The 26 Richest People in The World And The Growing Gap Between the Rich and the Poor
What was the longest time you’ve ever spent without food? 10 hours? 24 hours? That’s a serious difficulty, isn’t it? In 2021, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide climbed to 828 million. This raises a fundamental question: why are the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer?
The richest people in the world have amassed wealth beyond imagination. In a 2017 report, Oxfam stated that the total wealth of these individuals was equal to the total wealth of half the world’s population. The following year, half the world’s wealth was equivalent to the wealth of only 26 of the richest people, which was even less than the previous year. According to a United Nations report, 71% of the world’s population lives in countries where income inequality is growing daily. This includes many developed countries as well.
The Flawed System of Wealth Distribution
A significant portion of society feels tense and desperate, like a bomb ready to explode. But what if I told you that hundreds of years ago, Islam brought the solution we are desperately looking for? It is such a solution that, if implemented correctly, would ensure that in some cities there would be no poor people left, necessitating the transfer of donations to other cities miles away. Is this really possible?
If you’re ready for comprehensive content that has taken weeks to prepare, with comments and insights from experts and researchers, let’s begin.
The Concept of Zakat in Early Islamic Society
Imagine a country where there are public announcements like, “Where are the people in debt? Where are the needy, the orphans, the poor who want to marry, the oppressed? All you who have rights and needs, come and take your rights.” State officials walked the streets looking for poor families. This is not a dream or a story; such a period actually happened.
We’re talking about the early 700s, close to the 100th year after the arrival of the zakat system. The Islamic Khalifa Omar bin Abdulaziz issued such a decree and made that announcement. What a scene that is far removed from the present day, isn’t it? So, what exactly is this zakat we’re talking about, and how applicable is it today?
Understanding the Zakat System
First, let’s try to figure out the system we have now. We are in a dead end that is very difficult to get out of. There are two sentences that have been ruining our lives all around the world. One of them is “You work and I eat,” which is basically the interest system.
The tragedies caused by this system are countless. Let’s analyze this phenomenon with an example: You want to buy a car or a house, but you cannot afford it. You’re someone who can only make a living. Then, with a smiling face, a bank representative comes and says to you, “I’m here to help you. I can give you the money you want in this many installments, but you will pay it back with this much interest.” Thinking that you have no other option, you sign the contract.
Now, you’re going to work for years to pay back the loan with a high amount of interest. Just the interest part of the loan itself means extra months of work for you. Maybe you’ll look for additional sources of income and put in much more effort. Probably your spouse will have to work too. Maybe you’ll have to sacrifice the time you’ll spend with your children. In the meantime, if something goes wrong and you cannot pay the installments on time, your debt will increase even more. This means more stress and more work for you.
The Interest System: A Vicious Cycle
Do you know what happened right before you started going through this long and painful process? The same smiling bank made a deal with a rich person a few hours before you took that loan. His money has been invested to earn interest, and now it will just increase without doing anything. In just one month, without any effort, that man will earn interest on the loan that a few families like yours have paid with great difficulty in maybe months or a year. In the end, you will realize that you have actually bought that person’s money and that you have been making him richer all this time. How would you feel in such a situation? Probably you would feel a serious resentment.
We live in a world where the total wealth of 1% is equal to the total wealth of the remaining 99%. So, it’s pretty obvious that something is going wrong here, and people have accumulated more or less anger against that 1%. Over time, both material and emotional gaps are being formed between these two groups.
A Solution Through Zakat
At this point, you come across the second sentence that ruins our social lives: “So long as I’m full, I don’t care if others die of hunger.” Then Islam comes and forbids interest, replacing it with a much better system—zakat. By making it obligatory, it closes the huge financial gaps between people.
But what is this zakat system? Let me explain it to you step by step. First of all, there’s a concept called nisab value. What is it? Think about all the money you have as savings and your trade goods. Now remove your debts from that money and goods. After this, if your savings are above the nisab value, which is the value equivalent to a minimum of 80 grams of gold in your local currency, and if you have not fallen below this amount for a year, you become responsible to pay zakat. But if you are below this limit, you become eligible to receive zakat money.
How Zakat Works
So, is the amount to give as zakat so high that it is difficult for people to pay? Actually, no. We’re talking about only 1/14th or 2.5% of the amount of savings you have. Let’s say you have $100,000, and it has been sitting aside for a year. Giving $2,500 of that amount is nothing for you, especially when you know that the person you are giving to is in need. You will feel the spiritual reward for it too, and on top of that, you will witness that person’s joy. It doesn’t take much away from you, but it makes a big difference for someone who is in need.
Zakat is one such measure. It’s not a tax, but you can compare it to a wealth tax. There’s not a single country in the West today that has a comprehensive wealth tax. Most taxes are income-based taxes or product taxes like consumer taxes, VAT, and sales tax. Whereas zakat is about money that has not been utilized—latent money after one year, of course, above the nisab. That money has not been utilized on your daily expenses. So, your money for your property, your money for your family, your money for your son’s education, your money for your daughter’s wedding, or whatever it may be—that money is spent money and is not subject to zakat. But zakat is on that wealth which is unspent; it is a latent wealth tax.
The Impact of Zakat on Society
There is also a surprising beauty in zakat. Many times in the history of Islam, people who previously received zakat eventually became able to give zakat after some time. Go online and search for the amount of 80 grams of gold in your currency. After a certain period, many families reached an income level where they have this amount of gold as savings. With the help of this system, many poor people didn’t get poorer; instead, they got richer.
In Islamic sources, we have information like this: in an Islamic state, zakat was collected from one region and started being distributed there. But although they still had the money to give, there were no needy people left. So, the remaining zakat was sent to other regions, kilometers away, to other cities. Can you imagine? In the history of Islam, none of these was a dream.
The Power of Zakat in Modern Times
Some of you may know this, but it’s worth mentioning. They made a calculation about the total wealth of one of the richest people in the world, based on data from 2 or 3 years ago. They said with only 2% of this person’s wealth, which is $6 billion, the entire world hunger could be ended. Remember those close to 1 billion people who are in chronic hunger that we mentioned in the beginning? There wouldn’t be such a scene anymore. And does the 2% sound familiar to you? It’s a little less than the zakat percentage, which is 2.5%. If we take into account that zakat is given every year, the results become unimaginable.
Now, let’s think about it from another point of view. If such financial prosperity is achieved in a region, wouldn’t we also see a decrease in crime rates there? Because behind many crimes, such as theft, there’s somehow a kind of poverty. Of course, it is not always the reason, and this doesn’t excuse those people who commit them. But how can we deny its impact?
Zakat and Crime Reduction
Imagine there’s a criminal, and his judgment is left to you. You have two options: you either will give that person a punishment that you think he deserves, which would be a completely reasonable act, or somehow, we’ll go back in time and eliminate the reason that led him to commit this crime. Which one would you choose? Wouldn’t it be better to prevent the crime in the first place, if that was possible? As you see, zakat also fights with the financial difficulties behind many crimes and indirectly helps justice and the safety of society. This is the multi-dimensional peace and prosperity that zakat provides.
The 26 Richest People in The World
