructure thus creating safe travel ways, developed roads, seaways, canals, etcetera, so that “Arab Capitalism” could flourish.
An international system based on the principles of national economics would, by necessity, need to prevent brain drain yet cultivate the intellects of the indigenous society in the same way the infrastructure of a land is developed to produce a flourishing economy.... Thus the concept of free trade and letting markets do what markets do is antithetical to the way all great powers have ever been built. The economics of free trade is the economics of imperialism and MUST be understood as such..... Fair trade is a much better concept and Muslims, especially living in the post Sykes-Picot hell of what was once Darussalam should be firm advocates for differentiating between fair and free trade models. Comprehending the American system is a necessary component of truly understanding that economic system.
What is most often misunderstood today is that what we call the liberals today are very much like British imperialist free traders then, who were trying to eat up the wealth, control and impose an elite, and dump cheap goods on the colonies of America. The only way America became a sovereign nation (and the old European model in many ways did conquer it ideologically through Wall Street and the Federal Reserve as time went on), was to protect its people and economies.... this is what the Muslim world must adapt to comprehending today, otherwise even the gold dinar and silver dirham could be totalitarian. It is well known that most of the gold and silver is or would be controlled by a very small portion of society. Thus what needs addressed while you discuss the monetary system itself, is a broader connection to the philosophical thought processes that drive the society and this is where you will have a much more difficult time and where you have to talk about distribution of wealth, hisbah (regulation), and mechanisms for coordinating the value of the Qirad system, profit sharing mudaraba and musharaka situations to create a more horizontal economic order., and etcetera. Without this conversation, alongside the education about the reestablishment of zakat, there can be no real Islamic macroeconomic theory, but that does not mean the conversation around the gold dinar and silver dirham cannot emancipate someone from their own unrecognized “fascism.”
This takes me to the final bridge I will build in this report and I hope more ask questions for follow-up in time; the philosophic roots of this free trade, post-modernist, liberalism is more properly understood as neo-imperialist fascism, and is so ideologically beguiling that it tends to place the majority of Western Muslims as complacent friendly fascists as well – as pro-American and pro-liberalization with regard to trade, commerce, and “democratization” and touting all the benefits of American democracy and its system yet allegedly conservative in personal values.... Once you realize that you are dealing with fascism on a grand scale with regard to the American Empire and its internal society (whether Muslim or non-Muslim), and you study the way the free thinkers of Germany so too eventually became Nazi or remained silent as the wars of aggression unfolded and you understand that the successes of fascism must buy silence, you realize that we are dealing with a system of economic fascism that is initiated on the university campuses of the West, as the elite studying abroad take today’s philosophies back home with them and never question them.... Therefore we are dealing with the need to denounce ourselves and honestly admit that many of us have fallen into this trap... (Hamza Yusef is the poster child for the synthesized “greenie baby boomer” and “spiritual” complacent Muslim American fascist, as his audience is mesmerized by his false intellectualism, those that know both politics and religion recognize the fraud of his analysis, still the majority of the stary-eyed attendees leave mesmerized by a lecture they really didn’t understand – the celebrity side of occultism is a necessary component of justifying the complacency of our own Muslim liberals, the irjaa most harmful to the development of Islam in the English speaking world today ). The Rand Corp. has officially identified these Sufis as “useful idiots” and is the Islam they are funding and encouraging from Indonesia to Morocco.
You cannot rationalize or debate with a liberal fascist... they will turn the label back onto you because you are unwilling to compromise on principles... and so instead we must look at how fascism was destroyed (he destroyed himself but it took counterforce as well) and seek to understand why fighting has been prescribed for us and is necessary at even extreme levels today.... as the Prophet foretold of a false peace at the end of times, we now face a fascism that has become friendly, it is this liberal economic fascism, sometimes called “humanitarianism”, “human rights promotion” “nation building” or “democracy promotion” that is an ideological variety of the Fascist War Machine. I repeat for the sake of clarity that once you identify someone is very stuck in either theoretical arrogance or debating issues of esoteric importance without the faintest understanding of the world around them (see Imam Zaid and Zaytuna as of late), then you must forget about their ability to contribute to the cause whatsoever. Even if they initially would work alongside of you due to your compromise, they would become a detractor the minute no worldly personal benefit was involved.
This notion of populist change and silence and compromise without power is nonsense; it is not the way of any of the Prophets nor the means by which other revolutionary endeavors have occurred through history. In Islam you take charge, rule by the shariah, give the fascists a job and alter the educational institutions so that within a generation they will be useful as a functioning member of the human race again. Yet, if Islam is established in a small state, we must be conscious that these Muslim liberals will be the first to call for all out war against us. Imam Zaid recently suggested in fear-mongering that the mujahideen were not winning the war against the West at all because America could just nuke them (seemed like a recommendation to me). It is hard to imagine America nuking a country with several 100,000 of its troops and patsies occupying that land in such an important geostrategic position, but of course there are other issues about this statement that need addressed in order to document the absurdity of the claim totally. Suffice it to say that the liberal component of Western Muslims refuse to advocate for tangible solutions with Islam like economics because they want to keep things ideological and philosophical, thus creating numb conformists and creating the conditions by which silence is hikma, and philosophical hypothetical are preferred to actual reform. Where the mind of these imbeciles remain normative in analysis (studying a world that should be), the reductionists represent positivist (the world as it is) thought. Islamic Economics is a great way to bridge the gap between positive and normative theory, and to at the same time discredit the wild-eyed ferry princes and princesses dancing to the tune of the friendly fascists.
As abstract as that sounds, it is a necessary prerequisite for the logical step forward from here. We must transform Islam into an activist movement, and can organize around the economic issues in tangible ways that help to erase the false propositions of these “intellectuals.” So differentiating between those that are working for reform and those that are “profiting” as spiritual gurus will be a necessary step as well in figuring out where to insert the ideas that we generate as time goes on in the economic realm.
Unfortunately this mindset includes the majority of Muslims living in the West, where giving dawa but remaining silent about the fascist system itself is prioritized as if it is some sort of hikma to remain mute like the residents of Germany as Hitler invaded other countries and started his militarist trek towards destruction of much of the known world. A recent “Wikleaked (apparently a word now)” document showing polls amongst UK college Muslims that shows majority support for killing at times as a component of religion and 40 percent support for shariah law documents that certain “radical” groups are definitely capable of altering the discourse and understandings of Western Muslims. Broadening the principle based discussions to include specifics in the realm of social, political and economic policy would perhaps create the pendulum shift needed to completely alter perceptions in a direction that sways opinion in a way that makes it popular to actually care about the affairs of the ummah as a whole rather than concentrating on one’s own backyard. IslamPolicy has this as a noble ambition and would like university students to apply their skills in ways that serve the establishment of an Islamic State.
The principle that we should call to “Islam” and not “shariah” is the concept of a mental midget. Indeed the words mean exactly the same thing. In reality most of these Western Muslims never give dawa to non-Muslims at all but spend the majority of their time being harsh with other Muslims or criticizing those that do address the axiomatic issues... this is equivalent to being in a burning building with the fire all around you and trying to explain creation to another individual trapped beside you by explaining the process of spontaneous combustion using a lit match. I mean to suggest that addressing the fire, its causes, and its cures is the best way to carry the message of tauhid and in fact the only possible way of living long enough to actually experience the truth in any practical sense, but because one is selectively silent with regard to addressing the inferno around them, they tend to add fuel to the fire, paying taxes, moving up through the social system, adopting the fascist philosophies of the universities and then manifesting that in the commoditization of the religion with their Islamic credit cards, ijara lease, halal food industry, Muslimah fashion, the whole consumerist shebang.... thinking they are liberated with their 5 prayers, jumua break, and occasional post on a forum in support of the mujahedeen. In reality, they and the one they are giving dawa to be throwing themselves into destruction yet many still light the match and proceed to chain smoke through the inferno.
I know that is not the simplest analogy, but I think reflection upon it leads to identifying the reason we call to Millat Ibrahim and the necessity of rejecting the entire system of kufr itself (and everything you do). As others debate the theological issues and maintain or create new divisions, I think this movement has to take different steps, that some in the SJ community should soften for the time being and come up with clear efforts to educate the ummah about the shariah system that can truly emancipate mankind, and economics, as a primary component of the flames of that inferno, is a necessary component and creates very amazing opportunities to bend the paradigm, insert new ideas, and advance stages marking Milestones on the way.
As Safar Hawali said during his days as a Sahwi dissident,
We, the youth of Islam, were able to dismantle the circle of subservience to the West, reject its deceiving civilization, know its conspiracies, but so far we do not know the reality of who we are . . . I am surprised that the vanguards of the Islamic call think that the religion of the people of Sunna and jamma_a is about theoretical propositions relating to the unknown world rather than about a call for reform and change.
So we need to find out who we are today…. We have grown quite capable at rejection, hopefully now this ummah can start to talk of replacement without assuming the fight is over. The destruction of the dollar is not “inevitable,” and unless another paradigm that actually liberates can be developed, then the freedom of worshipping the Creator will not be realized. More often than not, change actually breeds more of the same, just different faces and different oppressors. So in summary, we must include the dinar and dirham in our efforts but cannot be reductionist, we also must reject and discredit the friendly fascists and the silent supporters. This requires that we join in discussions around specifics that have been going on for quite some time. So, I hope that answers your question in a way that sets the background for more research and poses more questions as I already stated. We do not have many answers at this time but are moving in the right direction. Yet until, that message is a comprehensive and non-reductionist message we will be unable to convince the rest of the world to adopt that system. What Muslims should prepare for is knowledge of the aqeedah and practical skills to apply in any Islamic State. It is highly probable that a functioning state will be established in less than a decade and that the comprehensive heijra would then be reestablished.
We must know how to apply economics to underdeveloped regions and how to call developed economies to actual Islamic economics free the murabaha and “service charge” scams. This is ibadaa under the principle that knowledge is rewardable according to the religious attachment it has. Thus building on this theory using the principles of Islam is ibadaa (worship). Allah helps those that help their brothers so the secular sciences that lead to the betterment of the ummah will also grant Allah’s assistance to those that intend to improve the ummah’s condition. Taking the conversation of the Islamic system into a next stage of sophistication can only aid those making greater sacrifices, learning and teaching this system makes one of benefit to any land where there are efforts to rule by Islam. While the mujahideen are freeing up occupied land and altering the balance of power in the world, larger, more developed entities are also moving in positive directions. Recently, the first International Conference of Ribaa (http://www.worldribaconference.org/index.php) was held and I think we should spend time understanding the differences between it and other calls and trying to work in collaboration with those in that movement. Certainly the times are strange and few will listen. In fact most will only accuse and condemn but we must remember the benefit of the call itself and the effect of even a handful following especially in times when fitnah is rampant. It is narrated that the Prophet (saws) narrated,
“He who calls to guidance will earn a reward similar to the rewards of those who accept his call, until the Day of Resurrection, without decreasing their rewards. And whoever calls to a heresy, will carry a burden similar to the burdens of those who accept his call, until the Day of Resurrection, without decreasing their own burdens. May Allah (swt) allow us to call to what is good and better even against these insurmountable odds.
Brother Younus
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