"Commerce in the Light of the Quran and Sunnah" – A New Release at CIBF
Mohamed Mandour
The Muslim Council of Elders' stand at the Cairo International Book Fair offers visitors a number of the latest releases from Al-Hokama Publishing for 2025, including the prominent book "Commerce in the Light of the Quran and Sunnah," authored by Dr. Abdel Ghani Awad Al-Rajhi, one of the prominent scholars of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.
In this book, Dr. Awad Al-Rajhi clarifies the guidance of the Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah—as a supreme perspective—on organizing commerce and commercial transactions, financial issues, and the ethics of commerce and traders from moral, psychological, social aspects, among other related issues.
The book also explores various contemporary financial transactions and discusses the Islamic perspectives on them, all within the framework of the Quran and Sunnah.
The author explains in the Introduction section of the book that commerce is fundamentally a noble profession that plays a vital role in the life of a community. It stands as the cornerstone of trades that sustain the world's systems and people's livelihoods: agriculture, industry, and commerce.
He emphasizes that if the merchant and the commercial system in any country are upright, in good standing, God-fearing in their dealings, uphold their honor, conscience, and responsibilities, and comply with the divine laws governing buying and selling, while considering national interests, public welfare, and promoting cooperation among people, they will be a source of goodness, mercy, and peace.
The author asserts that in line with the well-known saying, "religion is conduct," upright conduct is most vividly displayed in commerce, buying, selling, and interacting with people to earn profit and increase capital. Consequently, commerce is deeply linked to the faith, ethics, conscience, and honor of the practitioner.
Thus, the way one conducts their business dealings, manages their buying and selling, and grows their capital reflects on their religious observance, as well as their humanity and dignity.
The book is structured into the following sections: Introduction, Commerce: Its Definition, Commerce as an Innate Tendency and Social Necessity, Islam's View of Commerce as an Innate Tendency, Commerce Among Arabs as a Dominant Phenomenon, How Commerce Fueled Religious Sentiments Among Arabs, The Impact of Commerce on Refining and Simplifying the Arabic Language, The Role of Commerce in Spreading Islam, Guidance from the Quran on Commercial Transactions and Financial Issues, Commercial Aspects in the Prophetic Sunnah, The Sunnah Praises Commerce at Times and Criticizes It at Others, The Ethics of Commerce and Traders, Various Types of Financial Transactions and Islam's Stance on Them, and Conclusion.
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