As per the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there has been marked improvement in the number of undernourished people during the last 20 years whereby the figure has dropped by almost half. This is attributed to economic growth and high agricultural yield in the underdeveloped countries, particularly from Central and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
While this is encouraging to note, nevertheless as per the UNDP website, as of 2017, close to a billion people were still “chronically undernourished” of which about 10% were children under five who were “dangerously underweight”. The majority of such people live in Africa and South America.
I never got the opportunity to visit any South American country yet but I would like to recall my visit some years ago to a tiny twin-island African country close to the equator called Sao Tome and Príncipe. This was in the context of introducing Islamic banking in the ex-Portuguese colony and the chartered plane from Dubai took nine hours to land at the small Sao Tome airport.
We had to cross the entire African continent to reach the destination where we met with the prime minister and the president on the subject of making the country a West African hub for Islamic finance. We found the leadership receptive to the idea and both sides also completed some spadework but unfortunately the governing party lost the next election and we too lost the opportunity to add another country to the list of Islamic finance.
During the entire time that we flew over the African continent in the daylight, I did not spot any brown patches except the muddy roads looking like beautifully woven threads. The entire land was green and some patches were dark green too. What I am trying to explain here is that it is a pity that hunger is allowed to lay its ugly hand in such fertile land too.
It is agreed that the Sahara and Kalahari deserts dominate the landscape of sub-Saharan countries; nevertheless, Central Africa is blessed with bountiful land, which can produce enough to feed the entire African population, and beyond. This brings me to the point I mentioned in the last article that the issue is not the limitation of the Earth’s capacity to produce enough food for the growing population but it is the problem of distribution so that the food reaches every nook and corner of the world.
SDG 2 aims to end all forms of hunger from the world within the next seven years, which means pulling close to 13% of the world population from the clutches of hunger. Undoubtedly, the UNDP’s efforts to encourage small-scale farming and provide them with the access to technology and markets are praiseworthy. Yet, achieving SDG 2 by 2030 seems a far cry given the actual progress made so far. Perhaps, the deadline should stand extended by a few more years or the goals redefined.
Returning to my point stated in the last article on why Islam gives great importance on keeping the hungry properly fed. I will explain the socioeconomic angle first before discussing the religious one.
So, what is the technical definition of hunger? Broadly speaking, it is the condition in which for a sustained period, a person is unable to eat enough food to meet the basic dietary requirements. As per the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization, a malnourished person is categorized as such if his or her caloric intake is below the minimum dietary energy requirement (MDER). The MDER is the amount of energy needed to perform light activity and to maintain a minimum acceptable weight vis-a-vis the height ratio.
It is important that we understand clearly that the disparity of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is not man-made but destined by Allah the Most Exalted, as He states in Chapter 43 called ‘Al Zukhruf (Gold Ornaments)’, verse 32:
“Is it they who distribute the Mercy of your Lord? It is We Who have distributed their livelihood among them in the life of this world, and have raised some above others in rank that some of them may harness others to their service. Your Lord’s Mercy is better than all the treasures that they hoard.”
The underlined part demonstrates that the varying degrees of worldly holdings among people are by design from the Creator in order to test both sides. The test for the ‘haves’ is to treat the wealth as trusteeship and not as ownership since only Allah is the Owner of the entire wealth, and to utilize it as per the Owner’s will and not at the will of the trustee. As for the ‘have-nots’, their test is to remain content in whatever state Allah has kept them so that He may reward them for their steadfastness. The reward could be both in this world and in the hereafter. Alternatively, it could be the unimaginable great reward only in the hereafter.
The highlighted part also provides clarity to the economic philosophy of Islam described in the initial articles I wrote in 2018. I had explained then that the people who are blessed with wealth must not resort to hoarding and treating it as a commodity by lending it on interest.
In fact, they should deploy the wealth in trade, industry and services sectors to generate employment for the people who are not bestowed with such mercy by Allah.
This is the socioeconomic system the Lord of the worlds has instructed His servants to develop on the Earth so that all of His servants are able to sustain themselves on a perpetual basis.
The purpose of this educative series and the article is not to hurt any religious or commercial sentiments either consciously or even unwittingly.
Sohail Zubairi is an Islamic finance specialist, AAOIFI-certified Shariah advisor and auditor as well as CIAE-certified Islamic arbitrator and expert. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Next week: Discussion of SDG 2 – Zero Hunger to continue.