"
"The first to enter Paradise is the honourable merchant." Here the
solution given to the problem differs in either case, but in Christian
practice, opposition was also obvious. Common to both religions is the
condemnation of the exaction of interest and monetary speculation,
which the middle ages regarded as usury. Islam, as usual, gives this
Christian idea the form of a saying enounced by Muhammed: "He who
speculates in grain for forty days, grinds and bakes it and gives it
to the poor, makes an offering unacceptable to God." "He who raises
prices to Muslims (by speculation) will be cast head downwards by God
into the hottest fire of hell." Many similar traditions fulminate
against usury in the widest sense of the word. These prohibitions were
circumvented in practice by deed of gift and exchange, but none the
less the free development of commercial enterprise was hampered by
these fetters which modern civilisation first broke. Enterprise was
thus confined to agriculture under these circumstances both for
Christianity and Islam, and economic life in either case became
"mediaeval" in outward appearance.
Methods of making profit without a proportional expenditure of labour
were the particular objects of this aversion. Manual labour was highly
esteemed both in the East and West. A man's first duty was to support
himself by the work of his own hands, a duty proclaimed, as we know,
from the apostolic age onwards. So far as Islam is concerned, this
view may be illustrated by the following utterances: "The best of
deeds is the gain of that which is lawful": "the best gain is made by
sale within lawful limits and by manual labour.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54