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Sunday, March 15, 2009

What are the Muslims doing?

Are the non-Muslims in this video practicing Islamic principles more than what the Muslims are?


JAK Bank (Sweedish) Report Part 1 of 4 - Ethics


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2pj109Cr8

JAK Bank Report Part 2 of 4 - Technics


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktzRsH9qLiw

JAK Bank Report Part 3 of 4 - Loans to members


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFx1V0_ysjo

JAK Bank Report Part 4 of 4 - Support Saving/JAK Diffusion


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rghb0KrKxxE

Shouldn't we learn from this and make effort to practice what clearly Allah(swt) commands us to do? It shows the defense 'we can't help but be part of the usurious system' is baseless.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Hadith on Dinar

The following Hadith on Dinar is researched by Abdul Halim b. Abdul Hamid.

Here are some of the authenticated ones, Insya'Allah.

/Book 10, Number 3895: /

Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to him: I have taken your camel for four dinars, and you may ride upon it to Medina.

/Book 10, Number 3893: /

Jabir b. 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with them) reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) bought a camel from me for two 'uqiyas and a dirham or two dirhams. As he reached Sirar (a village near Medina), he commanded a cow to be slaughtered and it was slaughtered, and they ate of that, and as he (the Holy Prophet) reached Medina he ordered me to go to the mosque and offer two rak'ahs of prayer, and he measured for me the price of the camel and even made an excess payment to me.

/Book 10, Number 3889: /

Jabir reported: We went from Mecca to Medina with Allah's Messenger(may peace be upon him) when my camel fell ill, and the rest of the hadith is the same. (But it in also narrated in it:) He (the Holy Prophet) said to me: Sell your camel to me. I said: No, but it is yours. He said: No. (it can't be), but sell it to me. I said: No, but, Allah's Messenger, it is yours. He said: No, it can't be, but sell it to me. I said: Then give me an 'uqaya of gold for I owe that to a person and then it would be yours. He (the Holy Prophet) said: I take it (for an 'uqiya of gold) and you reach Medina on it. As I reached Medina, Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said to Bilal: Give him an 'uqiya of gold and make some extra payment too. He (Jabir) said: He gave me an 'uqiya of gold and made an addition of a qirat. He (Jabir) said: The addition made by Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) was with me (as a sacred trust for belssing) and lay with me in a pocket until the people of Syria took it on the Day of Harra.

/Book 10 ,Number 3886: /

Jabir b. 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with them) reported that he was traveling on his camel which had grown jaded, and he decided to let it off. When Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) met him and prayed for him and struck it, so it trotted as it had never trotted before. He said: Sell it to me for an 'uqaya. I said: No. He again said: Sell it to me. So I sold it to him for an 'uqaya, but made the stipulation that I should be allowed to ride back to my family. Then when I came to (my place) I took the camel to him and he paid me its price in ready money. I then went back and he sent :(someone) behind me (and as I came) he said: Do you see that I asked you to reduce price for buying your camel. Take your camel and your coins; these are yours.


The above is from Sahih Muslim, Book 10: Transactions (Kitab Al-Buyu')

This is also another authentic hadith collected by Imam Abu Dawud in his book Sunan.
/Book 16, Number 3322: /

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas:

A man seized his debtor who owed ten dinars to him. He said to him: I swear by Allah, I shall not leave you until you pay off (my debt) to me or bring a surety. The Prophet (peace be upon him) stood as a surety for him. He then brought as much (money) as he promised. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked: From where did you acquire this gold? He replied: From a mine. He said: We have no need of it; there is no good in it. Then the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) paid (the debt) on his behalf.

/Book 16, Number 3325: /

Narrated Abu Hurayrah:
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: A time is certainly coming to
mankind when only the receiver of usury will remain, and if he does
not receive it, some of its vapor will reach him. Ibn Isa said:
Some of its dust will reach him.


/Book 16, Number 3327: /

Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas'ud:

The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) cursed the one who accepted
usury, the one who paid it, the witness to it, and the one who
recorded it.

/Book 16, Number 3334: /

Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: (The standard) weight is the
weight of the people of Mecca, and the (standard) measure is the
measure of the people of Medina.

/Book 16, Number 3341: /

Narrated Jabir ibn Abdullah:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) owed me a debt and gave me something
extra when he paid it.

/Book 16, Number 3343: /

Narrated Ubadah ibn as-Samit:

The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: Gold is to be paid
for with gold, raw and coined, silver with silver, raw and coined
(in equal weight), wheat with wheat in equal measure, barley with
barley in equal measure, dates with dates in equal measure, salt by
salt with equal measure; if anyone gives more or asks more, he has
dealt in usury. But there is no harm in selling gold for silver and
silver (for gold), in unequal weight, payment being made on the
spot. Do not sell them if they are to be paid for later. There is no
harm in selling wheat for barley and barley (for wheat) in unequal
measure, payment being made on the spot. If the payment is to be
made later, then do not sell them.

/Book 16, Number 3378: /

Narrated Urwah ibn AbulJa'd al-Bariqi:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) gave him a dinar to buy a
sacrificial animal or a sheep. He bought two sheep, sold one of them
for a dinar, and brought him a sheep and dinar. So he invoked a
blessing on him in his business dealing, and he was such that if had
he bought dust he would have made a profit from it.

/Book 16, Number 3380: /

Narrated Hakim ibn Hizam:

The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) sent with him a dinar to
buy a sacrificial animal for him. He bought a sheep for a dinar,
sold it for two and then returned and bought a sacrificial animal
for a dinar for him and brought the (extra) dinar to the Prophet
(peace be upon him). The Prophet (peace be upon him) gave it as alms
(sadaqah) and invoked blessing on him in his trading.


The above is from Book 16 of Sunan Abu Dawud on "Commercial Transactions (Kitab Al-Buyu)"

Monday, March 2, 2009

The Gold Dinar – An Agenda of Uniting the Muslim Ummah


“Muslim all over the world today is obligated to abandon today’s money @ fiat money and use the sunnah money, which is the gold dinar and silver dirham”. This probably is one harsh statement to be swallowed especially if this is the first time you hear the subject of the gold dinar. However, whether we like it or not, with unbearable war against Islam propagated by America and Israel today, the usage of today’s money makes us part of them. We are responsible for the killings of our innocent Muslims brothers and sisters and our children and our elders in Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and in all parts of the world because we use today’s so called money.

“How can it be?” would immediately prop up from our mind after reading the previous paragraph. Let me try to explain all the curiosity, but before that, I need to remind all of the readers that in attempting to understand this gold dinar subject, we must be able to think out of the box. The fish that lives in the dirty muddy Klang river besides Masjid Jame’ Kuala Lumpur wouldn’t know that they are living in a dirty river unless they jumped out of it, which would cost their lives – the same with us, if we want to understand that the fiat money system that we embraced ever since we were born is wrong and sinful, we must be able to go out of the norm, and try to understand it without the presence of today’s fiat money system. The difference between the fish and us is that we have “aqal” , while the fish has not, therefore it would not cost our life, if we wanted to know about the real system that we are living in right now. However, this may require a bit of our thinking skills, which I’ll try to guide you through it. If somewhere down the line you get confused, stop and chew on it for a night or two, Insya’Allah ALLAH S.W.T will help you to understand as long as you are sincere in wanting to know about the truth.

First of all we must realize that the money we used today is not money. Money supposedly has intrinsic value by itself, can store value over time and is universally accepted. However, today’s money does not have intrinsic value. A lot of people still think that the paper money that people all over the world are using today is backed by gold, which means we can go to the bank and request for gold in exchange for the paper money that we keep. If that is what you think it is, then you have been outdated for more than 35 years, as way back to 15th of August, 1971, the gold backed system that was agreed in Bretton Woods, 1945 (whereby 1 ounce of gold equal to USD35 has been abandoned by the then American president Richard Nixon). A point to note here is that, America was the one introduced the exchange system between gold and USD, for all other currencies in the world to follow, and they violated their own policy. Why is that so? There must be something very crucial that happened which caused America to take that drastic action. The answer to that is simply because America has issued too many US dollars as compared to their gold reserves, which if the world request for the gold in exchange of their US dollars, America would not be able to cover it, which can cause America to go bankrupt. Definitely no American president will take these chances, therefore the policy to abandon the gold backed system is perfect, let the rest of the world suffer instead. Since 1945 America has brain washed our minds in order to believe that USD is the money, and slowly pulled away gold from the circulation, so that people keeps paper money rather than gold, therefore when they finally abandon the system in 1971, the world get panicked, US dollar value nose dive in the world exchange rate market against other currencies. This is the beginning of the world exchange rate market that we practice today. The value of the currency is no longer based on gold but based on the supply and demand of the currency. The US dollar value drop vigorously because its supply is more than the demand when they broke the policy, however, since the rest of the people in the world, are keeping the US dollar as their store of wealth, because they believed that US dollar is money, its obvious that they would not let the US dollar value to keep on dropping, because that will cause their “wealth” to diminished in its value, when in fact this is not true at all. What the world supposed to do when US abandon the gold backed system, is to also abandon the US dollar and to use a new currency that was backed by gold, but since our mind has been indoctrinated to believe that US dollar is “The Money” and in the midst of panic, the world foolishly decide to upheld the supremacy of the US dollar instead of abandoning it. This decision is one of the biggest mistakes the rest of the world made, because with this decision, US need not have to work on protecting the value of their dollar, since the rest of the world will do it for them. Whenever, the value of US dollar is falling, the rest of the world will buy the US dollar in order to create demand, so that the US dollar will not fall further but will sustain at the satisfied level. What America will do is just to print more USD because they just need to spend on anything they wanted, such as, war mongering and world policeman, while the value of USD is protected by the rest of the world. That is why you see today, when Malaysia do international trade with other nations such as Indonesia, India, China, Japan, and the Middle East, the currency in transaction is the USD, we never use our RM or our trading partner currency. This is because we believe in the USD more as compared to RM or our trading partner currency. Therefore US dollar keeps holding its supremacy value, because of our own unthinkable foolish act of ignorance. When the rest of the world doing trade among them which does not involved America, they thought they never help the US, but instead we actually benefited the US more because we constantly create demand for the US dollar. When the Muslims all over the world raise millions of money to help their fellow Muslims that faced calamity such as in Aceh or even in Palestine or Lebanon, we also help the US because we exchange our fund into US dollar. This is just like giving our Muslims fellows a bread to eat that is contaminated with cyanide.

Today’s money is not money because it cannot store value or wealth. As time flows the money value change. If you keep one US dollar in a box and leave it there for 10 years, what will happen is of course it won't grow more than what it is 10 years ago, but what definitely happen is, the one US dollar cannot buys what it could buy 10 years ago. This is a great example of oppression towards mankind. Imagine a vegetable farmer, who saved his earnings of RM50 a month, hoping to perform Haj in 10 years time, as he knew then that you need somewhat around RM6K to go to Mekah (this is during the early 80’s). In 10 years time the farmer has managed to save RM6K, but unfortunately he was informed that his money is not enough for him to go to Mekah to performed Haj, as the cost to go there is now RM7500 (this is approximate price during the early 90’). The farmer sigh to hear the sad news and wonder when will he be able to go and perform Haj, as he has become old and too weak to work in order to have enough money to go to Mekah. What we were normally informed, was that the price increase because the world oil price increases, inflation, world economy recession, rampant hoarding activities and many others economic jargons terms that makes ordinary people confused. This situation is exactly what they wanted us to be, always stunned, blur, naive and idiot. The reason is simple; if I want to rob your house, I should not tell you anything about it, I must make you look totally ignorant and regard me as the best angel you have ever met. At the end of the day, after your house has been robbed clean by me, you still believe that I’m the best angel you have ever met and you did not know even a single clue what had happened to your house. This is the agenda. If I want to rule the world and to conquer everyone in the world to be my slaves, I should not let you know my plan but my plan must work smoothly without anyone realizing it. So how come the plan exploded now. The planed was now known to only those who think hard enough because their plan is at its peak and almost reaching its goal soon. Knowing it cannot make us stop the agenda from happening because Rasul’Allah S.A.W., 1400 years ago has prophesized this situation to happen – that is the agenda of the Dajjal. All the people of the world have been keeping the paper money which was mistakenly thought as wealth, whilst “they” keep the real store of wealth; that is gold. The printed 1USD paper money described “their” plan regarding the “New World Order” brainchild by Adam Weshaupt in 1775 and was then supported by “The 24th Protocols of Zion by the Elders of Zion”, the one eyed “the all seeing eye – Lucifer (the fallen angel), the unfinished pyramid symbolizing the temple of Solomon and 13 feathers symbolizes the 4 corners of the world. This is the age of the fitans@ fitnah.

The price increase of goods and services are no doubt due to the money that we use today. What actually increase? How can the price increase when there is no different in the product? The petrol in 1970 is still the same petrol in 2006, but why the price increase. It would only be logic for the price increase if the benefit that we got from the product today is more than what it is before. However the fact is not that; rice, flour, sugar, that we bought in the 70’s is still the same today in 2006, but why the price different. The answer to all these is not that the price increase but actually the value of the paper money decreases. As time passes by you need more paper money to buy the same goods because money supply increase due to exorbitant printing of paper money and rampant debt/credit activity.

Another point to be highlighted about today’s money is that, it is not a universally accepted currency; i.e. Yen, cannot be used in Malaysia, Japanese need to exchange the Yen with the RM in order for them to purchase anything here and the same face by the RM in Japan or in any part of the world. The currencies that we called money today are not universally accepted, and cause us to lose its value from the exchange rate, because the money changer would make some exchange profit out of our difficulties. This one phenomenon is the reason why you see rich continues to be richer while the poor remain poorer. The gap is widening between the rich and poor and poverty continues to rise.

The problems caused by the present money system is too much, we had no choice, but to abandoned it before it’s too late. This is something that we can do. The usage of the gold dinar is now revisited.

The word dinar originated from the Roman fine gold coin (solidus) called “denarius”. It is widely used during the beginning of the Islamic civilization in the suq in Madinah. An authenticate hadith narrated by Sahih Muslim, Book 10: Transactions (Kitab Al-Buyu')


Jabir b. 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with them) reported that he was traveling on his camel which had grown jaded, and he decided to let it off. When Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) met him and prayed for him and struck it, so it trotted as it had never trotted before. He said: Sell it to me for an 'uqaya. I said: No. He again said: Sell it to me. So I sold it to him for an 'uqaya, but made the stipulation that I should be allowed to ride back to my family. Then when I came to (my place) I took the camel to him and he paid me its price in ready money. I then went back and he sent :(someone) behind me (and as I came) he said: Do you see that I asked you to reduce price for buying your camel. Take your camel and your coins; these are yours.
.

According to the Madinah measurement and Mekah weight used at that period, it is believed that 1 'uqaya is referred to 1 ounce of Roman weight, which equals to 6 mithqal whereby 1 mithqal is equal to a dinar. In other words, the Prophet used 6 dinar @ 1 'uqaya to pay for the camel that he bought. This mean the dinar (solidus gold) is the sunnah money and therefore there is no doubt about it on its usability by the ummah then, today and Insya'Allah forever. During Umar Al-Khattab R.A. the second khaliph of Islam a standard that is, 7 dinar equals to 10 dirham (silver money) is set. The standard weight of a dinar is 1 mithqal and 1 mithqal is equal to 72 grains of barley (Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah). This standard was set to avoid any mishaps in daily muamalat transactions apart from branding the Islamic coinage. At the reign of the Islamic empire the gold dinar is not just an exchange mechanism but also a symbol of wealth, power and strength. However, when the Islamic Khaliph later on did not practice Islam at it utmost, the Islamic fine gold dinar began to diminish. The debasement of the fine gold dinar started. The gold dinar is no more pure but has been mixed with other metal. The Islamic empire began to fall and towards the last Otthoman empire in Turkey, by 1924 the gold dinar can never be found anywhere anymore.

Where does the gold dinar value comes from? Allah SWT has created all the mankind to treasure gold and not other metal. Therefore, gold has intrinsic value by itself. Anywhere in the world people will treasure gold. The value of the gold comes from its weight and measure. The heavier the gold, the more things it can have. The value of the gold does not come from USD or Yen or Euro. We must detach the attachment that we make with gold and the paper money. If you tear a $10 note into 10 pieces, and throw it in the air, most probably no one will try to catch the broken pieces and try to mend it, but if you cut a piece of gold dinar into 10 parts, and as you throw it away, people who sees it will go and look for the broken pieces, because they know each of the broken pieces has value. That is what we called as money – it has intrinsic value and also acceptable anywhere in the world. You don’t need exchange rate system to deal with the gold dinar economy system.

Anyway, why should the Muslim used the gold dinar? Apart from being a sunnah money, the gold dinar is a way for the Muslim to avoid from indulging into RIBA activities. Riba is Haram in Islam. Riba is not just confined to taking usury or interest but according to one hadith sahih, the Prophet S.A.W mention that Riba has 70 branches and the least of these branches sin is similar to committing adultery with your own parents. Astaghfirullah. Today’s fiat money is oppressive in nature and is not a store of wealth, therefore its Riba. This is also the reason why you cannot find the so called “Islamic banking” being fair and Islamic because the “Islamic Bank” used the Riba money in its daily transaction. After all there is no such thing as “Islamic Bank” in Islam, we have the Baitulmal, Zakat, Waqf, Infa’ and Qirad Institution to be proud of actually, which we neglect its real function in promoting the Muslim economy.

When we used gold dinar as the medium of payment, we can ensure that the value never falls as time passes by. The hard earned money now will sustain its value as compared to fiat money. A hard working man will make more money as compared to a lazy man. The one that will be poor and to received zakat money are those that cannot work due to their illnesses either temporary or permanent, children and elderly, mothers that need to look after their small children’s, and students. Other than these people should not be categorized as poor. But look at today’s economy, in Kuala Lumpur a very hard working taxi driver who earned RM800 is consider poor, because the poverty rate in KL is somewhere around RM950, but a legal money lender such as banks that just sit around doing nothing are the ones that makes all the money just by charging interest on the money that they lend to the borrowers. What so difficult and tiresome of doing this kind of job?

Last but not least before I end this crucial topic, the gold dinar is one of the way to unite the Muslim ummah all over the world. If Muslims all over the world unite together to abandoned the US dollar and all other fiat money that associates with it and start to use the gold dinar as our medium of exchange, Insya’Allah we can see the strength of the Muslim ummah will be very great and powerful. The tools and system is already there, its just whether we want it or not. While waiting for the great change to happen globally, on our individual capacity, we can work on minimizing the usage of the present fiat money, and start savings in the form of gold dinar i.e. the ¼ dinar or ½ dinar or 1 dinar, 2 dinar or 4 dinar. When all the Muslim ummah kept the gold dinar then we can start to use it with one another as a medium of exchange, but for the time being start saving in the fine gold dinar and use it for “mas kahwin” or dowry, and in zakat payment as to purify our wealth. Yes, I know this is not easy as I put it here, but somehow we must put an effort to show our sincerity to uplift ourselves and our Muslim ummah to the highest level as it supposed to be, Insya’Allah we can made it. Belief in the sunnah and believe in Allah S.W.T., Insya’Allah the sunnah money that is the dinar and dirham will be the Muslim practice money soon, Ameen.

About the author:
He is an academic at the faculty of Business & Law, Multimedia University (Melaka Campus) since 1997. Have been a consultant, researcher and speaker for the alternative economy since 2002 and even mint his own fine gold dinar. His highest education was obtained from the USA in the area of Finance. He can be reached at 013-6304515.

Note from the author:
The subject of gold dinar is very broad if to be included all in this article. Please do not hesitate to contact the author to further deliberate on the subject.