Islam was introduced to India by the Muslim merchants long before the Islamic conquests ever begin and one of the largest Muslim population in the world such as Indonesia were converted to Islam due to the interaction with Muslim merchants and not by conquests.
Entrepreneurship has a long history in Islam and in fact it started with the Prophet of Islam who himself was a merchant and encouraged business activities. This tradition was carried on and trade flourished in Islamic world eradicating poverty and developing societies with the increased wealth till the time there was Muslim Rule.
India which was ruled by Muslims for ages gives a good historical review of Muslim Entrepreneurship. At the time of the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb who the last significant Muslim ruler of India, the economy flourished to its peak. Emperor Aurangzeb’s exchequer exceeded £100 million in 1700 (twice that of Europe then). India emerged as the world’s largest economy, followed by Manchu China and Western Europe. A nation can collect such huge proportion of tax when the economy of the state is doing exceptionally good. India was at its economic glory in the times of the Muslim rule, an estimate by Angus Maddison, formerly of Groningen University, reveals that India’s share of the world income went from 24.4% in 1700 to a low of 3.8% in 1952r. How the Muslim Rulers develop such an incredible economy? They encouraged entrepreneurship.
Muslims traded with far off countries taking Indian produce to every corner of the known world making India a highly prosperous country. The raise of British Empire was an advent of dark era for India and Muslims, their goal was to communally divide India by portraying Muslims as a violent and backward thinking people. They did everything they can to instill a sense of inferiority complex among Indians and specifically Muslims. They dreamed of making India a nation of Brown Englishmen with people large number of working class people serving her majesty in England. Entrepreneurship was a risk to British Empire as Indian entrepreneurs would compete with British and it was utterly discouraged.
The Muslims who use to be an influential Business Class people ceased to be so and started loosing control over markets. The current state of Muslims which is pathetic with majority of Muslims in India living in derelict conditions and the only reason can be that the Muslims stopped following Islamic Principles.
It is high time that the Muslims stop the cultural evil, which has penetrated the Muslim Community of extravaganza and spendthrift ness in the form of excessive dowry, lavish wedding parties and filling their homes with expensive materials. Marriage which is a simple ceremony in Islam has been changed into a status symbol and this leads to Muslims saving money all their lives to be spent in a single day on naive show of egoistic self exaggeration.
For Muslims to be successful and flourishing, community has to use every single penny to be invested for wealth generation, which will help the poor in the form of zakat and charity. Muslims hold large wakf assets and large portion of professionals working in gulf and west can be encouraged to be venture capitalist. We need an Islamic Bank, which caters for the need of Muslims Entrepreneurs. People with defeatist mentality perceive Muslims as a people without future however it is not the first time that we are suffering but we have always proved the pessimistic forecasters of Muslims’ future wrong with hard work and dedication to Islam and God willing will do again.