The World is heading to the system of Islam to face poverty

Poverty and unemployment are still threatening millions of people in most countries worldwide, as they are the greatest danger that undermined the plans of economic and social development in these countries.

Figures refer to the exacerbation of these problems at the global level and to the incapability of the world —with its countries, bodies, and foundations— to eradicate poverty and eliminate unemployment or at least alleviate its danger despite the progress and advancement that are taking place worldwide at all levels.

Reuters News Agency mentioned that almost half the world population live on less than two dollars a day, in a time 1.5 billion i.e., 25% of the world population live on one dollar a day and the number of idles in the developing countries is more than a billion person.

A report of the Secretary General of the United Nations said that there are 550 millions all over the world spend the night hungry and 1.5 billion do not get pure drinking water or adequate sewerage. Moreover, more than 1.5 billion live in extreme poverty, he also demanded the governments to decrease the number of those poor to the half in 2015.

The report revealed the veil that one fifth of the population of the developing countries, which are estimated by 4.4 billion people, are starving at the end of each day, one-third of them need drinking water, and one-quarter of them lack adequate dwelling, and one-fifth of school children do not go to school after primary five.

The South Asian region —where 29% of the world's population— includes about 43% of the world's poor. With the progress made in poverty reduction, the excessive growth in the population of the poor of the rural areas helped —to a large extent— in increasing the high number of the poor, and the region retreated from other regions with regard to progress in the field of education.

• One-Quarter of humanity are poor:

The International Labor Office in its report on working conditions in the world said that a quarter of humanity live in misery, and that a billion and half, men and women, live on less than a dollar a day.

As in the developing countries, approximately one-third of the population live on less than a dollar a day, and there are 30% of adults are illiterate, and 30% are deprived of fresh water, and 30% of children whose ages under five are below the normal weight.

The report pointed out that more than 40% of the inhabitants of the South of the Sahara and South Asia live in poverty, and this percentage increases. The number of the poor increased during the past five years at 200 million people in the South-Sahara, in addition to, countries which their regimes are experiencing a transition period in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.

The report emphasized that the vast majority of population in many developing countries do not enjoy any social security, and there is no social security for workers in the informal sector outside the framework of institutions, and the number is between 750 and 900 million workers who do not earn enough money to eat, including a large proportion of women.

• One billion idles in poor countries:

If we look at unemployment, we will see it worsening day after another at the global level, especially in poor and developing countries. A report on globalization and unemployment revealed that there are over one billion people unemployed in all the south countries.

The report said: The negative social effects of globalization increase the difficulties faced by the people of developing countries and diminish the ability of these countries to overcome the negative social consequences of marginalization and poverty.

The report added that the ILO should analyze the social and economic impacts of the financial crisis on the economies of the countries affected by the crisis, in addition to preparing studies on the impact of the crisis on financial markets with particular emphasis on poverty alleviation and unemployment in these countries.

• The failure of the United Nations:

The General Assembly of the United Nations admitted the failure of facing the problems of poverty, unemployment, lack of social security and stability, and achieving justice or alleviating these problems.

It said in a report that these issues remain a matter of equal concern, but what is disturbing is that the number of people who live in poverty actually increased during the last five years, and the unemployment rate reached unacceptably high levels.

The number of internal conflicts raging in different parts of the world remains high which prevent the achievement of the objectives of social integration. The report pointed out that the gap between rich and poor has expanded unprecedentedly, where the possessions of three of the richest men in the world reached the total gross of national product of the least developing countries which its population estimated by 600 million people.

• Islam and facing of poverty:

Before the growth of these economic and social problems at the global level and the inability of the man-made systems to face and solve these problems, the world started looking for the effective solutions to these problems and did not find but the Islamic approach which is suitable for every time and place.

The official of anti-poverty strategy of the World Bank (John Paige) revealed several years ago that the Bank has studied some Islamic principles relating to financial transactions and Zakah that is paid by the rich to the poor in order to benefit from in setting strategies for combating poverty around the world.

John Paige added that the objective of the World Bank is to find economic mechanisms to benefit from fighting against poverty on one hand, and preventing people from falling into poverty on the other hand.

If there are religious principles of any religion will help to achieve these goals, we are ready to study them provided to be of economic and productive dimensions, not just donations that may not help the people to overcome crises.

What the world is looking for today is to eliminate the difficult problem of poverty, which all man-made solutions failed to solve, has been solved by Islam fourteen centuries ago, represented in Zakah and its impact in the development and plenty of productivity established by Islam to eliminate poverty and achieve economic and social development.

There are specialized bodies in some Muslim countries —led by Saudi Arabia— collect Zakah to combat poverty, where the "Department of Zakah and income" of the Ministry of Finance collect Zakah annually from all companies and institutions registered in the Commercial Register at the Ministry of Commerce, in addition to sending collectors to collect the Zakah from farmers and livestock breeders, and then distributing them to legitimate recipients.

• The establishment of an institution of Zakah:

Some Muslim countries in Africa have started to respond to this Islamic solution for the difficult problem of poverty by establishing an institution of Zakah, and on top of these countries is Senegal, where the Senegalese capital (Dakar) witnessed the first serious attempt to establish Islamic project under the name of Islamic African Zakah Foundation.

It is well-known that even now there is no country in Africa applies the system of Zakah at the official level, but people give it individually, and on the basis of affiliations to scholars and preachers. However, facts indicate that the country is rich, especially the rich Muslims who are representing the largest proportion, and we have seen how those people spend these millions in projects and different aspects, but they lack arrangement, coordination, and organization.

• Combating poverty by endowments:

At the level of Muslim minorities, the humanitarian relief in Bermingham —United Kingdom— adopts an integrated strategy to combat poverty that includes all aspects of life based on Zakah and the Islamic endowment, emerging from the impact which the Islamic Relief had on development that can help to promote the Muslim world, and taking the Muslim nation out of the circle of cultural deterioration and poverty.

The most important features of this strategy is to try to revive the role of Zakah and endowment in funding and supporting the charitable projects, advocacy, and development through the endowment project which the commission adopts where it opened the door for subscription and these projects are aimed at the prosecution of ignorance and illiteracy in different areas of the Muslim World and supplying the poor Muslims with the basic and necessary needs.

In order to pursue poverty and transform the poor to producers, it adopted a big project to supply these poor with loans so as not to fall into the clutches of usurious debts, where borrowers were given machines, poultry machineries, and cattle to help them to find a source of living to pay the loan installments and to lead a decent life.

• The role of endowments in development:

On the other hand, the secretariat of endowment in Kuwait prepared a study on the impact of endowment in development.

The study has included a number of important projects that aim to enable the endowments in the Islamic world to do its important and vital work, especially in the field of development in general.

The study called for a project of developing studies and jurisprudential researches on endowment through the revival of scientific researches in all matters relating to endowments provided that to be appropriate to the strategic vision for the advancement and development of endowments.

The study also called for a project to establish the endowment data bank.

The study pointed out the need to create a project to introduce the contemporary endowment experiments and said: "This project aims to hold seminars to demonstrate the contemporary endowment experiments in Muslim countries to activate the movement of contemporary endowment business, the development of scientific researches and studies related to it, and to facilitate the dissemination of these results on other countries and foundations.

The study found the necessity of adopting the project of disseminating the endowment form to the civil society institutions in the Muslim world.

The idea of the project is to urge the powers and all communities to benefit from the endowment system in a positive way to build the present and future society in the framework of Islamic developmental values and in a spirit appropriates to the time and circumstances.

The study called to discuss the opportunities available for endowment investment and promoting it, as it called for the development of legislation law of endowment by updating the legal laws appropriate to commemorate endowment again in the Muslim communities, activate its role, and develop it.