A Pure Table, and a Wallet Returned

A person may make sure his ṣalāh is correct, his zakāh is correct, his Ḥajj is correct, his ṣiyām is correct, following every rule of fiqh — but if he disregards the aḥkām of Buyūʿ, of buying and selling, of transacting, of earning money for his household, and that money comes from a ḥarām or a dubious source, he needs to know it, for whoever does not know where a danger lies will certainly fall into it. It is equally farḍ to know this: anyone in business must know the rulings of the sharīʿah on buying, selling and purchasing. As already set out, ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) would allow no one to trade in the markets of the Muslims without being fully trained in the ḥalāl and ḥarām of buying and selling. Otherwise, a person will lie to deceive a customer — ḥarām; or swear falsely by Allah's name, saying, wallāhi billāhi, I got this for two dollars, when he got it for ten cents, and asking only fifty cents extra on top of what he claims — putting Allah (swt) forward as a false witness — this too is ḥarām. The rulings must be known: gambling of any sort is ḥarām; stealing of any sort is ḥarām; bribery of any sort is ḥarām — ḥarām, ḥarām, ḥarām. What a Muslim earns, eats and brings home must be pure.

As Allah (swt) says:

— fear the day when you will be returned to Allah, when every soul will be given in full what it has earned, and none will be wronged. Whatever a person brings home is his own doing, and he cannot blame Allah (swt) if his children become ʿāṣī, disobedient, if they become rebellious, if they leave Islam and become kāfir, when he himself fed them on ḥarām. Good intention alone is not enough; it must be lived, put into practice — a person cannot disregard one part of Islam while practising ninety-nine per cent of it and still call that Islam, least of all on a matter this important. What goes into the throat must be ḥalāl; what comes into the house must be ḥalāl — a luqmah ḥalāl. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said that if a person takes even a little morsel of ḥarām food, and that food becomes a cell within his body, that cell becomes deserving of the fire of Jahannam on the Day of Judgment. Islam is very serious about this. Organic living, simple living, pure living, wholesome living, is an Islamic motto — not a matter of being a "green" person, a hippie set against the system, but of understanding what is ḥalāl and what is ḥarām.

There is, besides, the account of a wallet found in the street, with plenty of money inside it — five, six hundred dollars — and returned whole to its owner, who offered five dollars in reward; the finder declined even that, saying he was only doing his honest duty. He could easily have kept the money, ignored the licence and the name inside, telling himself the owner was clearly rich, with cards enough to spare, and would come to no harm — but a Muslim returns what is found, not stolen, on the street.

The lesson closed with the wish that interest, and every form of ḥarām besides it, be got rid of from the Muslim communities altogether, and with the recitation of Sūrat al-ʿAṣr:

— by time: mankind is in loss, except for those who believe, who do righteous deeds, and who counsel one another to truth and counsel one another to patience.