Abstract
This paper discusses the question of the acquisition and the use of illicit money, māl ḥarām from the perspective of Islamic ethics. It first addresses five fatwas by Markaz al-fatwā on different cases of illicit money. Subsequently, the paper engages in an ethical analysis of the responses and the arguments that Markaz al-fatwā provides to justify certain positions on the issue of illicit money. The discussion ends with an investigation of the difficulties of legalistic Islamic ethics in adapting to the Western contexts.
Highlights
From the perspective of Islamic ethics, illicit money, māl h.arām, is “any money which Islamic law forbids to acquire or to use either because it is harmful or bad property in itself such as carrion or wine, or because it is forbidden for an external reason, for example in the way it was acquired from its legitimate owner without his/her authorisation, through usurpation, or obtaining it through unacceptable ways in Islamic law even with the consent of the owner such as bank interest or bribery”
(Al-Bāz and al-Ashqar 1998, pp. 40–44). This definition that is provided by al-Bāz and al-Ashqar, two major contemporary Muslim jurists and references on Islamic law and ethics from Jordan, raises two main questions: if illicit money is defined by Islamic law, what responsibility should be assigned to individuals in specific ethical situations? Second, what should be considered as illicit money in a liminal context, non-governed by Islamic law; is it the social ethics of the given territory or Islamic law?
This study has found that the Markaz al-fatwā’s ethical discourse encourages a permissive ethics he insights that are gained from in this study suggest that legalistic
Summary
From the perspective of Islamic ethics, illicit money, māl h.arām, is “any money which Islamic law forbids to acquire or to use either because it is harmful or bad property in itself such as carrion or wine, or because it is forbidden for an external reason, for example in the way it was acquired from its legitimate owner without his/her authorisation, through usurpation, or obtaining it through unacceptable ways in Islamic law even with the consent of the owner such as bank interest or bribery”. This definition that is provided by al-Bāz and al-Ashqar, two major contemporary Muslim jurists and references on Islamic law and ethics from Jordan, raises two main questions: if illicit money is defined by Islamic law, what responsibility should be assigned to individuals in specific ethical situations? As a matter of fact, it is less complicated to discuss illicit money in a context in which Islamic law, Islamic ethics, and social ethics overlap in Muslim societies In the latter, family, society, and state enforce certain Islamic norms about illicit money, whereby one can hear the injunction “this is illicit money!” from cradle to grave. The new fiqh of illicit money discusses macro-illicit money in main Islamic institutions, such as zakāt It barely says anything about concrete ethical contemporary situations, not to mention situations of mobility, migration, or liminality. The third part intends to determine the extent to which Islamic ethics allows for a permissive distributive justice, setting to investigate the limits of moral obligation towards non-Muslims according to legalistic Muslim ethics
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