Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat

The root word of ‘Niz’am’ is ‘Nazam’ which translates to discipline, while as ‘Rububiyyat’ could be translated as the ‘Divine Design’ thus ‘Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat’ means ‘Divinely Designed Disciplinary Order’. There are several Quranic injunctions on such an order, such as:

‘’God has favoured some of you over others in livelihood. Those who are favoured would not give their properties to their servants, to the extent of making them partners in it. Will they renounce God’s blessings’’ (16:71)

The Ayah-e-Karim relates to economic justice, and justice delivery system, as envisaged in ‘Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat’. Different individuals are endowed with different capacities of work. Any economic undertaking or a project, far from being a solo-effort, is a joint enterprise requiring collective effort. The produce of an economic undertaking or a project has to be shared, so that it benefits all. The benefit however has to be need based, wherein everyone benefits according to his need. Such need based sharing harmonizes with ‘Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat’ fulfilling the Divine design of a disciplinary economic order.

Contrary to what is ordained in ‘Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat’those who have greater capacity or power generally do not adhere to this niz’am and take a disproportionate share of the produce. They exhibit loathing to need-based share of the produce, thus violating the Divine code enshrined in ‘Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat’. By doing what they may not, they seem to assert that means of production and capacity to earn are not endowed by Allah. They remain oblivious of His blessings, as enshrined:

‘’Whatever blessing you have is from God. And when harm touches you, it is to Him than you groan’’ (16:53)

This reflects to the basic fact that all means of sustenance and capacity to acquire have been created and endowed by Allah. It follows that when trouble befalls, Divine intervention is sought. It could be logically interpreted that whatever the means of nurture might be should be used as per ‘Divinely Designed Disciplinary Order’enshrined in ‘Niz’am-e-Rububiyyat’. Deviating from such an order, results in what modern economists call ‘lop-sided development’ resulting in uneven growth, a recipe for social disorder.