Muamalah Council : Home

DBY ABDALGHANY AOUESKHANOV

In the last 100 years the progress of Islam has been presented by "islamizing" Capitalism - on one hand, and obsession with personal morality - on the other. In the process the most usurious practices and institutions of Capitalism such as banking, stock exchange and paper money have been blissfully endorsed as islamic while issues like halal sausage and woman scarf were scrutinized with great seriousness. The relationship between the two seemingly separate events was nevertheless remarkably related: the more foods with halal logo and hijab-clad women were out there, the more Riba intruded the muslim lands. Malaysia in particular has become a model of such islamic development whose symbolic picture could be - "woman covered from top to toe, driving hire-purchased car, living in mortgaged house and shopping in supermarket with three credit cards in her bag".

Exactly one year ago, on 12 August 2010, a small north-eastern state of Malaysia made a revolutionary step that may well have an impact on the modern world history: the government of Kelantan introduced bi-metallic medium of exchange, Islamic Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham, known in the history and tradition of Islam as Shariah Money. On August 12, 2010 for the first time in the last 100 years a government gave the people freedom to choose their medium of exchange. Since that historic moment up unitl today the entire population of Malaysia - except in Kelantan - was robbed 20% of purchasing power of their capitalist paper currency through a process of legalized theft a.k.a inflation.  In contrast, during the same period of time people of Kelantan not only preserved the value of their Shariah coins, in fact the buying power of the sound money of Kelantan had increased: since 12 August 2010 the gold dinar appreciated against Ringgit by 30% while the silver dirham by 100%.

dBY ABDALGHANY AOUESKHANOV

When Umar Pasha saw the program of the 7th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) just a week before the event, he told me: "We must be there, we can't allow this cohort of bankers and modernists to promote submission to Kufr in the land of great sufis and warriors".

Initiated by the Malaysian government 7 years ago WIEF is an annual event rotating the host country every year. Dubbed by the media as Islamic Davos the 7th WIEF was scheduled to take place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on 8-9 June 2011.

The format of the forum and the list of speakers were prerogative of the Malaysian side and of course the Islamic Banking session was a major feature of the event along with 20 other sessions. And the fact that in such a huge Islamic event, held in the country which had a special place in the heart of Umar Pasha, there was no intention to speak about Riba, Muamalat or Gold Dinar, had sparked the determination of Umar Pasha that instantly travelled in Unseen Reality around the world. That our journey started before we moved I would understand later when I witnessed the string of events that unfolded right from the moment when Pasha said "we must be there" up until we touched Kuala Lumpur on our way home.

fApril 23 2011, Masjid Saidina Umar al-Hattab, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur.