Classical scholars were explicit. Imam Al-Shafiʿi ruled that water, fire, and pasture must never be owned privately. Ibn Qudamah maintained that necessities must remain available to the public, free from private exploitation.
A Proven System of Justice
This wasn’t theoretical. It was practiced for centuries under the Ottoman Caliphate, where natural resources were designated miri land-state-held for the common good. Revenues from land, forests, and mines flowed into the Bayt al-Mal (public treasury) and funded massive public works.
The Ottomans built:
• 600+ hospitals offering free medical care
• 4,000+ madrasas providing education to rich and poor alike
• Water distribution systems in the Hejaz for pilgrims
• Aqueducts and roads that connected and nourished entire cities
The Süleymaniye Complex in Istanbul is a prime example: a mosque, hospital, school, kitchen, and traveller hostel all supported by public revenue. In the Balkans and Egypt, public granaries and price controls stabilized food access. In some provinces, up to 40% of government revenue came from publicly administered resources (Halil İnalcık).
Foreign ownership of natural wealth was absolutely forbidden. No foreign company was allowed to exploit the Ummah’s resources. Economic sovereignty was protected by Sharia. Colonization through contracts, concessions, or corporations was impossible.
A Blueprint for Liberation
Restoring these Islamic principles today would not merely reduce inequality. It would dismantle its very architecture. An Islamic system would:
• Nationalize all essential resources, directing their revenues to fund healthcare, education, clean water, and public infrastructure.
• Ban all foreign ownership and extraction, ending neocolonialism and reclaiming sovereignty.
• Institutionalize zakat, permanently redistributing unused wealth to the poor.
• Abolish riba (interest) and replace it with real, risk-sharing investments.
• Break up monopolies and redistribute land, restoring food security and ending dependence.
Where capitalism exploits, Islam protects. Where capitalism hoards, Islam circulates. Where capitalism justifies inequality, Islam makes justice a divine obligation.
The world is not poor. It is looted.
And capitalism is the looting mechanism. Islam offers the blueprint for reclamation. Not a utopia—but a proven, divinely guided system of economic sovereignty, collective dignity, and uncompromising justice.
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