Recordings › Are Mortgages & Bank Loans Haram? - Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Oct 2017 › Segment 8 of 13
How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's?
muftis koran quraan al-quranHow economics changed: money as humanity's greatest story and the end of finite gold
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This segment29:45 to 36:59 · 7 min 14 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenThe Quranic prohibition came in an economy of finite gold, where wealth could only grow by taking it from others. Money, which Mufti Abu Layth calls humanity's greatest invented story, was later dematerialised into paper, changing everything.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says the key point is that the concept of commerce and economics has entirely changed since the eighteenth century with industrialisation. He calls money the most successful story human beings ever invented, followed by gods and kingship, saying that by arbitrarily placing value on objects people created an imaginative system for trade, and that trading and ownership are stories. He says that when the Quran was revealed in seventh-century Arabia money was finite: if Birmingham had five million gold pieces it had only that, a borrower could not pull a thousand gold pieces out of thin air, and a town could only grow richer by raiding another, as he illustrates with Birmingham raiding Manchester, which he says is why the Quran warns against wealth circulating only among the rich. He says the next great trick was to remove the element from money and make it paper, so that money could be given out that did not actually exist, and asks viewers to hold that thought.
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran was revealed in an economy of finite money, in which wealth could only grow by taking it from others, and that this changed entirely when money was dematerialised into paper a few hundred years ago.
“When the Quran was revealed in 7th century Arabia money was finite.”
Category: historical claim
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine29:45 to 36:59 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
Yes, they do that. But, you have a greater safety net at all times. Now, the other key thing that I'm about to go into and this is incredibly important. That is people, we have to understand that just that the concept of commerce and economics has entirely changed.
Entirely changed since the 18th century. The whole world the world we live in today and the way economics is perceived the way finance is perceived has entirely changed and do not I need you to focus with me on this. Right, because some of you might just take this for granted and they not appreciate what I'm saying here.
Everything has changed people. Everything. Industrialization and the rise of the the kind of economic culture with it absolutely changed. Let's backtrack. The greatest and most successful story the greatest I'm calling it a story the narrative and discourse that human beings ever invented ever the most successful story that
human beings have ever created right out of the imagination is money. It is our greatest invention till date. Followed by gods and kingship.
Okay. These three things are the greatest human stories that we have ever had. Okay, ever. Right, so now let let's human beings by arbitrarily placing value on arbitrarily placing value on some objects they managed to create a system an imaginative system by which they could trade.
Trading is just a figment of our imagination. Ownership is just a story. You don't really I mean do we even own any? This is everything like this is discourse analysis people. When you start to study discourses. Now, money when we created money as in gold pieces this this has certain values now.
What human beings did a few hundred years ago they did the second greatest they got that story and they gave it the greatest makeover. So, it became money 2.0. They dematerialized money. Okay, demineralized so it no longer the element elementized it okay.
So, now it became paper. But it wasn't just this amazing ability to turn that into paper. But the whole story that they spun around this. Look stay with me stay with me. When the Quran was revealed in 7th century Arabia money was finite.
It was a fixed aspect. So, for example if let's say in Birmingham there were 5 million gold pieces in Birmingham. That meant Birmingham that's the city where I live by the way the heart of the UK. Right, now Birmingham let's say it had 5 million gold pieces.
It would only have 5 million gold pieces. These gold pieces couldn't just double or triple. I mean there could be some fluctuation tiny negligible fluctuation. So, some other person leaves the town some person comes some person goes but this is negligible. It generally has 5 million gold pieces. That's it.
When I lend you when you borrow from me 1,000 gold pieces you're not going to pull 1,000 gold pieces out of thin air next month. They have to come from somewhere. Wealth is static.
The only way Birmingham we can increase in wealth is if we raid another kingdom. So, let's raid Manchester as an example. So, Birmingham raids Manchester Manchester has 5 million gold pieces it drags that as part of their gold pieces now they have 10 million gold pieces.
This is how kingdoms worked in the past. Money wasn't just pulled out of thin air. You had to gold was finite. So, when Allah says in the Quran that that let not the wealth be do let them be among men come let it not just go round and round amongst the rich from amongst you. That's because that's all it was.
Right, got nothing against Manchester I love Manchester but I'm just saying. So I'm giving an example. Right, so now this poor person who's borrowed a thousand or five thousand gold pieces he can't just pull them out of thin air. He has to go to another person to get them. If you are trading it is the same thing.
Money is static. Now, what the greatest trick the next greatest trick that humanity did Allah was it de-elementized it removed the element from money. It freed it. All of a sudden money became paper.
Now you could you could give out money that you don't actually have. So with this you see as people started to get more money than was actually there they could do more things with that money.
You see now tie this in. Now, hold that hold that peg that thought right there. Hold that and come back to another thought. With this you had the rise of people like Adam Smith and his understanding of economics. His understanding of commerce. Now, in his books amongst them the wealth of nations.
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-10-19-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/8/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, October 19). How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's? [Video, segment 2017-10-19-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/8/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's?" Video, segment 2017-10-19-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded October 19, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/8/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-10-19-S08, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's?}}, year = {2017}, month = {10}, date = {2017-10-19}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/8/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/8/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-10-19-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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