Islam Teaches Safe Business Practices

The role of business in the spread of Islam cannot be over emphasized. Whole communities embraced Islam by merely coming in contact with Muslim merchants. This is the most popular story from northern Africa all the way down to southern Africa and from the middle east through to the far east. Islam; through direct statements from ALLAH and expressions by Muhammad (SAW), showed clearly that an individual with no standards in business will not be on the good books of ALLAH. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: "The
buyer and the seller have the option of cancelling the contract as long as they have not separated; then. if they both speak the truth and make manifest, their transaction shall be blessed, and it they conceal and tell lies, the blessing of their transaction shall be obliterated". Islam also lays down rules to be follow to ensure that mankind does not live in conflicts resulting from bad business dealings. In an era abound with duplicity in business, a lot of people still refuse to take heed. Ponzi schemes such as MMM and the likes have no doubt caused heart aches to the masses of the world. Religious scholars especially Muslim scholars have always kicked against these forms of business. While scholars from other faiths speak basically from intuition Muslim scholars draw their proofs from Qur’an and Sunnah. ALLAH (SWT) says in Suratul Baqarah (2:219) “They ask thee about intoxicants and gambling. Say: In both of them is a great sin and (some) advantage for men, and their sin is greater than their advantage.” The gerund ‘gambling’ here was translated from the Arabic word ‘Maisir’. Literally, the word ‘Maisir’ means ‘something gotten too easily”. A Muslim is very cautions of his earnings, if he gets something without exerting significant effort, he asks questions because he wouldn’t want to make so much while his business partner is losing. The Prophet (SAW) said, “Love for your brother what you would love for yourself.” From this we see that only people with elements of greed in them will fall victims to these scams.

            Islam vehemently rebukes people who turn out to be duplicitous in business dealings, ALLAH says in Suratul Mutaffifeen (83:1-4) “Woe to those who give less (less than due), Who, when they take a measure from people, take in full. But if they give by measure or by weight to them, they cause loss. Do they not think that they will be resurrected?”                                And to encourage fairness in business dealings, the Prophet (SAW) said, “The truthful businessman will be in Jannah with the Prophets, the truthful and the martyrs.” The people who fall victim to these scams never bothered checking verifying the integrity of the founders of these so-called golden opportunities. The founder of MMM - Sergie Panteleevich Mavrodi is a known criminal globally. In 2007 he was found guilty in Russia of defrauding 10,000 investors out of $4.3 million. Would a sincere Muslim (or human being) do business with someone who has been condemned by ALLAH?

            Asides businesses involving direct exchange of money, we must never forget the main origin of business; buying and selling of goods and services. Most of the guide lines laid down by Islam were originally directed as this form of business. Islamic scholars and historians have been able to piece together verses of the Qur'an and statements of Muhammad (SAW) to categorize different forms of business and how permissible they are. These categories as can be found in Sahih Muslim (a book on the sayings and doings of Muhammad as gathered by authentic sources) are given below.
Muzabana: It is the exchange of fresh fruits for dry ones in a way that the quantity of the dry fruit is actually measured and fixed, but the quantity of the fresh fruit to be given in exchange is guessed while it is still on the trees

Mu'awama: It consists in selling the fruit on the trees for a period of one, two or three years even before it has made its appearance.

Bai' al-Gharar: It is to sell a thing which one doesn't have in one's possession, nor expects to bring it under one's control, e g. fish in the river, or birds in the air.

Bai' al-'Uryan: It is getting a thing against a nominal advance on the condition that if the bargain is struck, the advance will be adjusted and if the bargain is cancelled, the seller will riot return the advance.

Bai' al-Mudtar: It is to buy a thing forcibly or to purchase a thing when its owner is compelled under stress of want to dispose it of. Instead of purchasing the thing, and taking undue advantage of the seller's helplessness, one should help him.

Bai' alal-Bai' (sale over and above the sale of another): When one person has sold goods to another, a third Person should not upset the bargain trying to sell his own goods to the latter, offering them at lower rates or pointing out the defect in the goods already sold to him by the former."

Bai' al-Hast (i. e. sale by means of pebbles): The purchaser will tell the seller that when he will throw a pebble on his goods, the sale contract will be confirmed or the seller tell the purchaser that on whatever thing a pebble thrown by him falls will be sold to him.

Mulamasa: It means sale by the touching of another's garment with his hand, whether at night or by day, without turning it over.

Munabadha: It means sale by a man throwing his garment to another and the other throws his garment, and thus confirming their contract without the inspection of mutual agreement.

All of these forms of business involve labyrinths and hence were declared null en void by Muhammad (SAW) in various statements of his at different times. Examples the Prophet's ststements are: "A Muslim should not purchase in opposition to his brother, nor should he send a marriage proposal over and above the proposal of another." (Bai' alal Bai'), Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (RA) reported: Allah's Messenger (SAW) forbade us (from), two types of business transactions and two ways of dressing. He forbade Mulamasa and Munabadha in transactions...
In this era instances have occurred whereby a merchant buys crops while they are still in the farms only for the farm to be destroyed by flood, pests, drought or some other natural disaster. This has led some to commit suicide and in some other cases; violence. 
Conclusively, transactions that involve gambling (leaping into the dark) of any sort have been declared ‘Haram’ and as such will not be allowed to operate within the confines of an Islamic nation. If only the man who attempted suicide by drinking pesticide or the man who stabbed his wife and attempted hanging himself (all due to the sorrow of losing to MMM) had listened to the Islamic injunctions of doing business, they would still all be hale and hearty today. A detailed account of business dealings can be gotten through the study of Islamic books of Hadith on the subject matter; two major sources being 'The Book of Transactions (Kitab Al-Buyu`)' of Sahih Muslim and Sahih Buhari.

            Here are some basic Islamic rules for business transactions as documented by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui; a prominent Muslim scholar:

• Islam insists upon absolute justice and fairplay in business dealings.
• According to Islam, a person who sacrifices his faith, and loses the good pleasure of his Lord to make a monetary gain has not made a good bargain. A Muslim will not go in for such a bad bargain. A Muslim merchant is not a worshipper of the Mammon with an inordinate love for money. He prizes faith, piety and righteousness above all.
• Islam does not believe in the view that all is fair in business and that every kind of cleverness and deceit is justifiable in business transactions. Islam regards business or commerce as an economic activity to be carried on in a spirit of humanity. tarianism and justice. It does not approve of the cut-throat competition. Indeed, the very concept is un-Islamic.
• Islam expects the buyer and the seller to look upon each other as Muslim brethren or fellow human beings, each trying to go all his way to help and serve the other. It the seller happens to overcharge the buyer, he, instead of feeling proud of his cleverness in doing so, should somehow compensate him for the excessive payment received.
• All bargains that are clenched without giving the purchaser a fair chance of examining the things are prohibited because this amounts to denying him a right that was his due.
• Forcible transactions or transactions in which the buyer takes undue. advantage of the helplessness or misery of the seller are also discouraged.
• Islam has prohibited traffic in wine, swine, dead bodies of animals and other goods the use of which has been declared to be Haram (unlawful).
• It has also forbidden trading in things that have a debasing or vitiating influence on the Muslim society.