Earning Still to Come

The subject that follows from here concerns earning: what makes a means of earning ḥalāl, and what makes it ḥarām, a branch of Islamic economics and finance with a technical vocabulary of its own — much as computing cannot be learned without megabytes and megabits, Islamic finance cannot be learned without muḍārabah, mushārakah, qarḍ ḥasan, and the rest of its own terms. That such knowledge is a genuine requirement and not an optional extra is shown in the practice of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him), who would not permit anyone to open a stall or conduct trade in the Muslim marketplace unless he was fully qualified in the ḥalāl and ḥarām of business; many who wish to go into business do not yet know these things, and need to.