Sulaiman Al-Rajhi: A Model for Nigerian
Billionaires
08 June 2012
By Isa Ali Pantami
One of the main reasons
that always compel me to have a poor impression of
most Nigerian Politicians, businessmen, technocrats
and even some fellow clergymen is their mission of
accumulating wealth without vision or any sound agenda
of how to spend their wealth honestly, sincerely and
religiously. Poverty, unemployment and ignorance are
undoubtedly among the godfathers of social vices and
crimes that have sunk our darling Nigeria in the ocean
of disaster and they can be eliminated or reduced by
using genuine wealth in genuine ways. Wealth is a
trust and we will definitely account for it- how we
accumulate it and how we spend it. Sir Thomas Browne
opined that "Be charitable before wealth makes you
covetous".
Acquiring legal and
legitimate wealth and spending it sincerely and
honestly based on priority and need is one of the most
successful and easiest ways of attainingAllah's Paradise
or/and going to the Heavens. Our Lord says: "By
no means shall you attain righteousness (Paradise)
unless you give freely of that which you love; and
whatever you give of a truth Allah knows it well"
(Q3: 92). In this divine quotation which has been
adopted as our framework of analysing charity, it has
been proven that it is only with genuine and sincere
charity that we can attain Paradise.
A brief story of a Saudi
billionaire and Philanthropist who chose to become
poor financially for the benefit of orphans, widows,
divorcees and paupers is a great lesson to wealthy
people in Nigeria, who accumulate money without limit.
Henry Fielding said it very nicely that, "A rich man
without charity is a rogue; and perhaps it would be no
difficult matter to prove that he is also a fool".
Shaykh Alhaji Sulaiman Al-Rajhi
is a world-renowned philanthropist, who had
accumulated legitimate wealth starting from scratch to
the position of multi-billionaire without holding any
public or political office. He was praised as
"Rags-to-Riches" billionaire. He grew up in the Najd
desert where he began his business bychanging money for
pilgrims and taking camel caravans across the desert
to the cities of Makkah and Madinah together with his
biological brother- Saleh. He is indeed the founder
and chairman of Al-Rajhi Bank- the largest Islamic
Bank today globally. Before he established Al-Rajhi,
he intellectually succeeded in convincing chiefs of
the leading central banks of the world, England
inclusive, nearly 30 years ago that interest (Riba) is
forbidden in both Islam and Christianity, and that
Islamic banking is the most effective solution to
activate Islamic financing in the world and make it a
real boost to the global economy. He earlier applied
for a license for the bank but was turned down,
because the concerned British officials did not have
any basic idea about Islamic Banking. He therefore,
went to London and discussed with the leaders of the
Bank of England, he told them that Muslims and
Christians see interest as forbidden, and pious people
are unwilling to make transactions with Banks based on
interest and instead prefer to keep their cash and
other valuables at home. They were later convinced,
and he travelled to various countries with the same
mission. In the end, this banking system was
officially launched in Saudi Arabia and subsequently
implemented in the United Kingdom.
Forbes estimated his
wealth to be $7.7 billion, and this catapulted him to
become the 120th richest man globally as of
2011. He is also the chairman of National Agricultural
Development Company, the founder of Al-Watania
agricultural company, which was established after his
visit to a poultry project abroad, where he saw how
chicken were slaughtered mercilessly. The farm has
now become an instrument of achieving food security
and enjoys at least 40 percent market share in the
Kingdom and it is the largest farm in the whole of the
Middle East. He is also the pioneer in establishing
modern organic farming in the whole of the Middle
East.
Sulaiman Al-Rajhi was born
in 1920. Despite his age, he is very active physically
and spiritually, and enjoys walking anytime. He always
begins his work daily after the Morning Prayer
(6:00am) and is active until Isha prayer (8:00pm)
before going to bed early. He received his bachelor of
art/science degree at King Abdul-Aziz University. He
currently lives in Jeddah-Riyadh axis and has 23
children. Before his recent sacrifice he was
considered as Saudi's wealthiest non-royals and among
the leading philanthropists globally.
In 2009, Sulaiman Al-Rajhi
established a private non-profit research university
at Bukayriyyah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia, named as
Sulaiman Al-Rajhi University, comprising three
colleges-Medicine, Nursing and Applied Science as well
as state-of-the-art Teaching Hospital. The university
was established by Sulaiman Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Rajhi
Charitable Foundation (SAAR), which has been
considered as the biggest in the Kingdom in terms of
capital and charitable activities.
Fortunately and
interestingly, he is indeed an exceptional
billionaire, who chose willingly to become poor
without having any cash, estate, infrastructure or
stock that he owned earlier. When he personally wished
to become poor, he invited his children to the city of
Makkah during the last ten days of Ramadhan and
presented the idea to them which they unanimously
accepted and seconded.
Furthermore, he took a
substantial amount from his wealth and distributed to
his family in order to make them self-reliant and
donated all the remaining to an established endowment
for the sake of Allah. He spiritually threw away his
huge wealth through two prestigious windows-
distributed first portion to his children and the
second and more than half portion to endowment, which
is regarded as the largest endowment in the history of
the Islamic world. Going Through his biography, he had
to fight poverty and suffering during his childhood
before becoming a billionaire through hard work and
relentless efforts, and then leaving all his fortune
to become penniless again.
Sulaiman Al-Rajhi said
that, "Now, I own only my clothes. I distributed my
wealth among my children and set aside the greatest
portion for endowment to run charity projects. As far
as I am concerned, this situation is not a strange
one. My financial condition reached zero point two
times in my life, and therefore I have the feeling and
understanding (about poverty) well. But now the
feeling is accompanied by happiness, relaxation and
peace of mind. The zero phase in life this time is
purely because of my own decision and choice". He
emphasised that, he chose this humble way of life
because all wealth belongs to Almighty Allah, and we
are only entrusted by Allah to take care of it.
Sulaiman Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Rajhi
Charitable Foundation (SAAR) now owns and controls
more than half of Sulaiman Al-Rajhi's wealth, and
executes so many charitable activities and
humanitarian services in the world. As a result of
that he was awarded with King Faisal Award Prize in
the year-2012.
Finally, orphans, widows,
divorcees, paupers, unemployed-energetic youth,
vulnerable children and many others eagerly and
anxiously pray for anotherSulaiman Al-Rajhi to
emerge in Nigeria. We have many multi-billionaires in
our country, but they lack sacrifice and sound
mission. I Hope to hear of such sacrifice in my
country soon. This is what is expected from wealthy
people in our society. Here is a reminder to those who
heed "Who is he that will lend to Allah a goodly
loan so that He may multiply it..?Q64:17"
I pray for Allah's blessings and success for
you in this life and the life to come as you give from
that which you love.
As I was concluding this
piece, I read that Nigeria international footballer,
John Mikel Obi of Chelsea is planning to launch his
pet project today named as "The John Mikel Obi
Foundation" whose mission is to bring succour to the
homeless and displaced people across the nation
especially "Almajirai". He said, "It was a dream for
me when I was growing up. I know the way it feels,
many are homeless and have no food to eat and it has
always been in my mind to do something in this
direction. I intend to make this a lifetime thing if
it achieves the purpose". I really and sincerely give
thumbs-up to Mikel Obi and I wish him Allah's guidance
and protection in this world and in the next.
Isa Ali
Pantami,
PhD Candidate
(Computing & IT) in the United Kingdom,
Add Comments