Hamza Yusuf

Sharing Success: Fair Trade Commerce for a Better World


By: Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

[The following is the video and transcript of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf's lecture entitled 'Fair Trade Commerce for a Better World.' The transcript includes slight modifications for the sake of readability and clarity. This transcript originally appeared on MuslimMatters on March 28th, 2014].

All praise be to Allāh (SWT). I’d like to thank Allāh (SWT) for the blessing of all the angels that come with all of you. You brought angels into this arena and inshā’Allāh Allāh (SWT) will let us taste some of the pleasure of angelic presence.

Alhamdullilah, what I wanted to talk about was fair trade, and extending that meaning beyond the confines that have defined it in the dominant western discourse. The Qur'an tells us not to consume “wa la ta'qul nasi bi batili”. Don't consume the wealth of people falsely, unjustly, vainly. Batil is everything that is empty, it's what's not good. So it's the opposite of haqq, which is truthfulness, sincerity, reality, what is real. So it says don't consume the wealth of people unjustly. “takuna tijaratan aow Ila tijaratun an taraadin minkum,” let your trade only be trade that is mutually content. In other words, each side is content with the actual event of trade and commerce. This is an incredibly important point, all of the Qur'an is important but this verse is so central to what's happening right now globally, and why we're seeing so much turmoil in what are called the markets.

These global markets, where wealth is consumed unjustly. People's wealth is stolen, misappropriated, given to people without the right accountability. And this is happening in many many places. And so Allāh (SWT) tells us that “tejarat”, commerce should be fair. In other words, each side should be pleased with the event that's happened, that's transpired.  Allāh (SWT)also says in Surah Rahman, “wa wada'al meezan, al-laa tatghow fil meezan”. He placed a balance, scales, that you not transgress the balance. Historically, our scholars identified these verses that are between the heavens and the earth. They're between, if you look at Surah Rahman, it opens with heavenly, celestial discourse, and then it talks about this balance and then it goes, “wal ardha wada'a ha lil anaam” and we placed the earth for all living things but between those is the balance. This refers to all types of balance. Allāh (SWT) has given an economic balance, and this is historically how they understood it, the prohibition of cheating people in the marketplace, which is related to this balance between the celestial and the terrestrial.  And Allāh (SWT) reminds us that the earth was placed for all creatures, al-anaam are all living creatures. It's not just the human beings.  Some of the commentators say “an'aam” comes from “nowm” which is all things that sleep, because sleep is the gentle tyrant. It's what Allāh (SWT) has given us to remind us that He is “Qaahirun fawqa ibadihi,” that Allāh is overpowering, overwhelming His servants. The fact that we have to sleep at the end of the day, and our lives are rounded by this little sleep.

So the idea of just commerce and balance is very important in the Qurʾān. Historically in the marketplace -and this is unfortunately no longer the case because of digital scales- but historically you had scales in the marketplace, so people could actually see the justice. If you bought a pound of fruit, the merchant would put a pound weight on the scale, and then he would place the fruit on the other. And in Islamic tradition they used to always tip the scales to be on the side of the buyer, not on the side of the merchant, because the Prophet (saw) said may God have mercy on a man or a woman, who is forbearing, who is forgiving, who is generous, when they sell or when they buy. And I've seen this many times when I was in Fez or places in Morocco, they would do this. They would tip the scale, they'd put an extra date to tip the scale, just to show that you're getting the extra, because they wanted that ziyada, that extra, ofihsaan.

We're living in a time of incredible economic injustice and that injustice is because we have an unjust economic system.  Economics now has become a necessary science to understand. You have to understand the basics of economics to be living on the planet that we're living in, because it's affecting all of us. It's affecting our lives. We have to understand the false dialectic that's been created between the so called Keynesian and monetarist.  This left/right dialectic, as if there's no other alternative to these two approaches to economics because the Muslims have an alternative, but unfortunately we've been absent from the discourse. Even though much of what is beneficial in western commerce came out of transacting with the Muslims. In fact, “average” is from an Arabic word, because merchants they used to say, and you can look this up in chambers etymological dictionary or google it. Average is an Arabic word because merchants used to have a type of takaful, when they would send a ship with goods, and if goods were destroyed, a portion of the goods were destroyed, they would take an average and all the merchants would share in it. It was a type of insurance. So this came, ta'reef, tariff, is from the Muslims because we forget that our religion is a religion of commerce. I reflected deeply at one point when I was studying the sīrah, why the Prophet (SAW) would be a merchant before he was a prophet. Why was he a merchant? Because Allāh (SWT) could have made him many things, but he made him two things: he made him a shepherd in his youth, and he made him a merchant in his adult manhood. He made him a shepherd because all prophets are shepherds because the essence of being a prophet is caring for a flock, it's caring for people in a way that the shepherd does not want any harm to come to the flock. And who does the shepherd guard the flock from? The wolf. The wolf.

The reason, I believe, the reason that the Prophet (SAW) was chosen to be a merchant was because the merchant is the most beneficial human being in human society. There's no one more beneficial to human society than a merchant. Everything, the chairs that you're sitting on are from commerce, the clothes that you're wearing are from commerce. The glasses that you're looking through if you're looking through glasses, are from commerce.  The fillings in your teeth are from commerce. The medication that is keeping your blood pressure low right now is from commerce. Everything that is beneficial to the material wellbeing of the human being is from commerce. But there's another secret in commerce. Commerce teaches you good character, because the most successful merchants are the ones with the best character. You go back to people who treat you well, and that's why historically they used to say 'customer is king.' The customer is always right. A merchant shouldn't get angry because even if the person buying from him is making him angry, he'll lose the sale if he starts getting angry because the person will just walk, walk out.  And so it actually creates good character.  Tahleebul nafsAkhlaq. “Wa innaka ala khuluqal adheem” – you're on a vast ethos, (SAW).

But the other thing about commerce is, if you want your commerce to be successful, you have to be trustworthy.  That is the essential characteristic of commerce, trustworthiness. If you give your word, you stand by it. If you write a note, you fulfill it. If you promise goods on a certain day, you fulfill that. And if you don't, people stop doing business with you. The Prophet (SAW) before Islam was known as al-āmīn, the Trustworthy. He was known as al-āmīn because he was the most trustworthy of merchants. People knew that if you gave him your money, not only did you get it back, but you got it back with great benefit.  Khadijah never had anybody that transacted with her money like the messenger of Allāh and should we be surprised?  And when she sent Maysara out with him, and all the people around him have beautiful names, like Maysara, and Umm Baraka, Baraka, Ummu Ayman, Haleema as'Sa'diya, they all have beautiful names, all the people that raised him and nurtured him. So he's with Maysara, the place of ease, the one who makes things easy, and Maysara noted all these things about the Prophet (SAW) and informed Khadijah [but Khadijah had insight into who he was before anyone else, which is why she's Khadijatil Kubra (MPWH).  Her name Khadijah is from khidaaj, which is like naaaqis. It's used in the Arabs would, if a child was born early, they would be thin and skinny, they would call them Khadijah. But she's also naaqis until the Prophet (SAW) completes her. Khadeja al-Kubra was a merchant and she used her wealth for the sake of Allāh (SWT). Abu Bakr was a merchant. He used his wealth for the sake of Allāh (SWT). Umar. All of these people, look at them. The people around the Prophet (SAW), the Qureish were the great merchants of the Arabian Peninsula. But he went to the people of agriculture, because these are the two forces in the world, agriculture and commerce, these are the things that make the world go round, they're what enable us to survive and they're in our original story, is all of the human condition. Everything is there in that original extraordinary story of the messenger of Allāh (SWT).

























Sayyidina Omar during his khalifa prohibited eating meat every day. This is a fact. Also don't think vegetarianism is not from Islam. People say that when they become Muslim and they are vegetarian, they say oh you have to start eating meat. Your īmānis not complete until you eat meat. That's what they say and then they give them the biryani and welcome to Islam.

Ibnu Abi Lahm, one of the sahaba, ibnu Abi Lahm, was a vegetarian. Can a nabataean, this is in the tradition. And the Prophet (SAW) accepted that from him. Now if you swore off meat for ibadah, that's a different thing, the Prophet (SAW) told them not to do that. But he didn't want to eat meat, maybe he didn't like it.  But today, eating a lot of meat is unethical.  I would say that eating fish, this is your choice, and I'm not dictating to anybody, you have to make your own choices, you do your research, you know we're not fascist. Think for your selves. I'm not here to tell you what to do, I'm here to make you think about things, and you go back and you do your own research and you decide for yourselves because you're all sovereign human beings, and nobody can tell you what to do other than Allāh and His Messenger, and that's it. Nobody can tell you what to do.

And every scholar that tells you, is telling you what he thinks Allāh and His messenger is telling you what to do, that's called ijtihad. But there are few things where Allāh spells it out, and fallibilism is very important, our scholars need to have more fallibilism. We don't doubt Islam but we should doubt our understanding of Islam, we should doubt our understanding of Islam, we don't doubt Islam. But we should doubt our understanding of Islam, because to have certainty about your understanding is to arrogate to yourself some divine knowledge that you don't have.




Imām Sahl al-Tustari, one of the conditions when he took on students, one of the conditions he stipulated was that they ate meat once a week.  In Maliki fiqh, a rich woman is entitled to meat twice a week. Muslims were semi-vegetarians. The Prophet (SAW) was a semi-vegetarian, he did not eat a lot of meat. This is a fact, you can read it in the sīrah.




And finally, this is all about preparing for the Day of Judgment. Maybe we won't change this thing. Maybe this is the way it's all headed. You know, Bob Marley, I used to listen to him when I was a kid, before I became Muslim. Bob Marley, he said, free your mind from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear of atomic energy, they cannot stop the time.  How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look, but some say it's all a part of it, we've got to fulfill the book.  Allāh (SWT)is in charge, we're not going to predict the future, but we're people of hope.  Our religion is a religion of hope. We have hope in God. Li man kana yarjullah, we have hope in God. We have hope in our Prophet (SAW), who will never betray us. No matter how much betrayal in the world, he will never betray you. He will stand by you. He will take you across. He will give you from the howdh. He will stand by you as long as you stand by him. The Prophet will never betray you. God will never betray you. Hope is, our religion, our religion is hope. We have to give our children hope. Hope is the thing with feathers that purges in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops it all. And sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm. I've seen it in the chilliest land, and on the strangest sea. And never in extremity it asked a crumb of me.  Hope is a beautiful thing, our religion is a religion of hope. We have hope. Change your lives. Clean your houses out, stop supporting this unjust economic system.