TO me the iconic picture of Malaysia is not the Petronas Twin Towers, as seen on tourist brochures, rather the squalor of the Malay settlement of Kampung Baru with the imposing Towers in the background.

That should shame Malay leaders from the sultans on down. That jarring scene portrays the current pathetic state of our community, made that much more lamentable considering that the major levers of power in the country have been in unchallenged Malay hands since independence.

Kampung Baru is emblematic of a far greater problem – our lack of intellectual capacity to analyse problems and come up with effective solutions.

The issue with Kampung Baru, as with all Malay reservation lands as well as other assets for Malays (as under Mara and Tabung Haji), is not lack of financial capital. But rather the lack of intellectual efforts at solving the major obstacle facing Malays today – the bewildering complexity of Islamic inheritance laws that have trapped Muslim assets under needless prolonged probates. About RM80 billion worth of assets are thus frozen!

Despite the plethora of Malay economists and the frenzy of “Islamising” the discipline, few have addressed this critical glaring issue.

Instead we have been deluded by Malaysia’s development, forgetting the significant if not overwhelming contributions of non-Muslims. Scrutinise the government’s tax receipts.

Meanwhile our ulama, their obsession with the Hereafter aside, are busy defending the shariah against phantom enemies as seen in the recent mass gathering during the Federal Court’s hearing on the challenge to Kelantan’s shariah enactments.

If those demonstrators had just stayed back in Kelantan to clean up the lavatories of their local mosques and schools, they would have done a far more beneficial service. As to whether such activities would land them in Heaven, their central preoccupation, “Allah hu Allam” (Only Allah Knows).

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent (November 21, 2023) setting up of a special committee “to empower and elevate the status of the Shariah Court was misplaced.

Far more important to make sure that cases do not end up in the courts (shariah or otherwise) in the first place. Courts are there to resolve disputes. More sensible to prevent them in the first place.

Making shariah laws clear, explicit, and relevant would do much to achieve that. Unfortunately shariah fails miserably.

No surprise there as its norms are based on medieval Arab society. The priority is not to “modernise” or “strengthen” Shariah Courts, rather to make Islamic inheritance laws (and other Islamic laws) as simple as possible, putting a premium on an individual’s unhampered personal choice. The complex Quranic injunctions apply only when someone dies intestacy (without a will).

Timur Kuran’s “The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East”, singles out Islamic inheritance laws as the culprit preventing enterprises from surviving.

Classical Islam is replete with brilliant innovations and enduring productive economic initiatives not mentioned in the Quran, testimony to the brilliance of those early thinkers.

Consider the concept of circulation, as opposed to stagnation. When performing ablution we seek flowing water. Stagnancy is unclean.

Likewise with wealth, it must be kept circulating. Stagnant wealth is a waste, and Allah does not like that.

Trading, an esteemed profession is Islam, is at its essence the circulating of wealth, likewise with zakat and charity.

Spending on the poor, quite apart from helping them, performs this crucial role of circulating and thus purifying wealth.

Modern economists’ “velocity of money” as a measure of the vibrancy of an economy reflects this wisdom.

Banks, and other financial intermediaries’ critical role in economic development is precisely this – circulating wealth.

Show me an undeveloped country and I will show you one without an effective banking system. Yet Muslims today are obsessed with their superficial comprehension of “ribaa”, failing to differentiate it from such concepts as the time-value of money ( a ringgit today is not of the same value as the one a year ago), returns on investment, and modern banks’ role in circulating wealth.

Another classical concept, again not mentioned in the Quran, is waqaf or trust. It predates the modern corporation in allowing families to maintain their wealth through generations, quite apart from protecting them from predatory rulers, as stated by Benedict Koehler in his “Early Islam And The Birth Of Capitalism”.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is the only leader with the calibre and standing to bring these present day medieval-minded Islamists to the 21st Century.

I hope he would leverage his unique standing to do that, and not to humour them.

The only Muslim leader who has the courage to do that today is Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Bin Salman. Pray that both would be successful. – November 24, 2023.

* M. Bakri Musa reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.