However, despite these means, if a portion of the country cannot fulfil their needs from within their lawful income on account of their being ill, or incompetent, or on account of having a large family, with relevance to this, Islām instructs that the responsibility for the fulfilment of the basic necessities of such people, which relate to food, clothing and lodging, lay upon the government. It has made responsible to arrange for the basic needs of such people by state funds. Moreover, so too was the case in the era of the Holy Prophet(sa) and his Khulafā’ur-Rāshidīn. As such, there is a narration that when the chieftain of the region of Baḥrain became Muslim, the Holy Prophet(sa) sent him the following guidance:
“From among those who do not own property, every individual should be given 4 Dirhams and clothing for sustenance from state funds.”1
The following Qur’ānic verse also alludes to the same principle:
“Evidence of a heavenly life is that O Ye Mankind! You remain not hungry, nor are you deprived of basic clothing, nor do you chill in the cold, nor do you bear the suffering of thirst, nor do you burn in the heat of the sun.”2
As such, it is the responsibility of every Islāmic government that it ensures no citizen of the nation and country suffer on account of the basic necessities which are the fundamental requirements of mankind. In summary, as far as the distribution of the country’s wealth is concerned, firstly through the law of inheritance, the law of Zakāt, the law of commerce, and the prohibition of gambling, such a mechanism has been established that as a result of employing it, the wealth of the country can never escape the hands of the common people and accumulate into the hands of a few capitalists. Furthermore, if due to various exceptional circumstances, an individual or family is still deprived of basic necessities, Islām instructs that an additional tax is levied upon the wealth of the affluent and the needs of the poor are fulfilled therefrom. This is because every individual who does not exhibit a lapse in the striving and effort of life, still possesses the fundamental right not to remain hungry, naked, without lodging and unprotected from the heat and cold.
1 Sharḥul-‘Allāmatiz-Zarqānī ‘Alal-Mawāhibil-Ladunniyyah, By Allāmah Shihābuddīn Al-Qusṭalānī, Volume 5, p. 36, Wa Ammā Mukātabatuhū ‘Alaihiṣ-Ṣalātu Was-Salāmu Ilal-Mulūki Wa Ghairihim / Wa Kataba Sallallāhu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallama Ilā Mundhar-ibni Sāwā, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996)
2 Ṭā Hā (20:119-120)