For question 1, click here.
Q2: How does the khilafah deal with soaring prices when excess goods e.g. meat is not available?
This is when a shortage precisely happens: when the supply, e.g. meat, which causes the prices to rise. So, the task here is to get meat – or meat substitutes like lentils, fish, or other proteins – into the markets to bring the price down. The Khilafah could fly or transport meat in, assuming it’s available in local areas, e.g. exactly the same way that Umar (ra) brought in food from Egypt and Sham. However, if the meat was unavailable, the Khilafah could ramp production elsewhere in the lnad and then ship it in. According to Tabari, Amar bin al-Aas’s suggested to Umar bin-al Khattab (ra) “If you want the price of food in Medina to be on the level of that in Egypt, I shall excavate this latter waterway again and build bridges across it”. Umar (ra) approved the plan; meaning that the Khilafah could set-up emergency factories or other ways to, for example, convert milk into protein powder and then ship it in. This is of course just a temporary measure and the idea would be to fix the local issue that resulted in the shortage of meat.
Q3: How is this helping business; they can sell it themselves? "First, it can help raise capital by getting them to sell the assets they have"
Firstly, it should be emphasized that these were actions of RasulAllah (saw). He helped the Ansari to get out of poverty as follows:
“A man of the Ansar came to the Prophet (saw) and begged from him. He (the Prophet) asked: Have you nothing in your house? He replied: Yes, a piece of cloth, a part of which we wear and a part of which we spread (on the ground), and a wooden bowl from which we drink water. He said: Bring them to me. He then brought these articles to him and he (the Prophet) took them in his hands and asked: Who will buy these? A man said: I shall buy them for one Dirham. He said twice or thrice: Who will offer more than one Dirham? A man said: I shall buy them for two Dirhams. He gave these to him and took the two Dirhams and, giving them to the Ansari, he said: Buy food with one of them and hand it to your family, and buy an axe and bring it to me. He then brought it to him.” [Abu Dawood]
So, to be clear RasulAllah (saw) helped them to sell his personal property and with those proceeds use to buy the axe. The narration continues:
“The Messenger of Allah (saw) fixed a handle on it with his own hands and said: Go, gather firewood and sell it, and do not let me see you for a fortnight. The man went away and gathered firewood and sold it. When he had earned ten Dirhams, he came to him and bought a garment with some of them and food with the others.”
This incident illustrates how Islam encourages entrepreneurship to alleviate poverty. Prophet Muhammad (saw), who is the head of State, worked collaboratively to help the Ansari in the following ways:
Raise capital: through the sale of his assets, he got both “seed capital” to invest in his business as well providing the income he needed.
Assist the business: Prophet (saw) assisted by fixing the axe so it could be used for cutting wood. In today's context the Khilafah could invest or find other ways to help the business operate.
Assist with strategic/business planning: Prophet (saw) effectively gave the Ansari a business plan to execute, i.e. selling the wood. Keep in mind that consulting companies make billions doing this type of work today.
So, the idea is that once the pandemic is under control, the Khilafah could work to assist the businesses to get back on track. For example, for businesses who want to “pivot” to another business during or after the pandemic, the Khilafah would be able to apply this hadith and get them started in a new business. There are other means, such as providing interest-free loans or even grants. (i.e. in the narration above, RasulAllah (saw) gave the wooden part of the axe to the Ansari). But the point is that Khilafah will partner with the business owners to see what makes sense and help them out accordingly.
Q4: Why would anyone lend to the government for zero interest or zero benefit?
It has to do with mindset: Khilafah is built on the Islamic Aqeedah and drives the Ummah to adopt the values, concepts and actions that emanate from the aqeedah. In other words, the Khilafah must change ideas and institutions that run society away from the current materialistic mindset of Capitalism to seek non-materialistic values (as prescribed by Islam), such the moral value, humanitarian and of course the spiritual value.
Even in Capitalism we see people motivated by such values. “How to videos” or open-source software development are done to attain non-materialistic values has a humanitarian value or a moral value. That is, why is someone putting a “how to video” on YouTube? Yes, some are making money. But a good number are not. We should also give the Ummah credit for its generosity. Alhumdullilah, the Muslims today are among the most generous of people, with our time, money and other things that Allah (swt) has blessed up with. Consider the wealthy Egyptian man who Malcolm X met with who gave him his hotel room, in Jedda Palace Hotel, to rest. This was Malcolm X’s reaction:
“That white man—at least he would have been considered “white” in America—related to Arabia’s ruler, to whom he was a close advisor, truly an international man, with nothing in the world to gain, had given up his suite to me, for my transient comfort. He had nothing to gain. He didn’t need me. He had everything. In fact, he had more to lose than gain.”
That generosity that Malcolm X felt was a key reason why he gave up the idea that all white people were devils and instead embraced Islam.
So, imagine the Khilafah state that encourages people to seek the akhira and then sets-up society to pursue such values. Such a society would be motivated by the following ahadith:
“No Muslim would give another Muslim a loan twice, except that one would be written for him as charity.” [Ibn Hibban]
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “A man would give loans to the people and he would say to his servant: If the debtor is in hardship you should forgive the debt that perhaps Allah will relieve us. So when he met Allah, then Allah relieved him.”
In the latter hadith, not only did Allah (swt) encourage us to loan money, but even to forgive the debt altogether.
Beyond that the Ummah, as well as the non-Muslims living amongst us, will want the State to not just survive but thrive. It’s the only defense that the people will have against the exploitation that they experienced under Capitalism. It is indeed a strange idea to think of a State, as your and my State, but that’s exactly what the Khilafah is. It is our State. That State will only come about because the Ummah believes in it and is willing to sacrifice for it – and loan it money when it is required.