The Economic Growth Elements in Medina during the Prophet
Sallallahu ‘Alayhi Wasallam
Kamaru Salam Yusof
1
, Rose Abdullah
2
, and Faris Imadi Rosli
2
1
Faculty of Islamic Economics and Finance, Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei Darussalam
2
Faculty of Economics and Management, National University of Malaysia
{
M
untala
q
, i
f
aris2013
}
@g
mail.com, rose.abdullah
@
unissa.edu.bn
Keywords: Economic growth, development factors, economy of Madinah.
Abstract: The global economy climate oscillates between growth and recession. A number of causes and theoretical
assumptions have been made to explain this fluctuating economic trend. This paper looks at the economic
growth of one particular region and examines the factors that contribute to its development. In Madinah- the
centre of Islamic development- as well as the surrounding Arab region, the arrival of Islam during the times
of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam ushered in a sudden economic growth and booming
development in business, agriculture and other ventures. This economic growth can be traced to factors, which
are related to the teachings of Islam brought by the Prophet Sallallahu ‘Alayhi wasallam. By analyzing the
content of other literatures and history writings, this paper examines the causes and contributing factors of
this economic growth and its relation to Islam. In conclusion, this study underlines the importance of
identifying these economic growth factors and capitalising on these aspects to stimulate the development of
current Muslim economies.
1 INTRODUCTION
The expansion of the economic activity is important
for every nation in this world since it plays a role to
pursue prosperity towards every human being. As a
Muslim, we are individually created to act as a
successor (Khalifah) to utilize each resource given by
Allah with the presence of our mind and bring it front
to be cherished by all people (Gorsuch & Smith,
1983).
Looking back to 1400 years ago, the life of
Prophet Muhammad in Macca for 13 years with his
initial objective only to introduce Allah as the only
one to submit to, undoubtedly did not show any
economic impact (Natsir-Nim, 2010). But rather after
the prophet’s migration to Medina, the economic
activity showed a very great impact on Medina to
become a great country. This research specifically
aims at investigating factors and element that drove
up Medina’s economy and how it could benefit
today’s Muslim as an example to design policies that
simulate further fair economic development.
The introduction of the new economic philosophy
in Medina was in line with the spread of Islam in Arab
Penisula, and this spread had also induced the positive
economic impact on this region. However, today with
roughly two (2) billion muslim population existing all
over the world (Foundation, 2017), there are still a lot
of Muslim population who live in poverty though
some population live in a wealthy state. This
phenomenon creates curiosity among researchers to
investigate further the contributing factors that
boomed economic prosperity in Medina which did
not only benefit the Muslim population but also
positively influenced to non Muslim population who
live under the sovereign of Islam.
Therefore, the discussion will be continued by
studying the economic development from Islamic
view point and highlighting the indicators of a good
economic development. After that we examine the
main economic activities in Medina during the period
of Rasulullah Sallallahu ‘Alayhi Wasallam. By then
it will be followed with discussion on the contributing
element of Medina’s economic expansion before
conclude and put some recommendations.
2 METHOLODOGY
Journals related to the discipline of Islamic
Economics were searched on Google using the
keywords “Islamic Economics, Islamic Business,
Yusof, K., Abdullah, R. and Rosli, F.
The Economic Growth Elements in Medina During the Prophet Sallallahu ‘Alayhi Wasallam.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business, and Philanthropy (ICIEBP 2017) - Transforming Islamic Economy and Societies, pages 17-20
ISBN: 978-989-758-315-5
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
17
Islamic Accounting, Islamic Management, Islamic
Banking and Islamic Finance.” Research using
classical books in library at Brunei Darussalam also
used in writing this journal. The search was
undertaken in August to October 2017. Focus of the
search was limited to English and Arabic journals.
From the exercise, journals and books (as mentioned
in the references) had been identified and was sent to
the faculty members of the Faculty of Islamic
Economics and Finance, Universiti Islam Sultan
Sharif Ali Brunei for verification and further
suggestions.
3 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
FROM ISLAMIC VIEW
Economic development is one of the tools that must
be benefited by Muslim towards fulfilling the purpose
of creation. Allah has mentioned about this directly
from a few verses in Quran and has been applied by
Prophet Muhammad practically in his lifetime. There
are several verses include:
“It is He who made the earth tame for you-so walk
among its slopes and eat of His provision- and to Him
is the resurrection” (Al-Quran. Al-Mulk:15):
“And when the prayer has been concluded, disperse
within the land and seek from the bounty of Allah,
and remember Allah often that you may succeed”
(Al-Quran. Al-Jum’ah: 10).
The above verse was among the guidance from the
Quran that mention about Allah’s commandment to
the Muslim to well distribute their wealth after
(given) from Allah throughout their effort in ensuring
positive economic development. There are other
verses as well that explicitly and implicitly imply the
importance of seeking the wealth, savings, trading,
entrepreneurship, etc. that belong under the theme of
economic development. Overall, economic
development is one of the important aspects that
mentioned in the Quran.
4 INDICATORS OF A GOOD
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
There are several notable indicators throughout the
millennia era include the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), four stages of industrialization; countries in
tertiary or quaternary sectors of industry that
considered developed, and more recently is indicated
by the Human Development Index (HDI) that
measures multivariable such as the national income,
life expectancy and education (Berliant & Weiss,
2017). There are also some of the non-
conventional/non-direct indicators such as
investment efficiency, inflation rate, unemployment
rate, total national debt, ratio of national debt over
national income, purchasing power of population,
poverty rate, etc. Since these indicators may not be
well adopted as a suitable methodology to identify
contributing factors of Medina’s economic success
because data was not available, these new indicators
have been proposed to act as an alternative is
geographical factor, the existence of Great Kingdom
and the Diversity of Ethnic and Religion.
There are several western scholars agreed that
based on these three (3) indicators, the list of the
developed countries during 15
th
century are China,
India, Eastern Asia and Africa (Etherington &
Mackenzie, 2016). During the 16
th
and 17
th
centuries,
there are few European countries were chasing out
these four (4) countries from the top list. These four
(4) counttayed at the top until about the 19
th
century
when the United Kingdom (UK) rose to the top. The
recent history showed that the United States (US) had
individually became the top nation in 1913 (Saez &
Zucman, 2016).
Since the gap of these indicators did not introduce
to study the economic development during 7
th
and 8
th
century, this research purposely works on
investigating Medina’s economic development
during the prophet’s time.
5 THE MAIN ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES IN MEDINA
Medina or Yathrib’s economic activity during the
ignorance period was different from Mecca. Because
of its geographical factor, Medina’s land was in favor
to agriculture activity contrary to Mecca that favor to
trading. This situation is understood from a hadith
from Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi
wasallam:
ICIEBP 2017 - 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business and Philanthropy
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This explanation of the hadith differs the word
and
. The economic prosperity of Medina
was not only affecting its people but also those people
who live around the Arab Peninsula. This situation
was recorded during the Battle of Khandaq (Ahzab)
(Al-Mubarakfuri, 1996).
Prior to the migration of Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam, Medina’s strategically
located in the middle. The Arab from the northern
region would pass by Medina to reach Mecca and
people from Yemen and Hadhramaut would pass by
Medina as well to reach Sham and Iraq for trading
purposes. This uniqueness is explained by two (2)
contributing factors:
1. Mecca has its religious attraction, Kaaba, where
people visit to perform pilgrimage
2. Traders bypass Medina from Yemen to Sham
because those trading goods from India and
China were brought through Aden in reaching
other Rome territories in the northern part (Al-
Mubarakfuri, 2011).
There were five (5) notable marketplaces in
Medina include al Jaraf, Wadi Bathan and al Asobah.
The other two marketplaces located in the west of
Medina and in the middle between Quba and Bathan.
There were also some industries such as metal, animal
farming, pot and wood based products. The migration
of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam
has shown four (4) significant changes:
1. The name changed from Yathrib to Medina
The rebranding of a certain organization would have
a certain direct or indirect impact internally or
externally. This change has influenced the original
people of Medina, the migrated Muslim and to every
Arab population that there is a new hope to a better
their life aspects in bringing up Medina as a great
nation.
2. The economic monopoly from the Jews has
been significantly reduced and has been
replaced gradually by Muslim
Medina’s economy was initially monopolized by the
Jews entrepreneurs prior to Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam’s arrival. Economically
they were strong though considered a minority. The
element of usury and the segmented monopoly are
among the tools that force the Aus and Khazraj not to
defeat them, the Jews in fact were the capitalists in
providing loans and monopolizing majority of land in
Medina. The arrival of Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam in Medina significantly
implied not only it was a physical migration but rather
a notable change in the economic environment has
also taken place. The ultimate shift in economic
injustice was shown at the time prior to Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam’s passing,
the act of usury was totally abolished through a few
verses from the Quran such as Surah Al-Baqarah,
verse no. 278.
3. The encouragement to pursue ‘worldly’
prosperity
The new perception brought by Prophet Muhammad
in Medina was to change societal belief that religion
is only connected to the relationship between human
and God. The misconception through the term
‘slavery’ usually was only connected at certain
rituals. As a matter of fact, the truth is that Allah asks
His servants to not only worship Him at certain rituals
but rather at every single action including pursuing
worldly prosperity. However, there should not be any
act of secularism that differentiate between the
religious responsibility and worldly prosperity
(Barry, 2007).
4. The activeness of Medina’s economic activity
due to the activeness in spreading the Islam
One of the other changes seen was the Muslim society
not only concerned on their faith by often leaving the
‘worldly’ act and being alone. By principle, Muslim
should also concern with the other people through
spreading the word of Islam to the other family
institutions.
6 THE CONTRIBUTING
ELEMENT OF MEDINA
ECONOMIC EXPANSION
The drastic shift in economy brought through Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam should not
be surprising. On a details side, this research has
investigated three (3) contributing factors that drove
the Medina economic activity at faster pace.
1. The Content of the Teachings of Islam
Islam has brought a new perception that the new
followers are not only changing their appearance,
names, etc. but they have to also change what’s inside
too, the belief. One of the important beliefs is Islam
The Economic Growth Elements in Medina During the Prophet Sallallahu ‘Alayhi Wasallam
19
is the all-encompassing where there is no segregation
between the specific act of worship and worldly
affairs. Islam has also encouraged that Muslims must
also be a part of the society they live in with, means
that the attitude of individualism is rejected. Through
zakat as one of the five pillars of Islam, it encouraged
many companions to become proactive in seeking as
much as wealth to be benefited by the whole
population. The other examples are waqf, sadaqah,
and pilgrimage are those acts that triggered the
companions in being proactive (Al-Qardawi, 1973).
2. Qudwah
The main Qudwah in Medina was portrayed through
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi wasallam
himself and was closely followed by his companions
such as Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, Uthman, Ali, and others.
Prophet Muhammad had also opened specific
marketplace for Muslims for business. This was to
counter act the monopolistic attitude of the Jews in
Medina.
3. The Unity of the Medina society and the
neighborhood community
The arrival of Islam in Medina has united all Muslims
specifically as Arabic was a lingua-franca, Islam has
now established as religious-franca. Almost the total
population of Arab Penisula had reverted to become
Muslims prior to Prophet’s passing. This situation
had triggered exchanged trading among them other
than encouraging brotherhood and jihad.
7 CONCLUSION
This research has shown the impact of the arrival of
Islam to the Medina economic expansion. Without
neglecting there are many contributing factors
behind, the understanding of the teaching of Islam
was the main driving factor that triggered the Medina
Muslim society to work hard. Thus the education and
tarbiyah is the main part of the solution where
institutions such as the universities, media, the
economists, the entrepreneurs, to actively participate
in spreading the true understanding of being a
Muslim. There is no doubt that economy is a part of
Islam and paying attention to generating and utilizing
more resources is a kind of worship act that earn
reward.
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