The World Summit for Social Development
A Product of the Corruption of Capitalism in Guardianship of the Affairs of People
(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 575 - 26/11/2025
By: Ustadha Muslimah Ash-Shami (Umm Suhaib)

With the participation of more than 40 heads of state and 8,000 delegates, including representatives from several Muslim countries, the second World Summit for Social Development concluded its three-day session in Doha, Qatar, with a global consensus on translating commitments into action, and strengthening international cooperation for justice, equality, and dignity for all. This summit comes thirty years after the first World Summit held in Copenhagen in 1995, which was the largest gathering of world leaders at the time, attended by more than 14,000 people, including representatives from 186 countries, 117 of which were represented at the level of heads of state or government. At that summit, governments pledged to make the eradication of poverty, the achievement of full employment, and the promotion of social inclusion key development goals.

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly held a special session in Geneva to assess progress made since the Copenhagen Summit. At this session, member states agreed that progress in reducing poverty and unemployment had not been achieved and that countries were still far from meeting internationally set targets for health and education. This second summit in Qatar came to renew the international commitment to achieving (social justice), eliminating poverty, promoting job opportunities and social inclusion, within the efforts to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

As we can see, the goal of this summit and others like it is to achieve what is called “social justice” and to eliminate poverty and unemployment. The term “social justice” is a Western term, and it consists of provisions and solutions designed to patch up the capitalist system, such as social security, unions, and similar concepts that contradict the rulings of Islamic law. These are man-made and based on individual interests and the interests of those in power and authority. Although they market it deceptively like other capitalist concepts and ideas, claiming it means equality in economic, social, and political rights and opportunities for all members of society, regardless of their race, gender, or circumstances, and that it seeks a fair and equitable distribution of resources and privileges, enabling everyone to participate in public life, guaranteeing the protection of human rights for all, and thus eradicating poverty, if we look at reality, none of this exists or is implemented in the prevailing capitalist system in the world, just like many other false and glittering terms and concepts with which they deceive peoples and societies.

Capitalism is the true enemy of the poor, due to the corruption of its principles and its economic policies, which prioritize the interests of capitalists, giant corporations, and colonialist powers at the expense of the poor, oppressed peoples, and colonialized populations. It is a decaying system that glorifies usury to sustain growth, resulting in volatile economies, rampant unemployment, and the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the poor. This has led to injustice in wealth distribution, increased poverty, and a further enrichment of the rich while impoverishing the poor. It has made individual gain and economic profit the primary goals of life, producing materialistic, consumerist societies where profit trumps dignity and well-being, contributing to the exploitation and enslavement of millions worldwide. Furthermore, the system of loans provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), along with the free-market system such as privatization, monopolies, and concessions, have pushed Muslim countries — which possess some of the world's greatest natural resources — into developing nations. All of this serves to increase the overall income of Western capitalist countries and their organizations, allowing them to control these countries and their resources through collusion with agent rulers.

Even women have not been spared the devastating consequences of this outdated system, which claims to protect them and advocate for their rights. To maintain high revenues for governments and corporations, capitalist states have forced women into the workforce under the guise of equality, women’s empowerment, and the need for work. Their value has been determined by their role in wealth production, burdening them with the heavy responsibility of earning a living at the expense of their fundamental roles as mothers and homemakers. The very concept of motherhood has been undermined, leaving women with neither the capacity nor the time to properly care for their homes and children, thus depriving them of the necessary time and resources to nurture future generations. In this way, capitalism has reduced women to mere commodities, objects, and machines for wealth production, even at the expense of their motherhood, femininity, dignity, and humanity.

Therefore, all of this must end. This corrupt and oppressive system must be eradicated, and the corrupt and failing regimes in Muslim countries, which plunder the Ummah’s wealth to build their own personal fortunes, must be eliminated. Indeed, the entire world needs a new system that prioritizes human well-being over material profit — a just system not governed by self-interest and man-made laws; a system that eradicates poverty through the equitable distribution of wealth within a prosperous economy; a system that adopts sound economic policies combining prosperity and economic justice, one that does not build its wealth at the expense of people’s lives and dignity; a system that prohibits riba (interest), privatization of public property, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few; a system that invests resources and wealth in production, manufacturing, technology, agriculture, and other sectors; a system that eliminates taxes that burden the people; a system that relies on the Ummah’s own resources, not on foreign debt that makes it dependent on other countries; a system in which the women of the world will find a model that truly protects them from poverty and subjugation, and where they are viewed with dignity and humanity, not as commodities or objects of profit.

This can only be achieved within the Khilafah (Caliphate) system, which adopts this perspective and implements Islamic Shariah rulings, including the economic system, guaranteeing the rights of all without favoring one group over another or one person over another. This system, which has been implemented for centuries, has proven its remarkable ability to eradicate poverty and unemployment through the equitable distribution of wealth, the reduction of the tax burden, the increase of individual incomes, and the provision of basic and even luxury needs, thus creating a fertile environment for development, prosperity, progress, and employment opportunities.