What do you say about the one who claims that the statement that zakah is not obligatory on trade goods causes harm to the poor and the needy?

The questioner : ... zakah on trade goods.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... what is this?

The questioner : ... it is rarely available to the merchant ... .

The Shaykh : This is an argument against you, not for you; because we are now going to state a position known by specialized scholars in economics, and perhaps we can say that the general public shares in this, or if not, at least the merchants. Now we pose a question: There are two merchants, and their wealth is equal in amount. One has, for example, a million, and the other has a million. One of them has hoarded the million in an iron safe, and I do not say in the bank, because that is forbidden and not permissible; rather, he hoarded this money in an iron safe placed in a secure, trustworthy location. And whenever a year passes over this million, he gives out the charity of this money at the rate of 2.5, and distributes it to the poor and the needy. There is no doubt that he has purified his wealth, and thereby purified himself. The other rich man, whether the million is in riyals or dinars, the important thing is to make the matter clear to the minds, this second man converted the million into trade goods, put them on the market, and dealt with them. Imagine now how many people will benefit from the wealth of this rich man whose wealth was converted into trade goods? He has benefited the poor and the needy for whom zakah is obligatory, and he has benefited other people, such as workers and merchants who are ... in the money. This is from one aspect. And from another aspect, this first aspect is that the benefit of the money that is put to work and circulated among people is undoubtedly more beneficial than that money which is hoarded, and from which only 2.5 is taken out at the end of every year. And from another aspect: Which of the two moneys is more noble? The money that is given from the upper hand to the lower hand, or the money that is taken by right through the sweat of the brow and the toil of the hand?
You know the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): , and the upper hand is the giving hand, and in an Arabic expression as it came in the same hadith: it is the generous hand, and the other hand is the taking hand. So when the first rich man gives his money, he is giving and his hand is the upper one, and the hand of the poor man taking it is the lower one. As for the other rich man who put his money out for dealing among people, he and those dealing with him in that are equal; each of them takes his right in the manner mentioned. So if you leave aside the other aspect, the aspect of which is more complete regarding whether he takes his right with the lower hand or the upper hand; if we leave this aspect aside and look at the first aspect, we will find that from the economic aspect, the trade goods on which zakah does not fall, as we said earlier, one gives out of them what pleases his soul, and that he has employed the community with this money.
And imagine, I gave an example of two men ..., so imagine if we had hundreds of rich men, all of whom stored their money in their safes; what would be the state of the economy? There is no doubt that it would collapse. So we believe—and this is from the virtue of following the Salaf, and we do not say in vain what we have put in your ears earlier, the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous Salaf; because that following is what reforms the society. For that reason, the Imam of the City of Migration, Malik ibn Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), said: "Whoever innovates in Islam an innovation which he considers good, has claimed that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) betrayed the message. Read the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): ; so whatever was not a religion at that time will not be a religion today." The point is he said: "And the last of this community will not be reformed except by what reformed its first." And from here we understand the importance of jurisprudence derived from the Qur'anic verses, the Prophetic hadiths, and the reports of the Salaf; by that, the society is reformed, as Malik said earlier: "And the last of this community will not be reformed except by what reformed its first."
I did not intend to mention this economic aspect; because it is not my scholarly methodology to submit the religious ruling to more than what came in the Book and the Sunnah. But when I mentioned this, it was in answer to that question which we have heard repeatedly and often, like the answer to that question: Is zakah obligatory on trade goods? We mention what came in the Book and the Sunnah and the reports of the Salaf, as I mentioned earlier. As for if a questioner assumes that if we say that trade goods cause harm to the poor and the needy, no, by Allah, the matter is exactly the opposite; putting these hoarded moneys in some safes to work and converting them into trade goods is more beneficial for the needy and for others as well. And in that, there is no objection to adding to this employment that he gives out of it what pleases his soul; as came in the noble verse: , and as we said earlier: .