The Economic System of Islam — Page 101
101 7. Compulsion in Economic Matters The seventh flaw is that the Communist system requires the use of force to run the economy, which ends up only hurting the country. It seeks to confiscate the wealth of the rich, leaving them with only the bare necessities of life. Irrespective of the merits or demerits of the objective, the issue is that Communism regards it legitimate to use force to pursue its objectives. Instead of relying on education and persuasion to make people gradually change their attitudes and become more compassionate towards the poor and accept the prin- ciple of equity, Communism, on coming to power, employed only force to deprive the rich of their wealth. Clearly, this process could not but rouse hatred for the system on the part of the dispossessed. Those who suffered in the process could hardly have any sympathy, instead of resentment, for the Communist system. Without question, Islam too took away wealth from the rich, but it did not use force. It relied in the first place on persuasion, but it also went on to remove the incentives to amass wealth. This was followed by discouragement of excessive consumption as well as admonition to give zakat and charity to help the poor. Finally, wealth that still remained at the time of a person’s death was dis- tributed among heirs. Thus while both Communism and Islam sought equity, the former relied on forcefully taking away wealth from the rich, while Islam relied on persuasion. The result is that there is a significant cross-section of rich Russians living in other countries that oppose Communism for usurping their wealth and reducing some of them to a life of penury.