Run a Business Islamically: Key Principles 2

Running a business in accordance with Islamic principles is a fundamental concern for Muslims in the modern world. This is the sixth in a series of articles from Running a Business Islamically.

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear. Between them are some unclear matters that most do not know about. So whoever carefully avoids the unclear, safeguards both their religion and their honor, and whoever falls into the unclear, falls into the haram like the shepherd who grazes around protected land and falls too close. It is feared that their flock will fall therein.” 

One has to be exceedingly careful. Unclear matters are those matters that you do not know the ruling of. Many people are unclear about everything and they do not know the ruling of Allah. The person who narrates this hadith is al-Numan ibn Bashir. He was one of the first children born to the Madinans after the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) arrived. He heard this hadith when he was about five years old.

Ask When In Doubt

The reality is, we should educate our children from a young age and bring our children to gatherings of learning as well as instilling purpose and concern in our children from a young age. 

The first duty in general, particularly concerning the limits of Allah is to learn the clear limits before doing anything. So if you are going to go into business, for example, learn what the clear limits are, what is clearly allowed and what is not. Imam Bukhari has a chapter in his Sahih called, “The Chapter on the Duty of Seeking Knowledge Before Acting.”

Such knowledge empowers one to be able to do the good. Learn the clear guidance. Ask before entering anything that you do not know the ruling of. By consistently asking what is allowed, what is not allowed, and how to do things, one has a body of knowledge. So one no longer needs to be asking all the time.

One will be empowered to do both what is right and to act in a way in their business, that is in accordance with the pleasure of Allah.

Do Not Run on Assumptions

The third principle is that do not just run on assumptions such as, “It should be fine.” That is like grazing around protected lands, you do not know where the border is and you are going to fall into it once in a while. The limits of Allah, as the Hadith mentions, are His borders. 

As mentioned in the Hadith, “Truly in the body is a morsel of flesh, which if sound, the entire body is sound and if corrupted, the entire body is corrupted. And truly that is the heart.” 

Falling into the unlawful and falling into the unclear without knowledge, deeply affects your state with Allah, so be careful. It is both a great opportunity but also a great risk to enter into business because of the temptation of riba, cutting corners, and other prohibited matters. Injustice is very grave. 

It is important to first acquaint ourselves with the general principles of the Fiqh of halal and haram (the lawful and unlawful). There are certain broad guiding principles that one needs to know. At SeekersGuidance, there is a level one course on the Fiqh of halal and haram. That gives a lot of general principles and some of them are general principles related to financial matters.

Furthermore, learn about the general principles related to money matters. There is also a course available at SeekersGuidance named, “Money Matters” also. Learn your religious duties concerning your money, zakah, charity, providing for family, the broad principles related to earning, spending, investment, contracts, etc. At a general level. 

If you go into any field, it is very important for you to learn about contracts and transactions. Especially if you are going into financing, seeking investors or yourself investing. 

Ethics and Sunnas of Transactions

The limits are not the right way of doing something. The nakedness for men is from the navel to the knee. What would a sister do if she went to her local masjid and there were 10 men dressed from navel to knee and nothing else? She would walk out because fulfilling the limit of something is not the right thing to do, it is the minimum that is acceptable.

Learning the ethics and Sunnas of transactions is very important. There is a purpose why we earn money. Many people say Islamic finance is just the same thing as conventional finance. We say, no, at the very least, it fulfills the minimum. However, is this the optimal? No. 

Where are you investing as a Muslim? What companies are you investing in? Are they people who are destroying the world economically, environmentally, socially, ethically, ruining lives and all these things? What exactly are the big tech companies up to? You are a party to meaninglessness by investing in these. You may earn some money, but that has to be a concern.

There are many places in the Muslim world where people are looking extensively at ethical Islamic finance. That is meaningful.