The History of Business and Trade Practiced by Prophet Muhammad

The History of Business and Trade Practiced by
Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h)
Apandi, Abdul Qayyum Syafiq; Ahmad, Mohamad Farhan Hadi; Rosman,
Nur Izyan Hafizah; Abdul Rashid, Nur Raishah; Zulkifli, Amina
Suffianah; Muhammad Sahri, Ana Syahira; Mohd Dali, Nuradli Ridzwan
Shah
Faculty of Economics and Muamalat
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia
Keywords: Prophet Muhammad’s life, Business, Ethics.
The greatest man, Muhammad bin Abdullah bin ‘Abd al Mutalib or most known as
Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) is the last messenger sent by Allah to mankind. He was born on
Monday, 12 Rabiul Awwal at Mecca as an orphan by his mother, Aminah binti Abdul Wahab
as his father, Abdullah bin Abdul Mutalib passed away several weeks before his birth (A.
Zahoor and Z. Haq, 1998). Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) lost his biological mother when he
was six years old, then he lived with his grandfather, ‘Abd al Mutalib for about two years and
at his age eight years old, his grandfather died. He was raised by his uncle, Abi Talib and his
wife, Fatimah binti Asad after the death of ‘Abd al Mutalib (A. Zahoor and Z. Haq, 1998).
The Qur’an refers to his being an orphan when it says,
“Did He not find you (O’ Muhammad) an orphan and give you a refuge”
(Qur’an 93:6)
When he was young, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) worked as a shepherd to lighten
his uncle burden as his uncle is a modest (KIKIM Media, 2002). He was herding his uncle’s
sheep and Mecca citizen’s sheep also. From this job, Prophet Muhammad was implemented
positive attitudes in his self as well as it give benefit in business. Other than that, he learned
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in managing and leading from looking after the sheep. There are five functions in leading and
managing a shepherd which are search, supervise, direct, protect, and reflect the natural
occurrence (Antonia, 2007:80).
While still in his teens, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) accompanied his uncle on
trading journey as far as Bostra in Syria and he was twelve years old at that time (A. Zahoor
and Z. Haq, 1998). In Syam, they met a Christian Priest, Buhaira’ (Ali Irwan, 2011). He said
to have foreseen Muhammad as a prophet of Allah and asked Abu Talib to take a good care
of Muhammad and he did not let they go deep into the province of Syria. This is because; the
Jews will hurt Muhammad if he is getting known the signs Muhammad will be a prophet (Ali
Irwan, 2011). Besides, Abu Talib has brought along Muhammad to trade expedition in Syam
during summer and during winter, they do trading in Yemen (Muslim Kelana, 2011).
Prophet Muhammad is a responsible businessman because he always finishes and
does all the work that responsible upon him. All his work will do with smart and simple
without any objection. All people comfortable with the way he treat others. Same in business,
Prophet Muhammad treat the entire customer with full priority as long as not against the
syariah islam.
As a prove, we can see that the business of Siti Khadijah bt Khuwalid one of the
famous businesswoman was handled by him. She asked Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) to
handle her business at Syam(Syria). The Prophet accepted it and he went there with Maisarah
who is Khadijah’s worker. The business was run very well as they gain high profit. So if we
as a business man can do like our prophet, all Muslim can achieve successful and our
economic system will be the best.
Besides, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) strived hardly in acquiring the business in
hand with his lofty attitude. He treated his customers kindly and full of patience even if the
customers purchase nothing (Muslim Kelana, 2011). Besides that, Prophet Muhammad is a
friendly businessman. A businessman should be friendly in treating his customers.
Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) utterance, “Allah blessing a friendly man and tolerant
in business” (H.R. Bukhari and Tarmizi)
Noble attitudes and good ethics that he practiced in business such as honorable,
integrity, keep promises, and empathy towards customers’ circumstances gave rise to the very
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progress business (Muslim Kelana, 2011). In Mecca, the villagers named him as AL AMIN. It
is because of his trustworthy during incurred the business (nurdiyon, 2009). Prophet
Muhammad was never cheating on his business especially in measuring. As we know,
cheated was prohibited in Islam.
“The seller and the buyer have the right to keep or return goods as long as they have
not parted and if both the parties spoke truth and described the defect and qualities
of the goods, then they would be blessed in their transaction, and if they told lies or
hid something, then the blessing of their transaction would be lost” (Source:Bukhari
hadith collection)
He also sold the latest products with high quality and always applies accurate
calculation in measuring (Muslim Kelana, 2011). The Prophet Muhammad believed that high
quality product is the best product to be supplied to the customers as stated in Holy Qur’an,
Allah asks us to get the best quality product.
“O human, eat what is good and halal from the earth and never follow the steps of
Satan because they are apparent enemies for you” (Al-Baqarah: 168)
Other than that, Prophet Muhammad used unique selling techniques where he sold his
goods not as practiced by most of dealers or other merchants at that time because most of
them sell their merchandise with the highest price. But the Prophet sold by notifying the
principal and asks prices customers or buyers to pay what price they desire. The price that
Prophet Muhammad charged to the customers also reasonable as he said,
” Be happy all of you, those who able to attract customer to come to our stole is like
we fight with Allah way and who are cheated in trading is like we against Quran”
Prophet Muhammad also showed that he is a very hardworking in doing his business.
He had learned about marketing from his uncle, Abu Talib. He widens his business by
participating several of bazaar and exhibition which held at Yemen, Syria, Busra, Iraq,
Jordan, and Bahrain (Muslim Kelana, 2011). Furthermore, he expanded his business network
with potential partners to build strategic alliances (Muslim Kelana, 2011).
“Allah gives sustenance to His servants based on their activity and hardly willingness
also their effort”. (Hadith that reported by at-Thusi)
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Last but not least, business is an ibadat if we run the business based on the right ethics
as shown by our Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). The main key in our business is how to get
income with barakah, bear in your mind what we do in this world now will be ask to us later.
References:
Ali Irwan, 2011, Riwayat Hidup Rasulullah (s.a.w) [online]. Available
http://www.slideshare.net/aliirwan/riwayat-hidup-rasulullah-sallallahu-alaihi-wasallam
[Accessed: 15 March 2014].
at:
KIKIM Media, 2002, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. Life of Muhammad: HTML
Timeline | PBS [online]. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/muhammad/timeline_html.shtml
[Accessed: 15 March 2014].
Mario Al Pacitani, 2009, Nabi Muhammad Sebagai Al Amin | Naungan Islami [online].
Available at: http://naunganislami.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/nabi-muhammad-sebagai-alamin/ [Accessed: 15 March 2014].
Muhammad Sa’id Ramadan al Buti. 2008. Buku Fiqh Sirah Jilid 1. Penerbit dewan Pustaka
Fajar.
Muslim Kelana. 2011. Menjadi usahawan sehebat Rasullulah. Selangor: PTS Millenia
Sdn.Bhd. ISBN 978-983-3603-53-4.
Rusydi Ramli al Jauhari. Biografi Rasullulah.
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Wikipedia.org/wiki/muhammad#childhood_and_early_life
[online].
Available
at:
http://www.islaam.net/main/display.php?id=1446&category=165 [Accessed: 13 March
2014].
Zahoor and Z. Haq, 1998, Biography Of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) [online]. Available at:
http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/muhammad.html [Accessed: 15 March 2014].
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