Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

part there isn’t what we call Shariah, technically. Of course a few elements of
the Shariah were already there like prayer, but when the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh

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ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) comes to Madinah more and more of the Shariah is coming
down.
This surah is particularly important because this was a Muslim community in
its infancy—it’s just starting—this is what is going to eventually be a fifth of the
world’s population. A civilization that spans continents and ethnicities. But right
now it’s in its infancy—just a few hundred people at the most, and so Allah is
going to reveal to them instructions that will make sure that they are founded on
the right foundation. When you build a tall building, you have to have a deep
foundation; and the deeper your foundation the taller you can build. If you don’t
take the time to build your foundation then you can’t go very high. Now that is
also true of our faith in terms of our theology; our beliefs are supposed to be
rooted in a lot of depth. We’re supposed to really understand what it is that we
believe and find conviction in it, so that our actions can reflect that. That’s on
the one hand. But even within the Shariah, even within the laws themselves,
Allah revealed introductory laws that set the stage for the refining of the later
laws, and this is part of what I wanted to share with you. At the very base of an
infant Muslim community, what is one of the most important instructions?
Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) says:
Believers! Do not devour one another’s possessions wrongfully;
rather, let there be trading by mutual consent; and do not kill
yourselves. Surely Allah is ever Compassionate to you.
(Al-Nisā’ 4: 29)
Those of you who claim to believe don’t consume each other’s monies using
falsehood. Do not engage in shady financial transactions. This has occurred
already in 
Sūrat al-Baqarah
, Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) there says:

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Do not usurp one another ’s possessions by false means, nor proffer
your possessions to the authorities so that you may sinfully and
knowingly usurp a portion of another’s possessions.
(Al-Baqarah 2: 188)
There it goes even further and says first of all don’t cheat people out of their
money, don’t scam people out of their money. We’ll deal with that in this
reminder in some depth. The literal wording is, don’t consume the monies of
each other using falsehood. That’s the literal translation, right? But there it says
and don’t try to reel in rulers using your money. Literally, now I will repeat
myself: don’t try to reel in the government, the governor, the chancellor, the
council man, don’t try to reel them in with your money so that a group of you
can eat the rest of the people’s money. You know what it’s talking about? It’s
talking about: when business gets involved with politics, corruption happens. So
the very wealthy, the business institutions can eventually have politicians in their
pockets. And when they do, the one who doesn’t have a lot of financial strength,
the average citizen, is the one that’s going to be paying the price.
In this way big business can actually rob people of their money in
collaboration with a government while people sleep. They don’t have to bust
into their homes and take their money. They can do it while they are sleeping,
they can do it through regulation, they can do it with all kinds of loopholes
around the law and most people won’t even know. And it’s incredible that when
I discuss this right now, it sounds like I’m talking about contemporary politics
but this is something Allah talked about a millennium and a half ago.
Let the Muslim community look, first of all; don’t try to scam people out of
money and don’t get politicians involved in your shady dealings. You’re starting
a community and when you start a community obviously there’s going to be
businesses that are going to be established. You’re going to have to have
economic dealings with each other. Somebody’s going to open up a store,
somebody’s going to open up a chop shop. There are going to be people in
different businesses and you are going to have to have dealings with each other
of a financial nature. Make sure those are right first. Can you imagine, in its

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earlier revelation the Qur’an did not come and tell us: by the way make sure
when you see someone, say salaam to them. Those are all important things and
those are the things we think are Islamic rulings, but what Allah calls Islamic
rulings first is actually financial regulation. It’s incredible to me.