It has long been repeated by tongues and accepted by minds that welfare is measured only by the abundance of cash and the multiplication of dinars, and that happiness depends on what one carries in the hand of gold or silver. If wages rise, it is said that blessing has arrived; and if they fall, it is said that blessing has departed. Yet this perception is nothing but an illusion by which souls deceive themselves, and a shadow that misleads the eyes. The reality of welfare is wider than a full purse and deeper than a number written in a payroll ledger. It is an interwoven structure whose pillars include the strength of currency, the sobriety of the market, the justice of distribution, the firmness of culture, and the state’s management in a way that preserves its balance and establishes its authority.

What Governs the Fluctuation of Welfare

The dinar weighs on the scale only according to what it grants its holder of ability to protect his family, honor his guest, and meet his needs. What is the benefit of a doubled dinar if it buys nothing but a dry piece of bread or a roof of straw? And what is the weakness of a modest wage if it provides its holder with a spacious shelter, a full table, and dignified clothing? The lesson is not in the abundance of the number, but in the abundance of usefulness; not in the amount, but in what money becomes in value. Number and value may meet, and they may separate as far as east from west: “How often a little has sufficed beyond much, and how often much has failed to suffice beyond little.”

When people confuse the boundaries between number and value, they also confuse the difference between inflation and rising prices. They imagine that more cash in their hands multiplies wealth, while in truth it may only be abundance that lights the fire of high prices and melts what is in the pocket. Inflation is born of blind abundance that floods markets with liquidity. Although Allah, the Exalted, warned: “Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils” (Al-Isra: 27), liquidity inflames desires and increases the hands reaching toward goods. The merchant then takes greed as his mount and avarice as his guide, raising prices not because of shortage in the good, but because of an increase in demand. The inflated salary then gives its holder nothing but more hardship, as he chases a mirage and finds no water, like one riding a raging sea: the more he rows with effort, the more the waves push him backward.

Here, where a person becomes lost between the abundance of numbers and the narrowness of usefulness, it becomes certain that price is not value. Price is what the seller’s tongue declares, while value is the testimony of the market and the justice of exchange. A merchant may raise his voice with eight dinars for a good worth only four; if someone buys it, that is not proof of its true worth, but proof of corruption in judgment or failure in alternatives. How dangerous it is when markets are monopolized and competition is disabled. Then the wall separating price from illusion collapses, and numbers become a deception upon which no dignified life can be built. As the Arabs said: “Whoever finds justice too narrow will find injustice made wide for him.” For this reason, value is truer than number and more lasting than the seller’s tongue.

At this point, the essence of the truth is revealed: a person’s welfare is not judged by what the bureau writes in the salary field, but by the position destiny places him in among the average incomes of his people. If the wages of one sector rise above all other sectors, the relative ability of its members rises, while others remain where they are; indeed, their burden may increase if that sector’s demand is reflected in prices. But if all wages rise or all wages fall together, prices move with them, and relative balance remains preserved in form, even if the field is not free from the winds of inflation or the clouds of contraction. Thus, it becomes clear that justice in wages is not in the abundance of the number, but in its relativity to the average, and in how close or far a person is from the center of the scale.

The Welfare Equation: Mathematically

Welfare is not a wandering imagination floating in open space. It is a reality that can be reduced to an equation and weighed by a precise scale. Consider a segment of society whose first concern is home ownership, and whose second concern is a salary sufficient for its needs. If six tenths of that segment have obtained homes, and seven tenths have incomes sufficient for them, then its share of welfare is close to two thirds of completeness. Here it becomes clear that raising the index is not achieved by increasing cash alone, but by opening the doors of ownership, easing needs, and simplifying access to them. Welfare is not what is placed in the pocket as cash, but what the hand can obtain of the foundations of living. Allah, the Exalted, says: “But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and do not forget your share of the world” (Al-Qasas: 77). A dignified life is a valid aim; money is not an end in itself.

Once it becomes clear that material needs can be measured in this way, many needs are, in truth, not purely material; they are burdened by culture and embroidered by social standards. Consider education, for example: when public education weakens, families rush toward private schools, until private education becomes a symbol of quality, even if it is not always so. In this way, culture artificially raises the ceiling of welfare and throws upon the shoulders of the middle class a burden beyond its capacity. If the state reforms public education and elevates its standing, the standard changes, the burden lightens, and the index rises on its own, without the need for heavy debts or doubled salaries. Yet policies, however precise, will not bear fruit unless supported by the citizen’s awareness and the prudence of consumer behavior, for these are the second wing by which the project of welfare takes flight.

If the welfare equation has shown that the index rises only as ownership of needs rises, then tax tools — if enacted by the scale of wisdom and the justice of policy — become among the sharpest means of reaching that goal. Taxation, in its essence, is not a sword cutting people’s livelihoods, but a scale establishing justice on earth, restraining deviation if the market becomes unjust or oppressive, curbing monopoly, and reformulating the equation in a way that brings needs closer to people’s hands. The Arabs said: “Money is a good servant, but a corrupt master.” Financial tools, such as taxation, should be harnessed as a bridge of justice, returning benefit to society multiplied. They preserve the fruit of effort and prevent sweat from falling wasted into the pit of inflation or the chaos of greed. The purpose of these tools, when applied, is to raise ownership rates of needs directly, so that life becomes more just, the welfare index becomes more stable and elevated, and the scales of society become upright in moderation.

A Welfare Strategy

From here emerges the proposal for a “Welfare” strategy. It is not a slogan to hang on occasions, nor a dream passed around in gatherings, but a deep conception and an ambitious plan whose aim is to extend its hand across different sectors, improving welfare indicators in education as in health, in the economy as in housing, so that one side is not repaired while another is left behind. This is the path toward the comprehensive vision we hope for: sustainable welfare, whose effect remains firm and does not scatter with crises or fade with the turns of days.

So that this proposal does not remain trapped on paper, the vision requires legislation establishing a Public Authority for Welfare, defining its vision and enabling its financial and administrative independence. Its executive regulations would set its objectives and mechanisms of work, granting it elevated powers and the ability to address all state agencies to provide it with the data and statistics needed for analysis and planning. Its recommendations should be submitted directly to the Council of Ministers for study and approval of what serves the public interest, whether through legislative amendments, new laws, or ministerial and agency decisions that translate recommendations into tangible reality.

The aim of this proposal is that improving welfare indicators should not be viewed as a social luxury or psychological sedative, but as a deep economic investment that multiplies the return from the bridge connecting a person’s effort to his living needs. This bridge — money — often sways under the winds of inflation and monopoly, wasting more effort than it delivers. If the bridge is repaired and strengthened, crossing becomes safe, every effort bears benefit, and every drop of sweat turns into good fruit.

Because welfare does not rest on economic policies alone, but is also shaped by culture and standards, the proposal also requires a social awakening through governmental and non-governmental institutional guidance. It must restore regard to honest simplicity and extinguish the glitter of falsehood that burdens the middle class and loads it with obligations beyond its capacity. In this way, welfare is built on a solid foundation, not on imagined appearances or hollow boasting. The goal is not to make the rich equal to the poor, for that is an illusion that contradicts the nature of things, but to bring classes closer together, so the rich do not remain in their clouds while the poor remain in their dust, and the middle class remains the pillar of balance and guardian of stability. This is exactly what the noble verse points to: “So that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you” (Al-Hashr: 7), so that wealth remains a tool of stability and prudence, not a means of distinction and injustice.

Thus, if this proposal is realized, and “Welfare” becomes a strategy whose objectives are renewed through the “Public Authority for Welfare,” society may witness the birth of a broader and higher vision: sustainable welfare, inherited by children just as dignity and justice are inherited for them.

Welfare, then, is not the ornament of money, nor the abundance of numbers, nor the glitter of appearances. It is a precise equation in which the threads of economics interweave with the fabric of culture, policy embraces law, and individual effort cooperates with social awareness. If strategies are placed upon insight, the state proceeds through them with wisdom, and people receive them with understanding and appreciation, the welfare index will rise not through salary increases alone, but through elevation in thought, firmness in justice, and uprightness in living. At that point, it will be said that the nation has succeeded — not by the abundance of what lies in its treasuries, but by the goodness of life, the reassurance of hearts, and the firmness of values.

O Allah, ordain for this nation a matter of right guidance, and make us among those who are grateful for Your blessing, uphold Your justice, and strive toward Your prudence. Indeed, You are the Guardian of that and fully able to do it; and excellent are You as Protector and Helper.

“And say, ‘Work, for Allah will see your work, and His Messenger and the believers’” (At-Tawbah: 105)

Welfare is not what is placed in the pocket as cash, but what the hand can obtain of the foundations of living.

How does welfare strategy and real living standards affect the economy?

Its effect appears in how costs, incentives, and resources are managed, and in the economy's ability to turn decisions into sustainable value. The direct context is for a Welfare strategy and public authority to measure real living standards beyond wages, linking income, prices, culture, and access.

How does the factor of revenues change the understanding of rentier culture?

Rentier culture links gains to the state more than to production, making reform look like a threat rather than a necessary transition. From the angle of revenues, the issue is not measured by its label alone, but by the measurable effect it leaves behind.

How does the factor of revenues change the understanding of public debate?

Debate supports reform when it seeks evidence and results; it obstructs reform when it becomes accusation, denial, or short-term gain. From the angle of revenues, the issue is not measured by its label alone, but by the measurable effect it leaves behind.

How does the factor of revenues change the understanding of living standards and productivity?

Living standards cannot remain stable without real productivity, because welfare funded externally or by a depleting resource remains vulnerable. From the angle of revenues, the issue is not measured by its label alone, but by the measurable effect it leaves behind.