Food Production and Food Security Management in Muslim Civilization

The Islamic background of food security is abstracted from the Quran and the teachings Muhammed صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم, including the role of the Caliphate in attaining food security. It was found that (i) It was difficult to implement a methodological approach due to the scarcity of information, (ii) There were limited cases found of food production crises and food insecurity in Muslim civilization. Documented food production crises and food insecurity were mostly caused by natural disasters such as drought or floods and, to a lesser extent, by wars and political instability, (iii) Historical references show that, wherever Muslims went, they spread agriculture and passed on their knowledge and experiences to the people of the region. Thus, as time passed, Muslims developed and enhanced the sector

Al-Qurtubi said:

“Cultivation is one of the obligations of sufficiency. Accordingly, the Muslim community/State imam/Caliphate must compel people to cultivate, plant and farm the land, until the country’s/people’s/community sufficiency of food has been achieved” [44].

Islamic jurists have unanimously held the view that it is the collective obligation (Fard Kifayah) of the society to take care of the basic needs including agricultural food products of the poor.[45and 46] Accordingly, A Muslim society and nation must ensure that there are people from its community who embark into the agriculture sector to ascertain ample food supply for the Muslim society at large [47].

The Islamic Reward of Food Production (Continuous Charity): The Prophet, ( صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم) stated that planting is one of the deeds that remain for a man after his death. Anas narrated that Prophet  صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم said:  seven things that a person be granted in righteousness rewards after his death including, one who taught science, developed a river to flow, or drilled a water well, or planted palm trees, or built a mosque, or inherited a Koran, or left a son to ask forgiveness for him (updated by Al-Albany in Sahih al-Targheeb No. 959). This indicates that all works related to agriculture and food production are considered in Islam as a continuous charity.

It is evident that Arabs in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula did not care much about agriculture and were getting the agricultural products they needed through trade and exchange of goods. The palm tree was the most valuable plant for them because it grows in oases scattered between dunes, giving them the best fruits with minimal effort and less water [48].

From time to time, the Arabian Peninsula and because of its desert geographical nature used to face poverty, hunger, and famine during which people were starving and eating leaves, and any animals including dogs. Fatwa was issued allowing Muslims in Somalia, Yemen, and other places paying their Zakat to the hungry Muslim people of the Arabian Peninsula [49].

Three important food production-related approaches were adopted during the Muhammed صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم:

• TheNabi Muhammed صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم started a specific Islamic practice for enhancing agriculture and food production by granting a vast land from between the Red sea and mountain/rock formations to Bilal-Al-Muzni. Many of the Prophet companions worked in agriculture, and Medina was famous for its farms and orchards, and the Prophet,  صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم, granted many of his companion’s vast lands to build, cultivate and invest in them, and among these: Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, and Omar bin Al-Khattab, who was given precious land in Khyber, and including Rabia Al-Aslami. [50].
• The first Muslims during the Prophet  صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم time practiced the cultivation of land under an agreement called Muzara’ah. For example, a Muslim cultivates the land of another Muslim with the condition that the cultivator provides seeds, irrigation, and care to land and crop and at the end of the season gives the landowner one third or one-fourth of the harvest [51, and 52],
• A person was designated named ‘Amil ‘ala sūqor Muhatsib(like a Health and Safety Officer) to regulate marketplaces (the sūq) and other commercial activities in Mecca and Medina [53]. The first Muhtasib in Islam was Sa`id ibn Sa`id ibn Al-`Aas. He appointed by the Prophet  صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم after the conquest of Mecca.  The post of Muhtasib was novel as it exists during the jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic) period[54]. Muhtasib’s duties were market observation and to ensure orderliness in the running of the market (consumer protection and fairness, and produce equity and quality) and to dispense justice and accountability according to the Shari‘ah in case of any infringement or disagreement or complaints [55]. The Muhatsibpost became so important that the appointee was chosen by political power (i.e caliph, or sultan). The official position of Muhtasib for towns continued for most periods in the nineteenth century[56].

It was reported that barley production in Medina was sufficient in most years [57, and 58]. However, in some years merchants of Medina used to import wheat, barley, sesame, and chickpeas from the Levant, Syria [59], and raisins from Al-Taif [60].

The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (632–661 CE)

The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs did use the approaches adopted during the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم era: granting agricultural land for people to revive, cultivate and develop [61].

Omar Ibn Al-Khattab رضي الله عنه رضي الله عنه initiated a new approach for enhancing agriculture and food production: He declared (O people who cultivate/make alive a dead land, it is for him). Dead Land is a land that is not used before and owned by the State or land of dead people that there is nobody reclaimed) [62, and 63].  Accordingly, many people cultivated dead land and so did after him from the caliphs (Othman Ibn Affan and Ali Ibn Aby Taleb).

During the era of Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab رضي الله عنه; the Islamic state was exposed to affliction, called the year Al-Remadah. In the year 18 AH, people in the Arabian Peninsula suffered from severe starvation, poverty, drought, and hunger intensified until the man slaughtered the sheep not to see its ugliness, and the livestock died of starvation.  The famine was associated with the plague. People rushed from the depths of the desert to the city, resided in it, or near it, and sought a solution or help from the Caliph. It was reported that during the year of Al-Remadah as many as 25,000 people had died. Five steps that Omar followed in dealing with this crisis as follows [64, and 65]:

• He made of himself as an example to people: He did not eat and waited until the rest of the people ate.
• He established refugee camps for immigrants and provided services and support for them during the year of Al-Remadah
• He asked for help from countries not affected by famine such as Egypt
• He asked for help from ALLAH (God) and prayed and asked people to pray to ALLAH for the rain to fall and famine to end.
• He stopped implementing penalties on people and collecting taxes during the year of famine

In addition, Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khatab رضي الله عنه used the following measures to enhance agriculture and consequently food production [66]:

• Granting land to people to be reclaimed and developed [67],
• Employing abscess (agricultural taxes) money in developing agriculture [68],
• Benefiting from Zakat funds in developing agriculture [69],
• Establishment of the flour bank (home) to have strategic storage and equal distribution of it in the time of crisis [70],
• Seeking help and assistance from the states of the country with ample food production such as Iraq and Egypt (He wrote to Abu Musa Al-Ashari in Al Basra and Omar Ibn Al-As in Egypt for help) [71],
• After consulting with the poor, Omar established the Bayt al-mal, a welfare institution for the Muslim and non-Muslim poor, needy, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled [72].

Except for the famine year, during the rule of Caliph Omar Ibn al Khattab رضي الله عنه  poverty was eliminated, and the people lived at a time of total freedom from hunger and want

Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه  reported that the Messenger of Allah  صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم said: “Dawūd (peace be upon him) used to eat only from the earnings of his own hands.” Al-Miqdām ibn Ma‘d Yakrab (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet  صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَم said: “No one has ever eaten food better than that which his hands have earned. Indeed, Prophet Dawūd (peace be upon him) used to eat from the earnings of his own hands.”
[Sahih/Authentic with its two versions] – [Al-Bukhari]

Muslims produced everything they needed even one civilization historian said:

“I have not heard that Muslims, wherever they were settled, were importing food from outside the countries of the Islamic world. Muslims also wrote on the properties of the soil and how to produce compost, introducing substantial improvements in methods of ploughing, planting, and irrigation” [37].

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad[127], and many others. According to several European scholars, the agricultural system of Muslim Spain, in particular, was:

“the most complex, the most scientific, the most perfect, ever devised by the ingenuity of man” [128, and 129].

Adapted from muslimheritage.com