The term social justice should not be mistaken for the terms socialism and socialist. The meanings of these two terms, which are similar in utterance, are quite far apart. In fact, they are antonyms. The case is like that with the two statements that are supposed to be said about a person, “He is reliable in his word,” and, “He is reliable in word only”: the former means that he always tells the truth and the latter means that he does not tell the truth. Likewise, social justice means that everybody gets in return for his labour what the sweat of his brow and his wrist deserve, and he cannot be exploited by others. The blessing of earning is a reward for labour. All the sources of revenue for a country are to be tapped. He who works much gets much. Earning requires hard work. The Islamic
economy has been built upon social justice. An extensive place has been assigned to private enterprise so that everybody can do the work he likes. No one has the right to interfere with the earnings from the sweat of another’s brow. Islam recognizes the right to own property and to dispose of it. Nobody lays hands on or snatches away another’s property. It even commands us to protect another’s property. The abuse of
this justice, the exploitation of the rights and earnings of those who work by a lazy, cunning group is possible through either one of two ways: socialism or capitalism.
1- The first type of exploitation is socialism. An Arabic translation of this word is al-ishtirâkiyya. Socialism means state capitalism. In socialism, all natural resources, industries, agriculture, trade, and culture have been nationalized. Personal enterprise is prohibited. Everybody has to do the work assigned by the capitalist state and work where the state orders him to work. The earnings or salary for the labour are given to the State: The fortunate minority that has obtained power within the State government takes away what the people earn by the sweat of their brows. They give the people as much food, drink and clothing as to enable them to live in the worst conditions. A certain group exploits the people. The duty of this minor group is to oppress and torment the people, to tell lies, to slander, and to propagandize. All earnings are spent so that this group may
lead an extraordinary, pleasant and comfortable life, and so that their plans may be fulfilled.
Russia, which was ruled with socialism, was the world’s greatest country of capitalism. All the riches and the revenues of Russia were in the hands of five million communists registered in the one and only party, the Communist Party. While the remaining two hundred million or more people were leading a life less developed than the life standards of the most stranded countries of the world, the members of the Cummunist Party were living in more comfort and pleasure and dissipation than American billionaires. The state of Russia was founded in 362 [972 A.D.].
There are two kinds of socialism: The first one is democratic socialism. In this kind they can obtain power over the government through free elections. And they may lose power after a new election.
The second kind of socialism is revolutionary socialism. Revolutionary socialism is also called communism.
In the year 1848, Karl Marx and his colleaque Engels[1] wrote the Communist Manifesto. This manifesto invited all the workers of the world to unite, and asked the united workers to put an end to the capitalistic system of economy with a revolution. Marx and
---------------------------------
[1] Friedrich Engels (1820-95).
his colleagues, in order to realize this purpose, established the First Workers’ International in 1863. This organization, after many civil struggles, perished in
Karl Marx’s ideas formed the main principles of socialistic movements. They are: to get rid of the existing regime by using force or revolution and to establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat” in its place. The social revolution that would do away with the capitalistic economic order, contrary to what Marx had hoped for, took place not in the much more industrialized countries of Europe, but in Russia, whose ecomony was based principally on agriculture. The Soviet Socialistic Democratic Party, which was established in Russia in 1898, broke into two groups in 1903: the Bolshevik, which means majority, and the Menshevik, which means minority. The revolution of February 1917, which burst out against the czarist regime, was provoked by the socialist liberal and democratic parties jointly.
But later, in October of the same year, the Bolsheviks led by Lenin raised an armed riot and seized power by themselves. Lenin and his friends, stating that the society could not be converted to a communistic regime abruptly, proclaimed that they had established a regime that was collectivist economically and based upon the “Soviet dictatorship” politically. They began to establish their regime by violent terrorism. Fifteen million people were killed as a result of this terrorism. One million, seven hundred and sixty thousand of them were those who were executed between 1917 and 1923. These cruelties and executions became even more violent after Stalin became the leader of Soviet Russia in 1924. The Third International was established, its center was in Moscow. They tried to have all the proletariat of the world make
a revolution jointly, being dependent upon Marxist doctrine. In the Second World War, Russia had to ask for help from the Western democratic states, a compulsion which forced Stalin to abolish the Third International in
infidelity against the Marxists-Leninist doctrine. After Krushchev’s removal from power in 1964, new Soviet leaders such as Kosigin and Brejnev tried to stop the breaking up of communists. But their efforts proved fruitless. Communism collapsed in Russia.
Revolutionary socialism tried to seize power by inciting riots and chaos, by causing general strikes, by guerilla wars, by the invasion of foreign communist forces, or by coups d’état, and after seizing power it established a totalitarian regime. By eliminating other social, economic, and doctrinal groups and by demolishing parliamentary regimes, it established the dictatorship of a single party. Socialist currents began with the improvement of industrialization. In economically stranded countries, such as Russia and China, it acquired a revolutionary and totalitarian character, thus seizing power in the shape of communism. Likewise, before the Second World War, the socialist current acquired a totalitarian character, such as fascism and national socialism in Italy and Germany and in
some South American countries, which were deprived of firm democratic institutions. In fascism and national socialism, the right of private property is recognized concerning the means of production. Karl Marx, who put forward the basic ideas of revolutionary socialism, did not explain how the nature of the socialistic nation to be established would be.
The revolutionary socialists, that is, communists, did not let this socialization remain in the economic field, but they spread it to the political and cultural fields, and they also annihilated the freedom of religion, morals, conscience and family. They deprived man of the right of thought and belief. Communists were hostile against all religions, for no religion approved of their cruelties, torments, murders, lies and slanders. Since all religions, other than Islam, are corrupt and possess dangerous and erroneous aspects, it was easy to deceive those people belonging to such religions through lies, propaganda and promises, and their religions were annihilated gradually. But because Islam bears in itself every kind of perfection, maturity, superiority and happiness, no lie, no propaganda
can manage to alienate those Muslims who have learned their faith well from this heavenly dîn. A Muslim, that is, a person who knows Islam and adapts himself to Islam, cannot become a communist. Communists cannot deceive a Muslim. There is no communism in Islam. Lenin, chief of the communist party, said, “Any nation may become
communist, but a Muslim cannot be made a communist, for a Muslim trusts himself to Allah. He who trusts himself to Allah and depends on Allah cannot be made a communist.” In order to make Muslims communists, first they had to try to take away their faith, îmân, and they had to make Muslim children faithless, irreligious. They had to subject Muslims to unprecedented torments and tortures. They had to martyr men of religion and prohibit knowledge of the dîn through torture and death sentences. By annihilating books of the dîn, they had to try to extinguish Islam and bring up Muslim children ignorant of Islamic knowledge.
In communist countries, by establishing councils of atheists, they tried to slander Islam through lies and abominable slanders, and in this way they used all their means of propaganda. On the other hand, they did not recognize the right of freedom of speech for Muslims, and they prohibited them from answering, from communicating with documents Islam’s sublimity and the fact that it has shed light on the way to civilization thru the course of history. Such behavior of theirs is the most valuable document proving that they were wrong in the light of wisdom, knowledge and justice. In a magazine issued in Moscow, it was written, “It is a political trick to make ignorant people worship gods and to reduce the number of gods to three, then to one. God is not the creator but an idea created
by men for political reasons. The next world, heaven and hell are inventions of the bishops of the pharaohs of Egypt. Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ did not come forward a prophet. He developed this idea after years of struggles. The Qur’ân is a book narrating his religious ideas.” These lies and slanders of communists were against religious and historical knowledge. Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’, who was the first prophet, brought to earth a religion with One Allah. It is written in Ayyub Sabri Pâsha’s book Mir’ât-ul-Haramayn in detail that the multi-god idea and the worshipping of idols were seen on earth after Idris ‘alaihis-salâm’. Belief in the next-world, heaven and hell was existent during the time of Âdam and Nűh and other prophets ‘alaihimussalâm’, centuries before the Egyptians. Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ first announced that he is a prophet and then he invited people to believe in one Allah. Someone who has a sound mind and knowledge will only sneer at the ignorant and idiotic attacks of the enemies of Islam.
A Muslim sacrifices his life, but never his religion or his belief. This was better understood by the Russians in
Afghanistan example. Thousands of soldiers of the red-army, missiles and jets attacked and killed villagers, including women. They took Muslim children to Moscow to make them non-religious. They burned mosques, houses, and foodstuffs. From 1979 to 1989, they shed the blood of more than one million Muslims. But Muslim Mujâhidîs, though they gave thousands of martyrs, never yielded to the unbelievers. Russians, in order to hide this atrocity of theirs from Islamic people, distributed free-of-charge books in Islamic countries in order to make the impression that there is freedom of religion in Russia, that it is free to learn Islamic knowledge and to worship accordingly. Muslims living in Russia were unaware of such publications because they were only sent to other countries. Their distribution
in Russia was prohibited. It was treated as an act of treason against communism. Out of these books, in 1986, we obtained some while they were being distributed to the Algerian people. They are Arabic books offset by the state on extradelux paper and well bound. The date is given as 1400 hijrî, and the name of Tashkand is apparent. Inside the books there are pictures of several communists dressed as if they were Muslims, and beneath the pictures were written Islamic names, e.g. the muftî so and so, imâm or head of religious affairs, etc. It was a communist ploy completely contrary to the atrocities perpetrated in Afganistan against Muslims. They were prepared so cleverly that someone who did not know the Islamic religion well enough, and the real face of communism, could be easily deceived by these tricks and lies.
Thus, by considering a ferocious enemy of Islam as a friend, they could fall into eternal perdition. What kind of humanity was this? What kind of civilization was this? This savagery of the communists surpasse overshadowed the brutalities of Neron and those of the Inquisition.
Communism is not a branch of knowledge, nor is it a dogma. It is a dictatorial and cruel form of government. There is only a single party, the communist Party. All the people have to submit to this party’s program, to think as it thinks, to speak as it wants them to, and above all, to be irreligious. Those who will not conform are condemned to death and hurled into a fire or killed by another way of torment. There, no one is certain about his life. Anybody may be killed any time, or he may be put into a dungeon. A cunning committee of the party governs the people with dictatorship and cruelty. All the administrators and commanders are henchmen, and lick-spittle for this committee.
They are all afraid of one another and each lives in horror with apprehension of the day of his being the victim of a slander.
They are imperialists. They have been longing intensely to spread over the entire world. They have agents and spies in every country. They propagate communism on the one hand, and, on the other hand, they hunt the ignorant and the unemployed by giving them plenty of money and by exposing them to the ways of pleasure and dissipation; vagabonds without any family education, those with no religious knowledge easily get caught by their traps. They establish a group anarchists and highwaymen. By establishing political parties under attractive names, such as the laborers’ party or the workers’ party, they try to appear and to become authorities in a national assembly, in order to obtain the government. Publishing newspapers and magazines to incite workers and villagers, they slander and make
fun of Islam, men of religion, merchants, and those who open business institutions by sweating. They strive to derange a State’s order, to overthrow liberal governments, and, in short, to make everyone hostile towards one another, to foment rebellions and civil wars. They have recorded the names of the men of religion, of nationalistic, anti-communistic and educated people whom they are going to kill first. Communist spies and native servants that they trained cannot establish a cooperation with the army or with men of the dîn, for officers are well-educated, honest, mature, and patriotic people. They do not become intermediaries for communists’ base desires. For this reason, they try to trickle into the army as soldiers and supplementary officers. They try to mispresent communism as a paradisaical life supplying every
kind of freedom. Lenin, who practised first the Karl Marx doctrine, said, “Always lie! If one-thousandth is believed, we will gain a great advantage. Throw mud at the white wall! Never mind if it does not stick but falls down. At least, it will leave a stain behind.” For this reason, they always lied. They said “the paradise of communism” about Russia, where, in fact, all the land belonged to the State. The same was being done in communist satellites and colonies, where they encountered the people’s reaction. In the first communist revolution in 1917, and in others, they had promised to give land to the villagers. The revolution having been accomplished, agriculture was collectivized. Lenin’s promise to Russian peasants (Moujiks or Muzhiks) that he would divide large land areas belonging to the czarist government and
distribute them among them, was transformed into “Deliver all
your crops and cereals!” after the revolution. All the villagers, men and women were forced to enter the collective farms and the State farms. Like men, the women were cruelly made to work in the heaviest jobs under the oppression of male bosses. Meanwhile the members of the party settled in the villas and apartment houses that had been built without any labour, service or right on their own part, and there they led a pleasant life. They sat on the possessions and property whose owners they had killed. Seeing this, hungry and needy people revolted. Thousands of poor people were executed by shooting, yet their resistance could not be prevented. In 1921, they had to give each farmer a small piece of land. But in 1932, Stalin took these back by oppression. Ninety percent of the land areas
in Russia was collective farms and State farms. The former owners of these land areas worked there in the service of the State in return for food. The peasant, who had been coaxed to rebellion with bright promises was a mere means of production like the horse of an irrigation water-wheel. Being in this position, the people, who were made to work by force, did not handle the state property with care. A report given to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in East Germany in December 1959, stated that in the collective farms incendiaries and sabotages were on the increase. In the months of July, August and September of the year 1959, more than nine hundred sabotages were recorded in the farms, and the destructions of real estate cost four million dollars. Under this oppressive employment, production fell and projects
could not be fully accomplished. As Malenkov explained in the Soviet Supreme Council on August 8, 1953, of the nine hundred and ninety-seven billion rubles reserved for investments between the years 1929-1952, only nine percent was used for agriculture, sixty-four percent of it was invested for heavy industry. Under these conditions, famine commenced in Russia in 1382 (1963) and Russia had to buy wheat from Europe and America. This crisis was mostly caused by the prohibition of private enterprise in agriculture and by the confiscation of the people’s earnings by force. And in animal-breeding, not even the numbers of animals during the czarist era were reached. Diminution of agricultural power drifted the communist dictatorship, which was based upon cold war and falsely-adorned propaganda, to dearth and misery. It resulted
in the destruction of the regime. Consequently, the most bloody, the most cruel, the most irreligious dictatorial regime that history has recorded, and which was based on savagery and lies,
According to an article in the Pravda newspaper, which appears daily in Moscow and is published with the signature of Bagirov, in Azerbaijan alone, fifty-six rebellions burst out against the communist administration. With such behavior, the people revealed the deep grudge and hatred they bore against the communist regime. The wars of independence fought by all the slave nations were moaning under communist imperialism were suppressed by blood and fire of the Russian army. However, “What is essential in temporary properties is nonexistence”; Likewise, the pomp of these usurpers, cruel traitors came to an end. Eventually, they, too, collapsed and perished, for our dîn declares: “Cruelty will not subsist.”
2- The second economical system canceling social justice and usurping human rights is “capitalism.” Here, there is private enterprise, yet this is only for a limited number of capital owners. These capitalists have obtained the sources of production and have been employing the people as they like and exploiting their earnings. The representatives of trade unions that are supposed to protect the laborers are another band of exploiters. The difference between the life standards of the capital-owning fortunate minority and the poor laborers is a horrible abyss. There is social justice in name only. But the differences between social ranks have grown. The poor worker has been oppressed under the command and pleasure of the capitalists, and he has been bowing apologetically before his arrogant master in order to get a small part of the reward of his own labour. Since most of the capital owners
are Jews, enmity against Islam prevails in capitalist countries, and zionist and missionary organizations there spend billions to demolish Islam.
Islam has prevented the reign of capital and in order to remove the abyss between the employee and the employer, it has provided the employee with a right to share in the capital and in the profit. Everbody can invest his money in a business. They can earn a great profit. Thus the money is not put into a bank. Banks cannot exploit the people by taking interest. Moreover, the rich have been ordered by Islam to give zakât to the poor. This is the only form for the basis of social justice. Zakât means to give one-fortieth of one’s property to those who have the prescribed qualities. In Islam, those who are healthy enough to work are prohibited from begging. Zakât is given to those who are too ill or too disabled to work and to those who can work but earn their
living with difficulty. Allâhu ta’âlâ created one such poor person in every forty people. A rich Muslim who gives them zakât both gains Allah’s love by doing his duty in Islam and performs his social responsibility. He also protects his property and wealth against the rights and the attacks of the poor. If we calculate the national wealth and give one-fortieth of it to the needy, the danger of communism will not arise in any country. Nor will there be any reason why it should arise. Zakât, ’ushr (a kind of zakât), and alms are a kind of a social provision, and they are the divine precautions commanded in order to prevent economical disasters. The more they are obeyed the better the calamity of communism will be prevented.
Furthermore, Islam has imposed commercial ethics, and thus eliminated the struggle between classes. Before the Sharî’at, both the president and a shepherd have the same rights and they bear equal responsibilities. There is no injustice, but there is brotherhood. It has established a huge institution of wealth, the Bayt-ul-mâl, whose funds are accumulated through zakât, thus blocking the way to poverty and famine. Hence, instead of the employer and the worker, a partnership, a joint ownership has arisen. Everybody works willingly, every laborer gets a recompense for his labour. A hadîth-i-sherîf orders: “Give the worker what he deserves before the sweat of his brow dries up.” The State cannot get anything from the people by force. The Bayt-ul-mâl, which belongs in the possession of the people, can be used by no one but those who have the right. There is only one single alternative that, always and everywhere, will establish social justice, and this is the just and liberal economy shown by Islam. The Islamic religion realizes full social justice. It subverts the possibility for socialism, communism, and capitalism to find power. It completely eliminates the exploitation of human rights.
The spreading of the dîn, traditions and Islamic morals is the most effective weapon to be used in fighting against communism, and that is why these things communists fear the most and why they call Islam their arch enemy. According to the communists, those who have a respect for their country, their nation, their state and morals, those who know their dîn and value their dîn are “intoxicated people.” It is possible only with the help and assistance of a strong state for religion and Islamic morals to be correctly learned, and for the people to be free from being deceived by lies and traps due to ignorance of the religion and science. The hadîth-i sherîf, “Religion is in the shadow of
swords,” clearly indicates this meaning. Therefore, we have to work with all our might for the existence and strength of our state. Let it be well known that if we have a strong government, then we will be free from being afraid of communist assaults; on the other hand, if the government is weak, then we will be driven into a communist revolution, brothers will attack one another, and we will lose our wives, daughters, homes, and properties. Therefore, we should not be put to sleep by the narcotics of laziness and unawareness, and we should always try to help our state and government.
It was an Iranian named Mazdek who invented communism. He claimed to be a prophet. He was a magian. He said that everybody’s property and wife were for the common advantage. Though Qubâd, the Iranian Shah, believed him, his son, Nűshirvân, killed him together with his eighty thousand men. These facts are written in the dictionary Burkhân-i qâti’. Ahmed Cevded Pasha ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’, in a book of his which consists of fifteen pages, writes that communism will spread over Europe and Asia, but that the Muslims will escape this nuisance.