Resources of the land [26.365]

Narrated Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه:

Allah’s Prophet صل الله عليه و سلم said, “No bloodmoney will be charged if somebody dies in a mine or in a well or is killed by an animal; and if somebody finds a treasure in his land he has to give one-fifth of it to the Government.”

[Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 40, Number 545]

The wisdom behind the second part of this hadith is staggering. All across the world, lands are rich in resources. When the resources are discovered, the rights to them are immediately purchased by private interests, who make off with resulting financial boon. The people of the lands are so often completely impoverished…we don’t even have to look beyond the United States to see this: Native American reservations are routinely violated in this way. If just one-fifth of the financial gain went back to the people of the land, it would so alleviate the suffering of a people. Instead, we assuage our consciences by helping the Natives build casinos in which people can gamble away their hard-earned money. It’s a double-looting…and the answer is so simple, it was given in the “backward” seventh century.