The New World Order of Islam — Page 89
New World Order 89 Secondly, Islam forbids the hoarding of money, that is to say, it directs that money should be constantly in circulation. It must either be spent or invested so that it constantly fulfils its primary object as a means of exchange, and should promote commercial and industrial activity. A contravention of this direction is regarded by Islam as entailing grave divine displeasure resulting in dire penalties. There is a verse in the Quran which says that those who accumulate gold and silver in this life will be punished by means of the same in the life to come. The significance of this is obvious. If people were at liberty to accumulate money and precious metals which are the equivalent of currency, so much wealth would be withdrawn from circulation and, as a result, the community at large would be so much the poorer. If money is put constantly back into circulation, it helps to promote beneficent activities of all kinds, and thus serves to relieve poverty and distress by providing employment and stimulating effort. Take a simple illustration. If a person having a certain amount of money decides to build a residence for himself, or so construct a building for a public purpose, then, apart from the achievement of his object, he will by this means have provided employment for a number of brick-layers, masons, carpenters, iron-smiths, and so on. This would not