Assalam alaikum
Overpopulation is an idea stemmed from the innermost fears of the caucasians. They see a world in which they are a minority and the majority will exact revenge for their treatment at the hands of the white man. Enoch Powell's famous speech in which he mentioned 'rivers of blood' if we let black people stay in England, is another proof of their fear.
I have some proofs to show that sustenance is guaranteed and is from Allah (S.W.T.)
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith
Hadith 79
Narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab
Umar heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) say: 'If you put your faith completely in Allah, He will arrange for your sustenance in the same way as He provides for the birds. They go out in the morning with their stomachs empty and return filled in the evening.'
Transmitted by Tirmidhi.
Fiqh-us-Sunnah
Fiqh 3.92
Kin (dhawi al-Qurba), recipients of sadaqah
The kin are considered the most deserving people for the sadaqah gift because of the common blood relationship. When a man is in need and some of his relatives are rich, naturally he looks to them for help because they are of one family. Also, it is natural for a man to feel more sympathy and pain with his hard-pressed and needy relatives than with strangers. He is humiliated by their degradation and elevated by their honor. Therefore, any well-to-do person who cuts off his kin from assistance and lives in luxury while his relatives are in a state of misery is devoid of natural feeling or lacks belief and is far away from goodness or piety. On the other hand, for one who maintains close links with his kin, his sustenance is assured and his relationship is of beneficence to his kin.
End.
The rest of the proofs are in the following article.
An article from www.khilafah.com
THE CONSEQUENCES OF RIZQ BEING FROM ALLAH (SWT)
Of the many things that influence the actions of human beings, material wealth and survival rank among the top few. For many, these are the top players in their minds. As individuals, communities and nations, people have shaped their lives and made laws to ensure continuous provision of worldly comforts. In today's world, which is dominated by Western Capitalist values, a culture of looking at everything from the viewpoint of economics, including life itself, permeates societies. Having children is seen as an expensive business by couples. The notion of population control as a means of increasing the quality of life is pursued by many countries and pushed by international agencies and strategists.
In many 'Third World' countries, people who have not been affected by Western views have adopted the opposite strategy. Instead of cutting down on family size, they deliberately seek to increase it. Yet they are both acting for the same reason, to ensure prosperity. While the West sees population control as a means of sharing the available limited cake amongst fewer people and thereby everyone having a larger piece, those in the Third World see population growth as a means of making a larger cake (through availability of extra efforts) for them to share. That way, everyone in the family can have a larger share. Parents see large families as a means of 'insurance' in societies where there is no state support and subsistence farming is common. Many Muslims have also adopted non-Islamic attitudes with regards to rizq, by referring to sources other than Islam.
The perception of Rizq in Islam
In Islam, things are viewed differently. Islam teaches that rizq (livelihood) comes from Allah(swt). Therefore we must not worry about the size of the cake. There are many ayyats in the Qur'an where Allah (swt) emphasises this subject. To mention a few, Allah (swt) revealed in the Qur'an:
"O Mankind! Worship your Lord who created you and those before you, so that you may safeguard yourselves with full awareness of divine laws. Who made the earth a bed for you and the sky a canopy, and sends down rain from the sky and thereby produces fruits for your sustenance - So do not set up equals to Allah while you know." [TMQ 2:21-22]
"The Earth - We have spread it out, and placed firm mountains on it, and therein, We caused everything to grow in proper measure. And We have made for you therein means of sustenance, and for whom you do not provide. There is not a thing but its treasures are with Us, and We do not send it down but according to known measures. We send the winds fertilising and then We send down water from the clouds, and We give it to you to drink; but you are not its storers." [TMQ 15:19-22]
For Muslims, the realisation that rizq is from Allah(swt) is a part of our belief and should be understood as such. There must be no lip service by saying it and then acting contrary to it. Countless examples abound in the world around us. Moreover, the means through which rizq reaches us is as varied as the quantity bestowed on the creatures of Allah (swt). For example, the discovery of oil in the 20's granted the people of Saudi Arabia access to vast amounts of wealth out of the blue. By the same token, Allah (swt) has removed accessibility to wealth from many parts of the world via earthquakes and other natural disasters.
At the individual level, Allah (swt) makes wealth accessible to, and withdraws it from, whom He (swt) wishes, independent of the effort made by the individual. He who earns more is not necessarily harder working than he who earns less and vice versa. A particular person may earn more this month or year and then earn less the next month or year, even though he remains consistent in his effort. Besides, there are many ways through which rizq comes to us, without our expectation or anticipation. For example, gifts, inheritance, discovery of treasure etc. We can also lose wealth without expectation through means such as theft, fire, or straightforward loss. We are all aware of the fact that famine and depression can hit any country, and unemployment can hit any individual for reasons completely beyond their control. The perception of rizq has a great impact on society. Not only does it shape the society, it actually dominates society in many cases.
The impact of rizq perception on society: Infanticide
One of the oldest and far reaching impacts of the perception of rizq is that it causes whole societies to commit infanticide. This was very common in pre-Islamic Arabia. When Islam came, Allah (swt) addressed the people,
"Do not kill your children for fear of want. We provide sustenance for them and for you. Killing them is certainly a great sin." [TMQ 17: 31]
In today's world, which is dominated by Western concepts, the incorrect understanding of rizq was found in the theories put forward by the pastor, Thomas Robert Malthus. In 1798, he published an essay called 'Principle of Population'. In it, he argued that because population increases in a geometric progression while means of subsistence increases in an arithmetic progression, poverty and suffering are unavoidable. He therefore called for population control and the Western thinkers adopted this concept and advertised it to such an extent that a strong public opinion against the dangers of population increase began. They maintained that having large families would result in poor education and care, and damage the economy. As a result, a direct link was built between rizq and family size and governments went out of their way to encourage and even enforce this view. Abortion for fear of economic cost has now become part of Western culture. Over 200,000 abortions are conducted each year in the UK alone, 90% of them for socio-economic reasons. This is in effect infanticide in a new guise.
The impact of rizq perception on society: socio-economic stigmatisation
With time, the Malthusian concept took root due to continuous media bombardment and consequently, people thought it uncivilised and backward to have a large number of children. Some European countries resorted to other means to pressurise people into swallowing the concept of birth control. In Britain for instance, the family allowance was reduced to a maximum of five children only, while in other countries to three children. Other methods were also used by European governments such as the introduction of fixed salaries, refusing employment to a father of more than three children and refusing to let property for people with large families and so on. Society therefore became affected in many ways as a direct result of its perception of rizq. So strong is the perception that rizq depends on effort in terms of education and sheer hard work during employment that those who fail to achieve are treated with contempt in many parts of the world. In Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan and Malaysia for example, there is tremendous pressure on young people to have a degree. Failure not only brings shame to the individual, but to the entire family. Having a degree has almost artificially become a necessary condition in life for them. When John Major became British Prime Minister after Thatcher for example, they could hardly believe it!
The Islamic perception
Like everything else in Islam, the fact that Allah (swt) as the Creator informs us about the realities of life and instructs us to act accordingly would produce the best possible all-round results. Muslims do not have to wait and see the fallacy of the Malthusian theory before disbelieving in it. As humans, our foresight is limited. Hence Allah's (swt) information and instructions in the Qur'an should be fully believed and acted upon. Pastor Malthus and the rest of the world did not know the full yield potential of land in their days and neither can we claim so today. They could not foresee that in the 20th century, land productivity can be increased many times over and that far from food shortage, food will be stored in mountains as in Europe and even burnt as in Latin America in order to raise prices that have fallen due to excessive production. There are now estimates that the world can support up to 50 billion people, much greater than its 5 billion currently. Allah (swt) has revealed, "Have you considered the seed that you sow in the ground ? Is it you who make it grow or is it Us ?" [TMQ 56:63]
The simple fact remains clear that Allah (swt) is the provider of the food that we eat and all the wealth that we consume. The fears of the kuffar and their subsequent societal organisation and characteristics would never happen to a society based on Islam.
Islam does not teach us to fold our arms and do nothing as a consequence of the belief that Allah (swt) provides. Rather, there are countless examples and instructions in the sources of Shari'ah on what to do and how to act in all situations. To say that it is a virtue to seek knowledge, to work for our earnings, etc. is one thing, and to say that our rizq is a direct result of these is quite another. These are but a few channels among many through which our rizq reaches us.
In the Islamic society under the Khilafah, obeying the commands of Allah (swt) at an individual and societal level is more than enough to bring all the positive aspects of civilization that human theoreticians cannot even begin to comprehend. Our message therefore is to stop disobeying Allah (swt) by following and acting upon the theories and practices of the kuffar. Contrary to what the kuffar are pushing upon Muslims today due to their perception of rizq, the Prophet (saw) instructed, "Get married, be fruitful and multiply. I will be proud of you on the Day of Judgement."
Islam teaches that population is not the problem, for Allah (swt) has made ample provision for all. Rather, the problem is a result of following the kufr theories on population growth and the economic policies which came out of this. By theorizing that food and wealth is not enough for all, they seek to push birth control and establish a Capitalist economy whereby all effort is put into 'wealth creation'. Distribution of wealth rather than production of wealth is the central issue in the Islamic economy. Even countries who suffer from lack of productivity have bad distribution as their main problem, compounded by poor productivity. Consider a few Islamic injunctions to do with wealth such as the prohibition of hoarding, the payment of zakah, the redistribution of abandoned land, the prohibition of private ownership of public resources, and the prohibition of interest. These directly facilitate distribution of wealth and as a consequence, facilitate productivity through increased spending power, motivation to work and business partnerships. Coupled with a vibrant population that is not limited by unfounded fear of scarcity and the tranquillity derived from the fact that Allah (swt) provides, these present the ingredients for economic growth.
Conclusion
As Muslims we must ponder deeply on rizq, our perception of it and its implications upon our lives as individuals and as an Ummah. It is only through this that we can avoid being distracted by changing policies such as population control, which neither fits with reality nor is it acceptable in Islam. The Western countries are now increasingly shifting towards the view that having a large population is vital for the economic well being of a country and the idea of population control is losing favour. At the same time, population control is propagated in the Islamic lands as the cure for economic misery and as the liberation of women. The truth is that they fear the 'Islamic demographic bomb' as it is often referred to, as this is an asset which they do not have due to their wrong perception of rizq. Surely, the theories and knowledge of all humankind put together is nothing in comparison to the knowledge of the Creator. So why do Muslim countries follow any issue that the kuffar makes fashionable instead of studying our own Islamic sources and adopting policies accordingly? Only then can there be real success, in this world and the Hereafter.
kh.