"We cannot speak about fighting, looking after the poor without putting our economy in order. Everything needs cost," Said Aqil Siroj, the chief of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), one of Indonesia`s largest Islamic organizations, said here on Saturday at a fast-breaking function with members of the Association of Nadhlatul Ulama Businessmen (HPN) at the NU Headquarters.
He said many great Islamic figures were wealthy and had used their wealth for advancing Islam, referring to Abu Bakar, Imam Hanafi Abu Hanifah and Syekh Abdul Qodir Al Jaelani among others.
He said it was the Koran that states that money or wealth is goodness that every Moslem must have.
"The Koran states if we die we must leave behind goodness. One of it is money or wealth which we will leave so that with it no one needs to live miserably," he said.
Regarding the HPN he hoped it could improve the welfare of NU members.
NU members who become businessmen are hoped to be able to play a role to improve the welfare of other NU members.
He however advised them to conduct their business according to the shariah.
"Those who become businessmen be honest businessmen. Those who become farmers be successful farmers that do not forget to give alms so that the wealth that we own is also useful for others," he said.
HPN chief Abul Kholik meanwhile hoped the founding of the organization could help improve the quality of NU businessmen and overcome their weakness such as in networking.
"It is about how we can empower the weak and make the strong comfortable," he said.
He said 30 businessmen have already become members of the HPN which is structurally under the NU Economic Institution.
"We wish to improve the economy and our competition capability so that we would not only beg. How could be that the business has so far been controlled only by 10 percent of people of the minority group," he said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
