The Predicament Of Poverty In Nigeria: Its Causes And Remedies

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

First Sermon:

Praise be to Allah, who wrought the cosmos and apportioned sustenance among His servants with choice and abundance. Praise be to Allah, whose attribute is absolute wealth in truth, not mere claim. May Allah bless and grant peace upon the Prophet sent as a mercy to the worlds and a light. In the jewels of His words, He proclaimed: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from poverty, from want, and from humiliation, and I seek refuge in You from wronging or being wronged.” Whoever adheres to Him, this world and the hereafter shall be his reward; and whoever turns away from Him, then for him there shall be a life of hardship and a painful end. O Allah, send prayers and peace upon him, his family, his companions and those who follow them in goodness until the Day of Judgment.

Brethren, verily among the most pressing matters raised for inquiry and debate in academic assemblies and international conferences, and even within the chambers of the United Nations at the present hour, is the thorny issue of poverty’s spread, its proliferation, and its diffusion. Its weighty grasp upon human societies extends to the frail young, to the youth in their prime, to widows in sorrow, and to the aged. Poverty, a global problem of manifold dimensions, does not confine itself to developing nations alone but also threads through advanced economies, in varying degrees and for diverse reasons. Global statistics remind us that billions live on less than two dollars a day, and billions more on less than one dollar.

Brethren, the coexistence of poverty and plenty within a society is one of the decrees of Allah, the Creator of the cosmos and the disposer of affairs (and He is the Richest and Most Independent). As the saying goes, Allah hath created all things in pairs for contemplation. The Prophet taught that life offers its own tastes—its sweetness and its sourness; states endure, changes come, and with change comes variety. O people, we drink the nectar of life—whether sweet or bitter. We are like a garden in bloom, a star that rises and falls, like the wind, both turbulent and calm; we are the breath of hope and the breath of doubt, the true and the false, the just and the wary, the near and far.

O people, “And of everything We have created pairs, that you may remember.” Brethren, I affirm to you that poverty is a global phenomenon, not confined to the so-called developing nations, but extending to the most developed lands as well, albeit in different degrees and for various reasons. The world’s statistics reveal large portions of humanity subsisting on less than two dollars a day, with billions living on less than one. Poverty is a universal affliction, older than memory, and it persists as long as life endures (He who made the earth submissive for you, walk in its paths and eat of His provision; and to Him is the return).

O Allah, we seek refuge in You from poverty, from want, and from humiliation, and we seek refuge in You from oppressing or being oppressed…

Second Sermon:

Brethren, when a problem afflicts a people, one must seek its causes and pursue means of remedy. Among the noblest principles Islam has instilled is that every problem in the universe has a remedy, and every ailment has a cure, known to those who know it, and unknown to those who are ignorant of it.

Our faith rejects the determinist theory of poverty, which would have it that poverty and wealth are inevitable, foreordained, and unchangeable; that the wealth of the rich is decreed by Allah and the poverty of the poor by His will, and thus one should be content with what Allah has decreed and seek neither substitute nor remedy. Islam refutes and rejects the deterministic theory by firmly establishing its well-known principle: “That self-sufficiency is not in the hands of humans, unlike fighting poverty, which is generally in their hands.” The struggle against poverty, therefore, proceeds on two fronts: the power of modern global economic systems, which have failed to resolve it, as evidenced by the rising number of people living beneath the poverty line in advanced nations; and the power of Islamic governance, epitomised in the era of the Umayyads and, most notably, in the reign of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, where prosperity and plenty flourished so that every poor person might find his or her share, and live with dignity. Yahiya ibn Sa’id reports: “I was sent by Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz to Africa to distribute alms; I sought the needs of the poor and found none to whom to give.” What is the secret of the success of those reformers in combating poverty? It lies in three clear principles:

First: Renunciation of the fallacy of scarcity, a theory that would necessitate shrinking the numbers by despoiling the vulnerable or by war and oppression. This theory stands in direct opposition to Allah’s promise, “And there is no beast on the earth but that Allah provides for it.”

Second: A complete return to the principle of stewardship in wealth. A wealthy Muslim who believes in this will readily relinquish zakat and alms to those deserving, engage in solidarity and partnership, fair pricing when necessary in governance, and the avoidance of monopolies, among other virtues.

Third: Justice in the distribution of economic resources between nations and their peoples, and between individuals. This, too, cannot be achieved save by steadfastness in fear of Allah in every station and position.

O people, free yourselves from poverty by opposing it and striving against it. Know that poverty is not a product of this age alone, but has deep roots in history; it exists wherever human beings tread the earth and will endure so long as life itself endures (He who made the earth easy for you, walk in its paths and eat of His provision; and to Him is the return).

O Allah, we seek refuge in You from poverty, from want, and from humiliation, and we seek refuge in You from oppressing or being oppressed…