What this Article is About?
This article says capitalism’s emphasis on private ownership turns the Earth’s resources into tools for profit rather than shared wealth, hurting people and nations alike. It argues that handing Ukraine’s natural assets to corporations and elites is part of a broader pattern of global pillaging. Private control of vital resources concentrates wealth and power while ordinary communities suffer. In contrast, the text points to Islamic principles that view water, land, and essentials as shared trusts meant to benefit everyone. It suggests this model offers a fairer way to manage what belongs to all.
Ukraine deal is considered standard, because looting public assets is standard Capitalism
Introduction
Capitalism, we are told, brings progress, prosperity, and freedom. But for much of the world, it has delivered only suffering. From Nigeria to Venezuela, Congo to Angola, nations overflowing with natural wealth are locked in poverty, hunger, and foreign dependency. At the heart of this global injustice lies one of capitalism’s most dangerous principles: the private ownership of natural resources. Under this system, oil, gas, water, and food are not public trusts but profit-generating assets, concentrated in the hands of corporations, oligarchs, and foreign powers.
The recent deal to handover Ukrainian natural resources to foreign and local corporations was done openly and shamelessly because it is systematic and standard capitalism where vital natural resources are traded away to powerful elite as commodities despite the desperation of the populous.
The wealth of nations: looted and pillaged by private ownership
In 2022, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies recorded over $200 billion in profits. Saudi Aramco posted $161 billion-the largest profit in corporate history. Meanwhile:
• 133 million Nigerians live in poverty despite $1 trillion in oil revenues.
• In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies 70% of global cobalt, 73% of people live below the poverty line.
• Venezuela, owner of the world’s largest oil reserves, sees 76% of its population living in extreme poverty.
These are not failures. They are capitalist success stories. The system is working exactly as intended: extracting wealth from the land while leaving the people dispossessed.
Food tells the same story. Three agribusiness giants-Cargill, ADM, and Bunge-control over 70% of the global grain trade. Four pesticide and seed corporations monopolize 75% of agricultural inputs. In 2023, 345 million people faced acute food insecurity, while food traders raked in billions.
The World Inequality Report reveals the true structure of global capitalism: the richest 10% own 76% of all wealth; the bottom half owns just 2%. This is not innovation. It is plunder. And natural resources-stolen from the public, fenced by legal fiction-are at the heart of it.
Private ownership of vital public assets is a pillar of capitalism
Private ownership of public assets is not an anomaly in capitalism-it is its foundation. Capitalism systematizes the conversion of communal wealth into private property. Land, water, minerals, and food systems are relentlessly commodified and transferred from collective access to elite control. The logic is simple: nothing should be free, and everything must be owned, priced, and traded.
Capitalist theorists from John Locke to Adam Smith built a doctrine that sanctifies theft. Locke argued that labor justifies private ownership of land. Smith claimed that self-interest and private property would magically benefit all through the “invisible hand.” Harold Demsetz later insisted that privatization prevents waste and encourages stewardship.
But these were never neutral theories. They provided intellectual cover for colonial conquest, imperialist looting, and modern corporate monopolies. Resources were not claimed through labor or efficiency-but by violence, corruption, and collusion. This is not freedom. It is legalized extraction.
From Communal to Corporate
What once belonged to all-water, soil, minerals, forests-has been seized by the few. Capitalism has transformed the earth into a fortress of private ownership. What matters is not who needs the resource, but who holds the deed. As wealth concentrates, the masses suffer-not by accident, but by design.
Islam Offers a Different Model
Islam tears down this edifice of injustice. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ declared:
“The people are partners in three things: water, pasture, and fire (energy).”
(Sunan Abu Dawood)
“Whoever hoards is a sinner.”
(Sahih Muslim)
“If anyone withholds water from others so as to deny them pasture, Allah will deny him His mercy on the Day of Judgment.”
(Musnad Ahmad)
These are not symbolic or general values. They are legal foundations of an economic system that criminalizes hoarding, bans monopolies, and prohibits the privatization of public resources necessary for survival.
In Islamic jurisprudence, essential resources are classified as milkiyyah ʿammah-public property. They belong to the ummah, not the market. The state is not their owner, but their trustee, charged with managing them for the benefit of all.
