The Economic System of Islam — Page 19
19 themselves either out of their own personal and family means, or with the help of the government or country they had fought for. In such situations, Quran instructs us that we should help the prisoners of war by providing them with resources that they can employ to make money and use it to procure their own release by paying the required ransom. We are thus taught that if we are hold- ing some unfortunate people, whom the vicissitudes of life had de- prived them of the power to stand on their own feet, they should be given the benefit of a portion of our resources, which really belong to God and in which every creature of God holds a share. Similarly, the verse quoted above instructs Muslim rulers and kings that the wealth, which God has given them, does not solely belong to them, but all of mankind has a share in it. Even if they capture prisoners of war who are so unfortunate that their own countrymen and family abandon them and show little interest in getting them freed (possibly because people back home wish to usurp the prisoners’ property), it remains the duty of Muslims in authority not to abandon them. In such a situation, they are urged to spend a portion of their wealth to set the prisoners free, since ‘your wealth is not yours but belongs to God, and your prisoner is created by the same God who created you. ’ These references demonstrate that: Firstly, according to Islam, the world’s wealth belongs to all mankind. Secondly, the real mas- ter of all wealth is only God Almighty. Man is therefore not free to dispose of his wealth in any way he deems fit; what he can do is circumscribed by God’s prescribed limits. We learn from the Holy Quran that this basic principle of own- ership of wealth is an age-old truth, proclaimed by every Prophet of God. The Holy Quran refers to Hadrat Shu‘aib as when he warned