Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of The Journal of Interdisciplinary

History

Poverty and Economics in the Qur'an

Author(s): Michael Bonner
Source: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 35, No. 3, Poverty and Charity:
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Winter, 2005), pp. 391-406
Published by: The MIT Press
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Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xxxv:3 (Winter, 2oo5), 39I-4o6.

Michael Bonner

Poverty and Economics in the Qur'an The Qur'an

provides a blueprint for a new order in society, in which the poor
will be treated more fairly than before. The questions that usually
arise regarding this new order of society concern its historical con-
text. Who were the poor mentioned in the Book, and who were
their benefactors? What became of them? However, the answers
to these apparently simple questions have proved elusive. Few
written records survive from seventh-century Arabia, the Qur'an
being the greatest exception. Our main sources for the life of Mu-
hammad and the original Muslim community are narrative texts
that date no earlier than the eighth century, and are open to chal-
lenge in matters of detail, not least of all when they deal with pov-
erty and the poor. These sources often say more about the piety
and the polemics of, say, ninth-century Baghdad, than about sev-
enth-century Mecca and Medina. This overlapping is important
and interesting in itself, but scholars have only begun to sort it out.
Although no agreement on a framework for understanding
the historical context of poverty in early Islam is yet in place, pro-
viding a sketch of one is worthwhile, even if it never becomes
widely accepted. Since Islam in the seventh century took over
much of the physical space previously occupied by the Roman
Empire, it must have become heir to at least some of the late an-
tique notions and practices regarding poverty and the poor dis-
cussed by Patlagean, Brown, and others. In other words, the
treatment of the poor in early Islam is best understood in relation
to what came before it, both in Arabia and in the urban Near East,
as well as in relation to what occurred around it, in several of the
environments and religious traditions discussed elsewhere in this

Michael Bonner is Associate Professor of Medieval Islamic History, University of Michigan.

He is the author of Aristocratic Violence and Holy War: Studies on the ihad and the Arab-Byzantine
Frontier (New Haven, 1996); co-editor, with Amy Singer and Mine Ener, of Poverty and Char-
ity in Middle Eastern Contexts (Albany, 2003).
The author thanks Mark Cohen and the participants in the colloquium, "Poverty and
Charity: Judaism, Christianity, Islam," Princeton University, May 2002. He also thanks Eris
for his help in assembling materials.

? 2004 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary

History, Inc.

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392 MICHAEL BONNER

issue. Poverty was clearly of considerable, even ce

tance for early Islam itself.
But what about the Qur'an? What did so many
convincing about it, specifically in relation to pov
poor? Not only did the Qur'an provide guidance fo
the poor; it also dominated much of the though
concerned with economic activity. Indeed, poverty
activity were closely tied in early Islam. A kind o
poverty" prevailed in Islamic theory and practice,
discovery in the early tenth century of Aristotelia
"economics," at least until the Syrian Ibn Taymiyy
Andalusian-North African Ibn Khaldun (d. 14o6), a
tian al-Maqrizi (d. 1442) charted new, broader map
nomic sphere.1
A distinct and recognizable "Qur'anic econom
the basis for this "economy of poverty." At its hea
of property circulated and purified, in part, through
did donors imitate God, who made a gift of his sur
sustenance (rizq), without ever expecting it to be r
nors were to provide for the needy freely and unst
Qur'anic notions of the "purification" and "circula
erty illustrate a distinctively Islamic way of concep
ity, generosity, and poverty markedly differe
Christian notion of perennial reciprocity between
and the ideal of charity as an expression of comm
The usual approach to poverty in the Qur'an is
outlined above. Modern scholarship mainly uses th
source of information about the earliest Muslim c
Arabia. Some maintain that the poor had a role in th
some take the poor for granted, as background fo
I See Bonner, "The Kitab al-kasb Attributed to al-Shaybani: Poverty, S
culation of Wealth," Journal of the American Oriental Society, CXXI (20
of "economy of poverty" has been articulated for medieval Western
Todeschini, "Quantum valet? Alle origini di un'economia della poverta,"
Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, XCVIII (1992), 173-234. See also idem, II
Lessici medievali del pensiero economico (Rome, 1994). Translations from the
ter are its author's, based on several English versions, as well as the Ger
Paret, Der Koran (Stuttgart, 1979). The tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) consulte
in the CD-ROM Maktabat al-tafsir wa-'ulum al-Qur'an (al-Turath, 199
2 Natalie Zemon Davis, "Conclusion," in Bonner, Mine Ener, and Am
erty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts (Albany, 2003), 316-317. For
of wealth," see Bonner, "Poverty and Charity in the Rise of Islam," i

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 393

developments. Those with a philological orientation

links with earlier religious traditions regarding care
Generally speaking, the Qur'an has been quarried
of a tribal and nomadic society moving toward urba
conditions. Within this broad context of transition,
searchers have assigned an explanatory role to the ex
or discovery of poverty and the poor.3
Behind this scholarship lies the aforementioned
narrative context. Though a historical document of
tance, the Qur'an is a prescriptive text that does
continuous narrative. Passages of the Qur'an that
community of believers and its founder Muhammad
arrangement in a narrative structure. Other narrat
must be brought to bear on the Qur'anic text, such
Arabic Islamic genres of sira, biography of the Prop
mad, and maghazi ("raids"), the life (and wars) of M
the early community. Narrative context was also
scriptural exegesis, or tafsir, culminating eventually in
of asbab al-nuzul, "circumstances of revelation," and
meaning, roughly oral and written accounts, of Mu
thoritative words and deeds, as well as those of impo
around him.4
There is a disparity, however, between the Qur'a
narratives. Whereas the poor-however defined-ar
of urgent and repeated concern in the Qur'an, in th
especially the books of sira and maghazi, they mostly
a few exceptions. This difference in outlook on the
merely an accident. As Hawting has recently argu
pre-Islamic Arabian idolatry, the concerns of the
genuinely diverge from those of the enormous body
and exegetical materials that surround it. If so, the co
of the Qur'an's historical context-at least in the case
largely beyond recovery. This concession does not m
Qur'anic teachings on poverty are without historical
3 Bonner, "Poverty and Charity," 15-18.
4 On the sira and maghazi literature, see Martin Hinds, "'Maghazi' a
Islamic Scholarship," in La vie du prophete Mahomet: colloque de Strasbourg, oc
1983), 57-66; repr. in Jere Bacharach, Lawrence I. Conrad, and Patricia Cro
in Early Islamic History (Princeton, 1996), 188-198. See also Hinds' arti
Thomas H. Weir and Aaron Zysow (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam (L
(hereinafter EI2), V, 1161-1164; Wim Raven, "Sira," E12, IX, 660-663.

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394 1 MICHAEL BONNER

the contrary, they are crucial to an understanding of early Islamic

economy in every sense. However, the way to extract them is not
through further unraveling of the story of Muhammad, Mecca,
Quraysh, and the early Muslim community but rather through in-
tensive analysis of the Qur'anic text wherever it relates to the
poor, supplemented only sparingly by the narratives.5
As a prelude to the Qur'an, a brief survey of poverty and the
poor as they appear in the sira and maghazi literature is useful.
Muhammad was an orphan who knew deprivation in childhood
and youth. Years later, when he began to receive revelations, the
community that gathered around him in Mecca included people
of varied tribal and social backgrounds, some of them in straitened
circumstances. His revelations at this time-known as the early
Meccan suras, or "chapters" of the Qur'an-emphasize generosity
and almsgiving, probably more than any other kind of activity.
The narratives of sira and maghazi supply some, though not a lot
of context for these revelations.
The poor also loom large in the narratives toward the end of
Muhammad's life. In Muhammad's final military campaigns, espe-
cially the expedition against Tabuk in 630 C.E., many members of
the community could not afford the necessary riding animals,
weapons, and supplies. Various people contributed arms, mounts
and supplies to them. The sira and maghazi narratives supply con-
text for those verses in the Qur'an, especially in the eighth and
ninth suras, that stress the themes of participation in war and help-
ing others to fight.6
The final reference to the poor in the sira and maghazi narra-
tives concerns the institutional or involuntary alms, zakat, that
became imposed on the community, soon after the Hijra, or emi-
gration of Muhammad and his fledgling community from Mecca
to Medina in 622 C.E. However, the narratives do not devote
much attention to this alms-tax until seven or eight years later
when they speak of administrators sent to various groups in Arabia
that have just entered the larger community of Islam, to levy the
zakat on them. Upon the death of Muhammad in 632, the zakat

5 Gerald R. Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History
(Cambridge, 1999).
6 The most accessible English version of these Arabic narratives is Alfred Guillaume, The
Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (Oxford, 1955). For the poor
among the earliest community and the Tabuk episode, see ibid., 143-145, 602-614.

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 395

caused (or provided a pretext for) a revolt, the war

"apostasy," throughout the Arabian peninsula, most
only recently entered into Islam. The fledgling Isla
vived the revolt, and the zakat became a basic reli
every Muslim.7
If the zakat was important enough to trigger a w
the sira and maghazi literature have so little to say
shortly before the ridda itself? Modern scholars h
look for answers in the text of the Qur'an, with o
support from Qur'anic exegesis and the hadith. M
approach has applied to the welfare and fiscal regi
from the Hijra until Muhammad's death (622-632
treatments have relied less on narrative than on sc
sira and maghazi than on Qur'an.

SADAQA/ZAKAT According to the scholarly an

census, the "raw material" of the Qur'an, the r
Muhammad, ended with his death in 632 C.E. Th
lected-through a process that has always been an o
tention-by most accounts no later than the end of
the caliph 'Uthman (656 C.E.). By this time, charit
were already becoming demarcated along a binar
tween voluntary almsgiving, called sadaqa, and inv
giving, called zakat. Sadaqa and zakat provide
framework for the theory and practice of charity,
later developments as the waqf, or pious endowme
mainly philological scholarship, investigation of th
cepts and of the differences between them has bee
approach to the study of poverty and the poor in
The division between sadaqa/voluntary bene
zakat/involuntary alms tax is far less clear in the
later Islamic law and practice. One passage (9:60, Ta
alms tax sadaqat (in the plural). Another associates z
untary giving (3:39, Al 'Imran). Other instances se
for example, 2:271, Baqara: "If you make acts of ch

7 Elias Shoufani, Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia (Tor

Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford, 1956), 250-260.
8 See Suleiman Bashear, "On the Origins and Development of the M
Early Islam," Arabica, XL (1993), 84-113; Aaron Zysow, "Sadaka," EI2,
"Zakat," EI2, XI, 407-408.

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396 MICHAEL BONNER

openly, it is well, but if you conceal them and give them

poor (wa-tu'tuha 1-fuqara'), it is better for you." The us
word or the other is not so important in itself. The point is
Qur'an emphasizes the voluntary nature of the believers
butions and the conditions under which they make them
voluntary contribution by a believer is nearly a contrad
terms: "Those who slander such of the believers as give th
freely to (deeds of) charity, together with those who find
to give save their own efforts, and who ridicule them: Go
turn their ridicule upon them, and theirs is a grievous
ment" (9:79, Tawba). If the Qur'an's view of almsgivin
governed by the opposition of voluntary and involuntar
and zakat, in the theory and practice of mature Islam, th
property itself, especially the notions of "purification"
turn," may be more fundamental.

PURIFICATION In what are conventionally called the Me

early suras, feeding the poor is an identifying trait of th
panions of the Right Hand" (90:I3-20, Balad). Those w
the Day ofJudgment are like those who reject the orpha
not urge feeding the poor (107:3, Ma'un). Damnation is i
for whoever does not believe in God "and does not urge t
ing of the poor" (69:34, Haqqa). Refusal to feed the po
hand in hand with inordinate love of wealth: "Nay, it is y
do not honor the orphans, and do not encourage the fee
the poor, and who devour inheritance avidly, and w
wealth inordinately" (89:17-20, Fajr). The righteous ar
who "give food, though it be dear to them ('ala hubbihi)
poor (miskinan), the orphan and the prisoner" (76:8, Dah
Purification is mentioned explicitly when feeding the
named as one of the ways to expiate a sin. Whoever deli
hunts game while in a state of consecration (ihram) and/o
sacred territory must atone by bringing to the Ka'ba the off
a domestic animal, feeding an unspecified number of poor
forming the equivalent in fasting (5:95, Ma'ida). The expia
breaking an oath is feeding ten poor, calculated according
the offender feeds to his own family. Alternatively, the
can clothe these poor, liberate a slave, or, if these option
9 On 'ala hubbihi, see also 2: 177, Baqara. At 76: 8, Dahr, several authoritative
cluding Tabari, agree that the term means "even when they desire it" or "despit
for the food." Several modern scholars translate it erroneously as "out of their lov

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 1 397

yond his means, fast for three days (5:89, Ma'ida). A man who has
made an oath of repudiation of his wife (zihar) and who then
wishes to retract it has the option of feeding sixty poor (58:4,
Mujadila). In all these expiations, the poor-who are clearly pres-
ent in large numbers-are identified as masakin (singular, miskin).
Another context for purification involves alms: "Take alms
(sadaqa) from their possessions so as to cleanse and purify them
with [the alms], and pray on their behalf" (9:1o3, Tawba). Classi-
cal Arabic lexicography derived zakat from the the root zky,
which has to do with purifying: Zakat is that which purifies wealth.
Modem philologists have likewise found that this word was bor-
rowed from other semitic languages in which it means "purity" or
"merit." Keeping property intact requires destroying a piece
of it.10

CIRCULATION The Qur'anic injunction to make goods circulate

is even more distinctive. One well-known passage concerns riba,
"increase," which in mature Islamic law means "usury" or some-
thing like it. In the Qur'an, riba occurs several times, hovering be-
tween the economies of commerce and gift: "The riba that you
give, so that it may increase in the wealth of the people, does not
increase with God. But the zakat that you give out of a desire for
the countenance of God: Those are the ones whose [wealth] is
doubled" (30:39, Rum). This verse contrasts some kind of bad cir-
culation (riba) with some kind of good circulation (zakat). The
medieval exegetes were largely agreed that riba in this context
means a gift from one man to another, in the hope that he will re-
ceive a greater gift in return. Some identified it, no doubt cor-
rectly, with Arabian custom before Islam. The Andalusian exegete
al-Qurtubi (d. 1272) noted the ambiguity in Rum between the
vocabularies of sale and gift (lafz al-bay' wa-lafz al-hiba)."
Another important instance of circulation occurs in 59:7,
io See Georges Bataille, La part maudite (Paris, 1967). On zakat, sadaqa, and their semitic
cognates, see Arthur Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an (Baroda, 1938), 153; Zysow,
"Sadaka" and "Zakat," EI2; Bashear, "On the Origins."
II Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (d. 715) is cited in Tabari's Bayan, no. 21317 (referring to Qur'an
30:39), as saying "This used to happen in thejahiliyya [pre-Islamic Arabia], when one of them
would give property to one of his kinsmen, to make his wealth increase in him." Other early
exegetes give different definitions of riba: Sa'id b. Jubayr (Bayan, no. 21308) calls it a gift given
to reward someone for something; Mujahid (Bayan, no. 21309) explains it as referring to gifts
in general (hadaya). Closer to the more familiar sense of "usury" is Mujahid's rendering of riba
as "when a man gives his money (mal) desiring to obtain more of it" (Bayan, no. 213 Io). Most
of the commentators, however, define riba as a gift given in the hope of a greater gift in return.

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398 MICHAEL BONNER

Hashr: "That which God has bestowed on His Messen

afa'a llahu) from the people of the towns is for God and
senger, and for him who is close [generally understood,
Messenger], for the orphans, for the poor (al-masakin) an
traveler (ibn al-sabil), lest it become something that c
among the rich among you (kay la yakuna dulatan bayna l
minkum)." This is probably the clearest statement in th
relating to the proper circulation of goods. The identifi
bad circulation as that between the rich is reinforced by n
hadiths to the same effect. Ma afa'a llahu, "that which Go
stowed," means literally "that which God has caused to r
The characteristics of good circulation, beyond some sens
turn" is not easy to determine.12
The exegetical tradition provided three explanations
verse. First, the verse might be referring to the Prophet alo
interpretation is based on a narrative: Muhammad came in
session of goods that had formerly belonged to the Jewish
Qurayza and Qaynuqa', and the verse instructed him abo
to dispose of those goods. The second interpretation holds
bly, that the passage dictates how the spoils of war are
vided among the named categories (God, Messenger, r
orphans, poor people, and travelers). The third interpret
that the verse refers to the revenue accruing to the Islam
from taxes paid by non-Muslim protected peoples (ahl al-
living under the rule of Islam. It reflects the evolution o
thought regarding the land regime and, in particular, th
principle based on this passage of the Qur'an that becam
asfay'. Note in any case that no one maintains that this v
about alms.13

RECIPIENTS In numerous parts of the Qur'an, the poor a

among other categories, on "lists" as the recipients of distrib
One such well-known list is 8:41, Anfal: "And know that
ing whatever you take as spoils, a fifth of it is for God, for
12 For hadith on the "return of wealth," see Bonner, "Definitions of Poverty an
of the Muslim Urban Poor," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, VI (1996), 339-
"Poverty and Charity," 13-15. Ma afa'a and fay' are identified as "return" thr
exegetical and legal literature. Tabari defines it in this passage as "that which God
to his Messenger."
13 See Frede Lokkegaard, "Fay'," El2, II, 869-870; Werner Schmucker, Untersu
einigen wichtigen bodenrechtlichen Konsequenzen der islamischen Eroberungsbewegung (Bo

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 399

senger, for him who is close [to the Messenger], fo

for the poor (al-masakin) and for the traveler (ibn
recipients are the same as those in 59:7, Hashr, ab
this verse is clearly about the division of spoils, co
the second exegetical interpretation. Some of the
argued for this interpretation maintained that the p
abrogated the one in Hashr-in other words, that t
sage superseded the Hashr one because it was revea
mad at a later time. The new and definitive ruling
who had participated in the fight were entitled to
the spoils, whereas those in the named categories h
remaining one-fifth among themselves.
Another well-known list, in 9:60, Tawba, identif
ients of alms: "Alms (al-sadaqat) are for the destitu
(lil-fuqara' wal-masakin), for those who have respon
ministering them (al-'amilin 'alayha), for those whos
be] reconciled (al-mu'allafa qulubuhum), for slaves, f
for [fighting for] the sake of God, and for the travel
an injunction from God, and God is knowing and
leaves out God and the Messenger. It has two categ
mon with the previous two lists (the poor and tra
more complex. The exegetes and jurists exerted co
fort on the difference between "destitute" and "po
masakin. One popular view is that fuqara' means th
those who ask for nothing, whereas masakin refers
beg. Another view is that the fuqara' signifies
chronically ill or weak, whereas masakin denote
body. It is also a possibility that the two words refe
as a hendiadys. This list also names an administrato
clear evidence for an organized system, on the ord
"Those whose hearts are to be reconciled" is a fam
from the narratives. Even with the narratives brack
the category makes sense in a general way. The ex
ture identified slaves as mukatab when buying thei
Debtors may seem a fairly transparent category. "
God" is generally understood to mean for those fi
war.14

14 The phrase, "those whose hearts are reconciled [won over]," al-mu'allafa qulubuhum, is
applied in the narratives (not directly in the Qur'an itself) to former opponents of Muham-
mad who were won over to the cause of Islam by presents made out of the spoils from the

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400 MICHAEL BONNER

The poor also appear in the context of divid

tance: "But if, at the time of division [of the inhe
folk (ulu l-qurba), the orphans and the poor (al-masa
then make them a present (or feed them, fa-rzuquhu
property] and speak kindly to them" (4:86, Nisa'
ing the appearance of "relatives" rather than "rela
senger," the three categories of recipients are th
first two lists.
The poor also appear in calls for generosity, pi
virtues in four passages: (I) "Worship God and as
with Him. And [show] kindness to your parents (
ihsanan) and to your kinsman (wa-bi-dhil-qurba), t
the poor (al-masakin), to the sojourner who is re
the sojourner who is not (wal-jari dhi 1-qurba wal
the companion by your side (wal-sahibi bil-janbi),
and to that which your right hand possesses [un
preted as your slaves]; God does not love the arr
ful" (4:36, Nisa'). (2) "Piety (al-birr) does not co
your faces toward East and West. It consists rather i
lieving in God, the Last Day, the Angels, the
Prophets; and in his giving his property/money
for it, to his relatives (dhawi 1-qurba), the orpha
traveler, the beggars (al-sa'ilin), and to the slaves,
forming the prayer and in giving zakat" (2:1
"When they ask you what they should expend, sa
expend in charity (ma anfaqtum min khayr) should b
ents, your kinfolk (al-aqrabin), the orphans, the
and the traveler. God is all-knowing regarding w
charity" (2:215, Baqara). (4) "Let not those of you
plus and ease (ulu 1-fadli minkum wal-sa'a) make an o
to their kinfolk (uli 1-qurba), to the poor (al-masa
who have emigrated for the sake of God. Let
and forgive (wal-yajfu wal-yasfahu). Do you not
pardon you? God is forgiving and merciful" (24:
These lists, of which more could be cited, nam

battle of Hunayn: See Guillaume, Life of Muhammad, 594-595; Watt,

73-75, 348-353; idem, "al-Mu'allafa Kulubuhum," EI2, VII, 254. On
Robert Brunschvig, "Abd," E12, I, 30. On debtors, see Irene Schneid
Schuldknechtschaft. Untersuchungen zurfruhen Phase des islamischen Rech

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 401

several kinds of distribution and benefaction, not on

(sadaqa and zakat). Some of the recipients appear onl
others--such as orphans, parents, and beggars--re
stantly. Most common is the triad of kinsfolk, poor, a
which deserves a closer look.
The clear consensus among the exegetes is that dhu 1-qurba
means "kinsman" or "relative." In those few passages that name
the Messenger (the Prophet) as a recipient, the dhu 1-qurba comes
right after him. All of the interpreters agree that the kinsman
means specifically "the kinsman of the Prophet," exerting much
effort to determine precisely which kinsman was intended. Note,
however, that only the tafsir, the exegesis, makes this identifica-
tion. The exegetical literature defines ibn al-sabil, literally "son of
the road," as someone encountered by chance who is in need.
Some exegetes define him as the guest, entitled to three days' hos-
pitality-after which his entertainment becomes sadaqa, voluntary
alms. One way or another, he is someone unknown, as opposed to
the kinsman. Both kinsman and wayfarer are classes of the poor.
Who, then, is the miskin? Perhaps his place in the middle of the
triad defines him; it is not clear whether he is known.
The ambiguity attached to the miskin applies much less to the
other common term for "poor" in the Qur'an, faqir and its plural
fuqara'. Sometimes this term appears simply in contrast to the no-
tion of "rich," "not wanting." For the most part, however, the
fuqara' in the Qur'an are well imbedded in context. One of these
contexts is the human condition in general. At 35: 15, Fatir, God
addresses humanity, "Oh people! You are the ones in need of
God; but God is the one who is free of want, worthy of praise."
The gist of 47: 38, Muhammad, seems similar, "and God is the one
free of want, while you are the needy." However, in this passage
God is berating stingy members who fail to spend their substance
in the path of God.
A further narrowing of context is located in a passage already
mentioned, 59: 8, Hashr, in which those who receive "that which
God has bestowed on his Messenger" are further defined as "the
emigrant poor (al-fuqara' al-muhajirun) who were expelled from
their homes and their property, desiring bounty (fadlan) and favor
(ridan) from their Lord." Even without the well-known narrative
context supplied by the books of sira and maghazi, this passage
of Qur'an reveals that this group is central to the community, if

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402 MICHAEL BONNER

not identical to it. At 2: 271, 273, Baqara, the fuqa

ous, "shamefaced" poor who deserve charitable ex
tunfiquna min khayr) for their very modesty. W
make their sacrifice, they are enjoined to "eat of
poor distressed" (22:28, Haij).
Decobert described the fuqara' of the Qur'an a
poor and the masakin as the "outer" poor. The dif
them may be better described as the poor who
who in some way belong (fuqara') and the unsett
poor whom we may or may not know (masakin).
surrounding the masakin has a profound effect on w
terms "Qur'anic economics."15

SURPLUS AND RECIPROCITY Bravmann noted

Islamic Arabic poetry, as well as in the prose narrati
context on it (much in the way that maghazi and
supplement the Qur'an), that those who have a su
fadl) ought to give all or part of it away. Bravman
a similar admonition. In certain parts of the Qur'
translated as "divine grace," retains a more concre
plus wealth" (for example, 24: 22, Nur; 62: 9-1
59: 8, Hujurat). As 9: 28, Tawba, says, "God
wealthy/will give you surplus out of his fadl."'16
Where fadl occurs in the Qur'an with this am
ing divine surplus, divine grace, or both, an exhor
lievers to reciprocate through their own generosity,
receive more of God's bounty, usually also occ
God abundantly, so you may prosper" (62: Io,
God distributes his surplus as a gift that cannot
(sometimes in the Qur'an called rizq, sustenance),
believer bestow his gifts. The one passage in the Q
to an individual as poor concerns God speaking t
"Did he not find you in need, and give you wealt
dependent?... Therefore, do not treat the orphan

15 Christian Decobert, Le mendiant et le combattant. L'institution de

the unknown miskin, see also the Qur'anic parable of the garden (68:
owners mutter, "let no miskin enter it [the garden] today" (referring
to glean the harvest).
16 M. Bravmann, "The Surplus of Property: An Early Arab Social C
tual Background of Early Islam (Leiden, 1972), 229-253.

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 403

rebuff the beggar, and proclaim the bounty of you

I I, Duha). Nowhere does the Qur'an appear to ma
for a "core" of wealth preserved from charity. The h
gal literature introduced the ideas of "threshold of
"poverty line," while keeping the Qur'anic injunction
in mind.17

RIGHT/CLAIM/DUTY Another important element

economics regards the haqq (plural, huquq)-"claim
"duty," or all three senses. Persons in the Qur'an ha
does God. Oddly, so far as donations and contributio
cerned, the haqq sometimes inheres in the object itse
the community of the saved consist of "those upon w
there is a recognized right for the beggar and the d
24-25, Ma'arij; 51: 19, Waqi'a).
Pre-Islamic Arabia had a similar notion. The Arab
that property (mal) included a surplus that must be g
that this surplus wealth carried a haqq within itself.
gave a part of his surplus to someone else, the recipi
continued a relationship with him, as a protected alie
(mawla), or ally (half)--in each case, an unequal relat
movement of huquq formed a kind of great cycle, b
unhappy one-not only for the humiliated recipients
the donors who lamented the returning cycles of cl
ties, in other words, the constant, crushing burden of g
The Qur'an's idea of return, perhaps even a circle
and more bearable. The Qur'anic idea of economic cir
a return of goods and obligations may well be easier
who takes part in it because it leaves room for an an
cipient, the miskin. Whether donors and recipien
other or not, goods move, and society does what i
to do.
Whatever its relation may be to pre-Islamic Arabian concep-
tions of claim and right, the Qur'an includes a distinctive set of
economic prescriptions and norms. The haqq inhering in the ob-
ject is at once an element of purification and an incentive for the

17 Bonner, "Definitions of Poverty," 341-343.

18 Bravmann, "Surplus of Property"; M. J. Kister, "'God Will Never Disgrace Thee' (the
Interpretation of an Early Hadith)," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1965), 27-32; repr. in
idem, Studies inJahiliyya and Early Islam (Aldershot, 1980).

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404 MICHAEL BONNER

circulation of goods in society. All these elements

in the verse, "Give to your kinsman his due, and to
the wayfarer" (30: 38, Rum). This injunction is prec
tion of God's fadl, his unreciprocated generosity.
names the basic triad of recipients: the kinsman, t
the passing stranger, and, between them, the und
miskin, whose presence looms large.
The Qur'an's distinctive set of economic and so
ments, in which poverty and the poor have import
signs of newness, not so much in its vocabulary as in
tions. One of them involves du 'afa, the weak (singu
appear in several passages of the Qur'an, as when th
from military duty, together with the sick and o
(9: 61, Tawba). Certain passages set them against th
arrogant rather than against the rich. For insta
Ibrahim, the weak say to the arrogant on Judgm
were only following you, can't you get us out of th
gant respond, "If we had only received guidance f
would have guided you; but now we are all in this
and there is nothing we can do." A similar exchang
40: 47-50, Mu'min, with everyone in hellfire al
conversations, all parties clearly know each other
The point is not that divine guidance is necessar
worthy poor person, a faqir, but rather that guida
community that regulates its flow of money and good
direction (from top down), that practices generosit
tion for God's bounty, that observes the haqq inher
things of this world, that purifies and maintains its w
ing up a portion of it in alms, and that takes ample
kinsman as well as the disturbing, unknown, poor
This study has deliberately avoided the well-kno
of Muhammad, his tribe the Quraysh, the commun
that gathered around him, his native Mecca, and h
dina. In a broad sense, the narrative underlying th
of a tribal society becoming urbanized. On the oth
opposite narrative might also work, that of an ur
coming partially tribalized-something along the
happened afterward in the great cities of the Islami
ther way, the kinsman and the stranger pose diffic
gers that nothing can alleviate so well as the Qur'a

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POVERTY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUR'AN 1 405

generosity and exchange, purity and circulation, all constructed

around care for the poor.
When the Muslims, still Arabs in their great majority, first es-
tablished themselves in their newly conquered lands-beginning
with Arabia and then across much of the Middle East, Central
Asia, and North Africa-they imposed a fiscal and military system
that was based on the gift, at least in its vocabulary. The basic fiscal
principle is fay', literally "return" (taken from Qur'an 59: 7). The
Muslim fighter receives a stipend that is called 'ata', literally "gift."
Furthermore, the fighter is not, in principle, recompensed for his
service; to be a fighter, a beneficiary of 'ata', means to belong.
This system is based on the principles of gratuity and solidarity,
both in the conduct of war and in exchanges overall. These princi-
ples remained present in the behavior and minds of Muslims long
after the the old fiscal and military system based on fay' and ata'
had fallen into disuse.19
Many scholars have characterized both Qur'an and Islam as
highly favorable to commerce and to the highly mobile type of so-
ciety that emerged in the medieval Near East. Torrey long ago
noted the commercial-theological vocabulary of the Qur'an.
However, this commercial emphasis and style in the Qur'an do
not at all contradict the "economy of poverty," both within the
Book and beyond it. To take one example, Muslim tradition (both
hadith and historiography) maintains that Muhammad did not
permit the construction of any buildings in the market of Medina
other than mere tents; nor did he permit any tax (kharaj) or rent
(kira') to be taken there.20
This tradition does not seem to have any Qur'anic back-

19 This point does not necessarily imply that the figure of the fighter is the same as that of
the poor man, as Dhcobert said in Le mendiant. See the polemics on this point in Abdallah
Cheikh-Moussa and Didier Gazaguadou, "Comment on hcrit l'histoire . . . de l'Islam!"
Arabica, XL (1993), 217-220. On the fay', see Lokkegaard, "Fay' "; Schmucker, Unter-
suchungen. On different currents within early Islamic economic thought, see Bonner, "Kitab
al-Kasb" and the other references in n. I.
20 Charles C. Torrey, The Commercial-Theological Terms in the Koran (Leiden, 1892). See the
discussion by Andrew Rippin, "The Commerce of Eschatology," in Stefan Wild (ed.), The
Qur'an as Text (New York, 1996), 125-1 35. On the historical compatibility of commerce and
early Islam, see especially Maxime Rodinson, Islam et capitalisme (Paris, 1966; trans. as Islam and
Capitalism [New York, 1973]); idem, "Conditions religieuses islamiques," in Bertold Spuler
(ed.), Wirtschaftsgeshichte des vorderen Orients in islamischer Zeit (Leiden, 1977), 18-30. On the
market of Medina, see al-Samhudi, Wafa' al-wafa' bi-akhbar dar al-Mustafa (Cairo, 1953), II,
747-756.

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406 MICHAEL BONNER

ground or context. Behind it seems to be a critique of

the central power, especially during the Umayyad dy
750). The first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya (r. 661-68
houses built next to Medina's market. Toward the end of the
Umayyad dynasty, the caliph Hisham (r. 724-743) ordere
construction there of a great complex of walls, shops, wareh
and other buildings. When Hisham died, however, the resid
of the city lost no time in razing it to the ground. In the conte
these events, the virtuous and pious 'Umar II (r. 717-720) is s
have stated, "The market is [an instance of] spontaneous alm
suq sadaqa). To modern observers, his intention was to mak
market a kind of waqf or pious foundation, but such was no
case. At that time, the institution of waqf existed only in its ba
infancy, if at all. Either 'Umar, the reformer of the fiscal sy
wished to reverse his predecessors' policies regarding the mar
Medina (and likely of the other markets under his control as
or else those who favored such a policy invoked 'Umar's
and attributed this position to him. Regardless of who was
mately responsible, this expression of a "free market"-invo
the circulation of goods within a single space without payme
fees, taxes, or rent, without the construction of permanent
ings, and without any profiting on the part of the caliphal au
ity (indeed, of the Caliph himself)-was rooted in the te
sadaqa, "voluntary alms." Sadaqa could also signify something
economic surplus. According to some, whenever a person be
fited from the work of another, it was a form of sadaqa.21
This coherent and highly appealing view of the econ
universe had much to do with Islam's early and lasting succ
Since the poor were at the heart of this economic universe
teachings of the Qur'an on poverty had a considerable, e
transforming effect in Arabia, the Near East, and beyond.
21 On sadaqa and work, see Bonner, "The Kitab al-kasb," 417.

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