Quran Condemns All Muslim Nations as Kafir
Verse 47 of surah Yasin
In the verse 47 of surah Yasin,
Selected from one of them:
ABDULLAH YUSUF ALI
(36:47) And when they are told, “Spend ye of (the bounties) with which Allah has provided you,” the Unbelievers say to those who believe: “Shall we then feed those whom, if Allah had so willed, He would have fed, (Himself)?- Ye are in nothing but manifest error.”
These translations are not clear but the key words are "infa" and "rezeki". "infa" is not just charity but a form of taxation because it is an allocation or reservations. "rezeki" is income of entities.
The subsequent phrases clarify further that the these reservations are to feed, not just giving food.
This statement clearly condemns the Muslim nations for not providing for the poor using Social Welfare like ALL developed nations, but instead provide the forbidden subsidies to selected food items or even luxury items such as petrol.
The "rezeki" of the individuals or the nation is meant for the poor, i.e. those who cannot eat whole food, not for the rich also as what subsidies will provide. Worse, using subsidies, the really poor cannot be fed because they cannoy buy any food items, no matter how cheap they become because of subsidies.
Unreasonable Reasons
The reasons given by muslims in these nations are that we will encourage the poor to become lazy, which is just similar to accepting the fate of the poor people. They are poor, so they remain poor because it is their fate. Nations or individuals in muslim nations have implemented actions that prolong poverty.
Muslims do feed them on individual basis or during emergencies or special circumstances but this verse refers to feeding all the time. Not just for a few days or just provide rice or bread, which cannot make humans eat healthily. Human beings need balanced food to survive. They need protein and vitamins.
The Quran actually condemns these practises of people professing to be muslims as kafir, which is unbelievers.
Muslims will argue that after professing the syahadah, they are already muslims forever, but this verse clearly states that they are no longer believers.
Muslims may also argue that this verse is for unbelievers, but if a muslim thinks and acts like an unbeliever, can he still be considered a muslim? Certainly not. Not the way this verse had been written.
Malay Translation
I was confused by the English translations of the quran, but when I read the Malay translation, it became obvious that the Quran condemns so called modern muslims as kafir.
وَاِذَا قِيْلَ لَهُمْ اَنْفِقُوْا مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللّٰهُ ۙقَالَ الَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوْا لِلَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْٓا اَنُطْعِمُ مَنْ لَّوْ يَشَاۤءُ اللّٰهُ اَطْعَمَهٗٓ اِنْ اَنْتُمْ اِلَّا فِيْ ضَلٰلٍ مُّبِيْنٍ 47. Dan apabila dikatakan kepada mereka, “Infakkanlah sebagian rezeki yang diberikan Allah kepadamu,” orang-orang yang kafir itu berkata kepada orang-orang yang beriman, “Apakah pantas kami memberi makan kepada orang-orang yang jika Allah menghendaki Dia akan memberinya makan? Kamu benar-benar dalam kesesatan yang nyata.”
In the Malay translation, the original arabic words are retained and are actually part of the Malay language. As Malay is my first language, I interpret these words in the Malay versions so I was confused by the English translations because they are not consistent with the Malay version.
Encourage to work hard
The arguments that Muslims like to put forward in supporting subsidies instead of outright cash handouts like social welfare is to encourage the poor to work for a living, no matter at how low the wages are.
In fact, this is the actual result. Salaries in muslim nations dropped to such low values that the poor become poorer, while the rich become richer. Instead of condemning subsidies, they blame the wrong type of subsidies and their amounts, but whatever they tried, had failed so far.
Selective Cash Handouts
Muslim nations will also argue that they have cash handouts, like the Malaysian BRIM. The amount is so low that it cannot feed the poor throughout the year so they still need to work for low pay in order to survive. Again, the reason for not giving too much BRIM, is to stop abuses by the poor people by not working anymore. Examples of homeless and drunkards in developed nations are given as excuses to not give sufficient amount of cash handouts that these poor no longer need to work in order to survive. Without any evidence whatsoever, but with evidences proving otherwise.
By doing this, muslims condemn the poor to become poor forever. Forcing the poor to work to earn food despite their limitations is precisely to let these poor people to accept their fates to be poor, precisely what this verse condemns as kafir.
These Excuses Predicted by the Quran
The Quran predicts all these excuses, but still insists that taxation is to provide for feeding people, not just giving food. The Quran condemns all those arguing against these policies as kafir, and even proceed to the next verse with more condemnations for all these excuses.
ABDULLAH YUSUF ALI
(36:49) They will not (have to) wait for aught but a single Blast: it will seize them while they are yet disputing among themselves!
مَا يَنْظُرُوْنَ اِلَّا صَيْحَةً وَّاحِدَةً تَأْخُذُهُمْ وَهُمْ يَخِصِّمُوْنَ 49. Mereka hanya menunggu satu teriakan, yang akan membinasakan mereka ketika mereka sedang bertengkar.
Economic Practicality
Social Welfare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare
You can see from the above list that there is not even a single Muslim nation included, but all developed nations have social welfare,even among the richest Muslim nations do not offer social welfare. They prefer subsidies compared to social welfare, which are clearly forbidden by the verses in the Yasin quoted here. The revenues of the states are to feed the poor.
Subsidies
Subsidies are generally condemned by economic experts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy
Reasons for Undeveloped Muslim Nations
All Muslim nations are not developed. This is a reality. You can argue that Turkey is an exception but it is pale compared to even South Africa. Turkey tried to reach a developed status by building machines forcefully but its subsidy ravaged economy cannot support these grandiose projects for long.
The problems can only be traced by the policies of Muslims themselves. It is a pity because Muslims have been awarded with the Quran and the surah Yasin is a very compact reminder of the viable polices and yet Muslims are the ones who ignore the teachings of the Quran.
In fact, the Islamicity index put Muslim nations very low in its index.
http://islamicity-index.org/wp/latest-indices-2020/
http://islamicity-index.org/wp/latest-indices-2019/
Possible Reasons Why Muslims are Undeveloped
Muslims like to codemn their leaders as being corrupt but none seemed to mind subsidies. As to subsidies helping the poor less, almost all muslims will say that they are poor enough so deserve these subsidies. As for the really poor, they only provide resources for them to survive a day or two. The reasons could be that the poor are expected to work hard in order to earn a living but this is against the Quranic intention because Quran does not expect people to rely on their fate or taqdir. In fact the Quran clearly condemns those who rely on their fates as kafir, undelievers, the highest sin in Islam. Unfortunately the Quran does not state it directly. It only gives example of the kafirs as those who condemns the poor as being fated by Allah.
Muslims are trained to rely on prayers for every action. For example, when someone is sick, they will pray to be well. Similarly, when someone is poor, they will pray to be rich. They do not seem to realise that these actions will lead to relying on fate alone which is completely forbidden by the quran as shown in the verse 47 of the Yasin. The Quran will condemn those who believe that the poor deserve their fate as being poor because Allah has ordained them to be poor. You can extend this condemnation to those those who are sick.
This kind of interpretation of the Islamic teaching is not strange to me because this is how I practise it since I can remember. I realised that it is illogical to rely on prayers first before we try anything first. God has created human beings on earth to live and it does not sense then that god will intervene just because we request for them. I need to remind people to try to solve problems themselves instead of going to prayers at the first instance. They call it accepting taqdir, i.e. accepting fate. I never like it, but I did not know that relying on fate alone is kafir, the highest sin in Islam. I am not against prayers. Human beings are helpless in many instances despite their best efforts, so in these circumstances, we must pray so that we are not frustrated. Be careful with what we pray for, because it can become like the movie Wonder Woman, 1984.
