Why we don’t need marriage loans?

Revisiting Guilemeuth as Qard-e-Hasan, Kashmir has one of the most beautiful and resilient informal institutional care systems in place. One such system is financial support structure in the form of paying in cash and kind to the family in need  at the time of birth, circumcision, clearing results of higher classes, getting promotion, death, marriage, or any significant occasion of mourning or celebration; or when needed desperately. Guilemeuth was originally qard-e-hasan  for anyone on the occasion of marriage. It would be returned beautifully and not with interest when the giver in turn needed it. Guilemeuth and sharing of utensils and space helped cover key expenses. We can create similar support system by devising kitty pooling and investment linkage. Without need of banks, guilemeuth - soft loan at the time of marriage - was community soft loan to any member. Guilemeuth was once upon a time truly praiseworthy and didn’t involve interest. It was help, gift, qard-e-hasan all combined.

When one returned it the ethic of beautiful return of qard was invoked and not the principle of interest. The practice in certain countries/ individuals   of factoring in inflation for doing justice while making repayment of principal amount needs critical appraisal or cognizance.

There is an opinion to consider it obligatory in view of leaving no option but bank based finance to those who seek but aren’t given as people keep money locked in fixed deposits or other interest based products. But equally important point of ensuring Islamic ethical prerogative to return qard in beautiful way or with some unspecified gift would have avoided need to resort to bank interest based finance. However neither Ulama nor Muslim movements emphasize this point resulting in almost universal involvement in interest based financing.

Let us give guilemeuth in the form of share certificate or membership of credit cooperative.

Let us write guilemeuth in account books as  qard-e-hasan and not loan. Let us create a marriage assistance/ investment fund in which we deposit soft loan of say 12 k in a year at extended family level, invest and  multiply it through some productive enterprise and retrieve only few days before marriage. 12 k for say 27 years post birth of child for marriage will have generated another 3.24x2 ( around 6.48 lacs) at least through any investment scheme in these 27 years and one would thus have around ten lacs at disposal for one’s child. We could have all requisite sheep, utensils, jewellery, tents etc., as our own, available from proper utilisation of this corpus to further save costs. Feast would not cost anything as the primary cost of sheep and chicken would be reimbursed from investment in joint farms.  One can begin anytime to join kitty for marriage support by increasing amount of investment and investment of the same in quickly multiplying enterprises. Plan marriage support fund creation today by joining extended family kitty investment scheme and stop worrying about marriage  expenses.

Lehangas and costly suits can be made available free from community resources and needn’t be paid for. Calculations show that similar contribution from ten other members  in extended family will help create around 2.5 crore corpus that would sponsor any marriage within contributing members of extended family. In extended family one sees a marriage happening once in three years. If one has two children and expects marriage within next  ten years one can choose 9 other members from extended family and start depositing 12 k per annum. One would have deposited 1.2 lacs in ten years and would have access to corpus fund of 1.2 lacs x 9 x growth factor  which could be well above three if family committee has professionally invested the amount. One isn’t eligible to apply for support within first five years of joining. Every office , say higher secondary or college, can create a support system for its staff. Marriage support fund of around 5 lacs can be arranged for any colleague who is to be married or whose children need to be married if he/she consents to contribute a fund of 12 k in a year.

Every staff member can be persuaded to join this kitty of mutual support and one must join it regardless of need to marry  for the sake of others. Employees can push for a corpus fund of say five lacs for marriage support by monthly payment of say Rs 100 til death. Four lac employees can create a corpus of 4 crore every month that would cater to 80 applicants every month. They can create free marriage hall, utensils, tents, sheep etc., for employees from its resources as well. Imagine a case of a college or higher secondary having 40  staff members. All join to create a fund of 40x12 or 4.8 lacs and we don’t expect more than one case in a year to need support. Sponsoring one marriage every two to three years from extended family kitty is possible. We should keep depositing the amount till marriage year and return to kitty the principal amount taken in easy instalments in next five years. Imagine an extended family of ten maternal cousins/ brothers/sisters who decide to opt for 12 k/ annum scheme.

We can extend marriage support system to getting a car, building house, planning pilgrimage etc., by devising half or twice the annual fund suggested for marriage.  There is thus hardly any need to worry about marriage or house. Community support is the ke. Join the kitty today.