Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri chose the subject of “Economic cooperation and social harmony” for his address to the participants of Itikaf City on the eighth day of the ongoing Itikaf. He said that Islamic concept of economic philosophy ensures the distribution of state resources in such a way that no one sleeps hungry nor are the people stuck up in the quagmire of poverty. He said when wealth is concentrated in a few hands, it disturbs the social harmony and equilibrium of society and the system of life gets disrupted. So much so the matters relating to one’s faith and creed are also affected.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that it is for these reasons that Islam has strictly forbidden the concentration of wealth, economic exploitation, corruption, hoarding, and illegal profiteering. He said that it has simultaneously made it binding on the affluent sections of society to help the less privileged people out of their wealth and help them stand on their feet economically.

Shaykh-ul-Islam said that some people argue as to where is the poverty when the markets are crowded with the buyers; and the restaurants are frequented by the customers? He said that only the 20% people of Pakistan have the means and wealth to enjoy the luxuries of life in this inflation, while life has become a major survival test for the 80% who form the majority of the population. He said that it is the height of insensitivity that this 20% is unable to spot the incidence of poverty and economic backwardness that afflicts life in Pakistan. He said that it is the same privileged lot that cannot see beyond their immediate benefit and is okay with denying the existence of poverty.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that a system that offers opportunities of progress to a small but privileged minority and denies even the basic necessities to a vast majority of teeming millions is plain un-Islamic, oppressive and predatory. He said that Islamic economic system is based on the pillars of economic justice, equity, equality, brotherhood, Zakat, spending in the way of Allah, charity, rightful profit-making, and legitimate means of income generation. He said that Islam has ordered the equal distribution of resources, and wealth among all sections of society. He said that one of the basic principles of the Islamic economic system is that no person afflicted with economic sufferings remains deprived of financial support.

Shaykh-ul-Islam said that according to the commandments of Allah Almighty and His Prophet (PBUH), it is the responsibility of the state to provide for the less privileged sections of society and if the state cannot or does not fulfill this responsibility, then it is on the affluent and well-to-do people to step in and extend a helping hand. He categorically stated that an economic order, which does not make arrangements for the sustenance of all sections of society can be anything but an Islamic system, for it violates the basic tenets of Islam.