THANK Allah for what you have, TRUST Allah for what you need.
Number 9, September 2008
Children Are Our Asset
Mohammad Allam
No community or nation nor even a family, can be prosperous without the proper development of its human resource. This is more vital for a marginalized community like the Muslims, whose destiny depends upon the proper development of human resources in absence of a strong economic backing. But when we see the world human development report and index we find a grim picture of the Islamic countries. In India too the Muslims are no better than in other Muslims countries. Islam emphasizes on the development of the inner potential of the human beings and Allah ordains a duty on all the parents for the good nurturing of their off-springs. But what we are seeing today in Islamic world in general and in India in particular is that Muslims are neglecting the development of the inner potentials of their children. They are neglecting the means and methods which can turn their wards into earning hands and which could change the destiny of the family, the region, the nation and the Umma.
The reasons behind this degrading of human development potential are the negligence of quality education by the Muslims, lack of proper guidance, lack of proper planning, lack of economic means, lack of educational culture, communal riots and above all, the lethargic Muslim response towards the challenges of modernity. Muslims always place themselves on a cross road, unable to decide to march in any clear cut direction. It is said that a Muslim’s expenditure increases in lager proportion on food and clothes with the increase in income vis-à-vis on education. It appears Biryani and Kufta are gaining in popularity. The Muslims in rural and sub-rural areas are losing the golden chance of their children’s bright future, by not putting their children into high earning professional courses but by rather incurring huge expenses on house construction. Let the parents understand that their costly house-construction is not going to change the destiny of their children and will not provide any alternative source of income to them.
The other area of our concern is the migration of large number of children to metropolitan cities to earn for their families and thus destroy the future the Umma.The incurring of the large sums on the useless marriage ceremonies is also destroying the economic base of many families and pushing the community to poverty. The establishment of large number of educational and professional institutions is thus the need of the hour to develop the human power. The Chinese model of economic reconstruction is an example for the Muslim communities around the world. China by paying special attention to the development of human resources is marching ahead to become economic superpower of the world. Let us also have proper planning and start working in the interest of our human resources, otherwise what the human development report of 2007-08 is showing will remain true, that is the ranking of the Islamic countries will remain constant at the lowest level
Mohammad Allam is a free-lancer from AMU. (Mohammad_allam@rediffmail.com)
Contradictions ...
All these concepts of Islam challenge the unbridled exploitation of the weak and the disadvantaged. The institution of slavery among humans was a reality in the past, which got the greatest hit from Islam. Today it has taken a different shape. One form of slavery is the sex market, where women from poor and weak backgrounds are invariably the victims. Obviously people, who are benefiting and making huge sums of money from activities prohibited in Islam, are against its spread as it may eventually hamper their profits and associated benefits. Presently, Islam is the only force which seeks to challenge the ‘prevalent system’ of the civilized world. The keepers of the ‘civilized world order’ therefore see Islam as the ultimate subversive force and so anything connected with Islam is an anathema to them. Unable to beat the ideology, they are simply targeting the followers of Islam in all possible ways. It is a repetition of what happened to the early Islam in Arabia, when its followers were persecuted in the extreme by the then vested interests. Islam was not deterred then as the world history is a witness, and it will not be deterred now, Insha Allah!!
Dr. Asrarul Haque is a renowned scholar of Environmental Sciences based at Delhi (asrarulhaque@hotmail.com).
Hari Mirch
Seraj Akram
- Amiron me khaksari aur garibon me khuddari bahut kam payi jaati hai.
- Beshtar raaz raaz nahi rahta, bas koi zyadah din tak chhupa rahta hai koi kam dino tak.
- Insaan akele me kayi aise kam karta hai jo zahiri taur par nahi kar sakta, to kya insaan insaan se sharmata hai Allah se nahi?
- Hasad kam-o-besh sabhi logon me payi jaati hai.
- Har insaan kuch na kuchh galat fahmi ka shikaar hota hai.
.... How to Do Islamic Microfinance.
Several experiments in microtakaful are now on in several countries, such as, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. A component of the Zakah Fund may also be legitimately used as a credit-guarantee mechanism for the Gharimeen (one burdened with debt) according to zakat rules in the Holy Quran ( 9:60), thus, covering credit risk in debt created through Bai-Muajjal and Ijara modes of financing.
7. In order to avoid any possibility of social discord and cultural issues, Baitul Maals should aim for “family empowerment” instead of “women empowerment”. “Sisters Only” Baitul Maals should be set up to take care of poor and destitute among sisters who are required to either provide for or add to the family incomes.
8. Donor assistance from government agencies or development agencies, such as, Islamic Development Bank may be welcome for strengthening the resources of a Baitul Maal, but a Baitul Maal may be started only after a comfortable level of equity/ membership capital is raised from members themselves.
9. Baitul Maals must form an active second-tier organization for providing several supporting services such as training of staff and managers of member-Baitul-Maals, development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), IT- based accounting and control systems, legal and advisory services for members; advocacy with governmental and law-enforcement agencies (this is of extreme importance in a country like India where laws and regulations change often creating major uncertainties for all players); and provision of marketing support and business-matching services. An initiative in this regard is the newly established Institute of Microfinance and Development (www.imad.in) in India.
10. Finally Baitul-Maals must inculcate a spirit of Asabiyah or social solidarity among themselves. Cooperation should be the key word. The differences of aqeedah, madhhabs, jamaats and the like must not make the Baitul-Maals lose sight of their immediate objective of efficiently providing financial services and making a dent on poverty.
Dr Mohammad Obaidullah is an expert in Islamic finance and is based at Jeddah (m_obaidullah@yahoo.com).
Note of Editor: This write-up was sent to Janab Arshad Ajmal sb. who is deeply engaged in the running of a similar institution called Al-Khair Trust at Haroon Nagar Patna, for a feed back, in view of his experience, but he has unfortunately shown inability to share the same.
Ramadan ...
