The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) – Volume III — Page 60
Seal of the Prophets - Volume III 60 continuous effort. As such, Islām cannot condone a system which pulls man out of the realm of struggle and effort and compels man to sit idle devouring the wealth of others or spending life dependant upon others. Invariably, Islām provides various external supports for individual life, and arranges for one to attain reasonable benefit therefrom, but its actual emphasis is on the fact that every individual should stand on his own two feet and pave the way of life through the power of his own hands or mental faculties. Islām does accept these external supports to be a means of additional assistance, but does not permit one to depend on them completely. This is why the Holy Qur’ān refers to those who sit idle devouring the wealth of inheritance in the following words: جَمًّا لَّمًّاوَتُحِبُّونَ الْمَالَ حُبًّا تَاْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ اَكْلًا “You desire to devour the wealth of heritage, devouring greedily and wholly, and you crave that this hoarded wealth be not exhausted. And you love hoarded wealth with exceeding love. ” 1 In this exquisite verse, the objective is to allude to the very truth that the God of Islām does not like a life wherein mankind is pulled out of the realm of struggle, effort, striving and work, and is tied to a particular stake. In this manner, slowly but surely, the natural faculties of man are rusted and wither away. However, it is observed that capitalism and communism both pull man out of a life of struggle and effort and open the door of dependence upon others. In other words, on the one hand, where capitalism drives the stake of hoarded wealth into the ground and ties man to it, on the other communism goes to the other extreme and wishes to tie man to the stake of the government and as if desiring to make man dormant. From this, it is apparent that although the extremes are poles apart, in actuality, this very principle works in both capitalism and communism; that mankind be pulled out of the realm of individual struggle and effort and tied to a strong stake, where he can spend a life of ease without feeling the need to remain vigilant. Hence, if one contemplates, both of these are paths of excessive abundance and extreme deficiency, which the God of Islām wishes to protect man from, placing him in the proactive arena of struggle and effort. What is the principle of communism? Is it not that all people spend a life together in 1 Al-Fajr (89:20-21)