My wife and I made some money off the sale of our house (I’m almost ashamed to admit, what with the sales crisis) and I was about to give a bunch to our investment guy when my wife invoked Sharia, or Islamic law. She knows a little about it from working at Newsweek International some years back. And she said that Sharia’s ban on interest, or usury, springs from the idea that money shouldn’t make money, your money should be active in the world. "I come from a world of coupon-clippers," she said, referring to her WASP roots, and that is offensive to her understanding of Sharia. You should be building the community with your money, not resting on your gilded laurels.
The personal finance issue aside, I found it amazing that my wife was invoking Sharia. She’s a highly evolved type, and in New Age circles people describe religions as "wisdom traditions." It’s just unusual to hear of Islam in that connection. Because Islam has been so slimed in the west, partly legitimately, because of the 72 virgins and the stoning of adulterers. Bad stuff (caricatured by Sam Harris in his anti-Islam books). But of course there’s bad stuff in Jewish law too, like capital punishment for adulterers and covering a woman’s hair. Also a lot of great stuff in Jewish law, like paying someone who works for you before a day passes, or feeding your animals before you feed yourself, or not eating an animal that was killed in fright.
I’m a Chinese-menu Jew, as they used to try and guilt us: one-from-column-a, one from column-b. Henceforth I know my wife and I are going to be thinking about Sharia when it comes to our money…
