The New Nation - Internet Edition

Corruption rating improves

BANGLADESH'S rating in the latest assessment of Transparency International (TI) as the 10th most corrupt nation among 180 countries sampled, marks a slight improvement. After all, Bangladesh was labelled as the number one corrupt country for four consecutive years beginning in 1999. Its position has now moved upwards from the lowest position to the 10th position. This marks progress in shaking off the odious label as the worst afflicted country by corruption. Bangladesh shares the 10th spot with three other countries - Kenya, Russia and Syria. Thus, there is scope for some satisfaction that this country is not stagnating in its previous position as the worst one for corruption. It would be definitely seen as trying to address the corruption issue with the seriousness it deserves and achieving some success.

Nonetheless, observers regret that Bangladesh could move much higher in the corruption perception index of TI, specially in the wake of the very vigorous drive started against corruption in the last two years. That this drive has been weakening for some months is evident from the slowed down activities of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other law enforcement bodies. This is considerably due to much hue and cry that wholesale and sweeping actions against corruption suspects was unsettling and unnerving businesses and others to the detriment of the smooth functioning of the economy.

Notwithstanding such concern, the fact is that the people desire the struggle against corruption to continue. But the challenge remains for the caretaker government to get firm commitment of the major political parties in the public view that they would continue the anti-corruption drive with full steam should they win the elections and go to power. Also, the incumbent government should empower ACC with much improved investigation capabilities so that this body can successfully frame cases leading to conviction of corruption suspects in the future.

Bangladesh-Bhutan trade

A 16-MEMBER business delegation from neighbouring Bhutan during its recent visit to Dhaka urged Bangladesh businessmen to invest in the Himalayan state to obtain 'maximum benefit' from their venture. Bhutan has for long been a business partner of Bangladesh but the trade volume between the two countries is very small despite the fact that there is much scope to increase export from Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh importers and exporters are facing serious problems in opening letters of credit in the local banks which are not interested because local exporters sometimes are unable to send goods through India.

During the 9-month period from July 2007 - March 2008, Bangladesh's imports from Bhutan stood at $ 10.80 million, while its exports to Bhutan amounted to only US$ 0.78 million, according to latest official available figures. The major items Bangladesh imports from Bhutan are vegetable and mineral products, chemicals, prepared foodstuffs, beverages, fruits, vinegar, tobacco, timber, wooden products and textile items - some of which are already popular brands here. Bangladesh, on the other hand, exports major items like woven garment, computer accessories, dry food and frozen fish besides pharmaceutical products.

It was admitted that though there is a wider scope the two countries, it was pointed out, could not enhance bilateral trade upto the mark till now mainly because of lack of transit route through the small passage of Indian territory for direct movement of goods. Both Bhutan and Bangladesh have been requesting India for providing the transit for long but in vain. Bhutan's third country trade currently moves through India's Kolkata Port, which always remains congested. Bangladesh could have provided relatively congestion-free facilities through Mongla Port, which is located rather at a shorter distance from Thimpu compared to Kolkata.

How we should observe Lailat al-Qadr

Abu Noman Mohammad Tarek

ONE of the most distinctive aspects of the month of Ramadan is that it includes Lailatul Qadr (the night of power), which is the most blessed night of the year. This is that very night in which Allah Ta'ala chose to reveal the Holy Quran upon our beloved Rasool (s.a.w.). It is mentioned in the Holy Quran that this night is better than a thousand months (83 years and four months) as Allah himself speaks: "The night of al qadr is better than a thousand months." (verse 3 Surah Al Qadr).

This means the worship performed in this night brings more reward than that worship carried out for the period of a thousand months.

There are reports which speak of the great virtue of doing acts of worship on Lailat al Qadr. Our Lord, may He be blessed and exalted, has told us that it is better than a thousand nights, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said that whoever spends this night in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward will be forgiven his previous sins.

Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

''Verily, We have sent it (this Qur'an) down in the Night of Al Qadr (Decree).

2. And what will make you know what the Night of AlQadr" (Decree) is? .

3. The Night of Al-Qadr (Decree) is better than a thousand months (i.e. worshipping Allah in that night is better than worshipping Him a thousand months, i.e. 83 years and 4 months).

4. Therein descend the angels and the Rooh Jibreel (Gabriel)] by Allah's permission with all Decrees.

5. (All that night), there is peace (and goodness from Allah to His believing slaves) until the appearance of dawn" [al-Qadr 97:1-5]

And it was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever spends this night in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward will be forgiven his previous sins." Narrated by al-Bukhari, 1901; Muslim, 760.

Out of faith means believing in its virtue and in the reward for that.

In the hope of reward means by seeking the pleasure of Allah.

According to authentic sources lailatul qadr falls in anyone of the last five odd nights of Ramadhan i.e. 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29th alternating each year, as we are told in the hadith related by Ibne Umar (r.a.), Rasoolullah (s.a.w.) said "t and, search for lailatul qadr in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan."

The scholars differed as to the definition of Lailat al-Qadr, and there are many opinions, more than forty as it says in Fath al-Baari. The most likely to be correct is the view that it is one of the odd-numbered nights among the last ten nights of Ramadan.

It was narrated from 'Aa'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

"Seek

Lailat al-Qadr' among the odd numbered nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan." Narrated by al-Bukhari. 2017; Muslim, 1169.

Al-Bukhari included this hadeeth in a chapter entitled: "Seeking Lailat al-Qadr among the odd numbered nights of the last ten nights (of Ramadan)."

The reason why it is hidden is to encourage the Muslims to strive hard in worship and du'aa' and zikr during all the last ten nights of Ramadaan.

This is the same reason why the time when du'aa' is answered on Friday has not been defined, and why the ninety-names of Allah have not been defined, concerning which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

"Whoever learns them by heart will enter Paradise." Narrated by al-Bukhari, 2736; Muslim, 2677.

Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar said: The words of Imam al-Bukhari - "Seeking Lailat al-Qadr among the odd numbered nights of the last ten nights (of Ramadan)" - indicate that it is most likely that Lailat al-Qadar cannot be in any month other than Ramadan, and is in the last ten nights thereof, and is one of the odd-numbered nights, but not on any particular night. This is what is indicated by a number of the reports that have been narrated concerning it.

Fath al-Baari, 4/260.

And he said:

The scholars said: The reason why Lailat al-Qadar has been concealed is so that people will strive to seek it, because if its timing was known, they would limit their efforts to that night only, as we have explained previously about the time on Friday (when du'aa's are answered).

Fath al-Baari, 4/266.

Based on this, it is not possible for anyone to be certain that a particular night is Laylat al-Qadr', especially since we know that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) wanted to tell his ummah when it was, then he told them that Allah had taken away that knowledge."-- -

It was narrated from 'Ubadah ibn al-Samit that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came out with the news of Lailat al-Qadr'. but two men among the Muslims started arguing. He said: "I came out to tell you about Lailat al-Qadr, but So and so and so and so started arguing, so (that knowledge) was taken away.

Perhaps that will be better for you. so seek it on the (twenty-) seventh and the (twenty-) ninth and the (twenty-) fifth." Narrated by al-Bukhari, 49.

The scholars of the Standing Committee said:

With regard to singling out one night of Ramadan as Lailat al-Qadr, this requires evidence to show that it is this night and not any other. But the odd numbered nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan are more likely than others (to be Lailat al-Qadr) and the twenty-seventh night is the most likely night to be Lailat al-Qadr, because of the ahadeeth to that effect.

Fatawa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah li'l-Buhooth al-'Ilmiyyah wa'I-Ifta', 10/413 Hence the Muslim should not assume that any particular night is Lailat al-Qadr, because that would mean that he is being certain about something concerning which we cannot be certain, and because it means that he is missing out on something that is good for him. It may be the night of the twenty-first, or the twenty-third, or the twenty-ninth. If he spends the night of the twenty-seventh only in prayer, then he will have missed out on a lot of goodness, and he may have missed that blessed night.

In this night a person should make worship of Allah Ta'ala exclusively, even though there is no special form 'of worship prescribed for this night. One can engage in the offering of nafl prayers as much as possible or in supplications, in the recitation of the Holy Quran or by any other good deed, which is not contrary to the Shariyyah.

The Muslim should strive his hardest to do acts of obedience and worship throughout Ramadan, and more so in the last ten days. This is the teaching of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

It was narrated that 'Aa'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said:

When the last ten days of Ramadan began, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would tighten his waist-wrapper, spend his nights in prayer, and wake his family.

Narrated by Muslim, 2024; Muslim, 1174.

Since this is the night wherein Allah sends his special blessings from the heavens upon the earth, being so blessed that even the angels from the heavens descend upon the earth and convey salams to every believer as it is narrated on the authority of Ibne Abbas, that Rasool ( s.a.w.) had said, all those angels who are stationed by the Sidratul muntaha (lote tree of the utmost boundary beyond which none can pass) descend with the angel Jibraeel (a.s) to the earth and there remains no male or female believers whom they do not convey salams to, exempting the person who drinks liquor or consumes pork (Bukhari and Muslim).

Verily, one who does not derive benefit, and does not value this golden opportunity for the worship of Allah Ta'ala is a sign of total ignorance.

This is the reason why Rasoolullah (s.a.w.) has stated 'The person who deprives himself from the blessings of Lailatul Qadr, indeed has deprived himself of all good and none other than an ignorant person is deprived from such good." Ibne Majah).

Considering this hadith, we should attempt to spare some time for the worship of Allah Ta'ala on this auspicious night.

The most profound way to derive benefit from the blessings of this night, is to stay awake for the whole night and spend it in prayers, but people who can-not do so, for any reason, should at least spare a reasonable portion of the night for Allah. Some rakaahs should be offered in the least, after midnight as tahajjud, the Quran should be recited, duaas be made, and any form of zhikr should be constantly uttered.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) enjoined staying up and praying on Lailat al-Qadr out of faith and in the hope of reward. It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

"Whoever stays up and prays on Lailat al-Qadr out of faith and in the hope of reward, his previous sins will be forgiven." Agreed upon. This hadeeth indicates that it is prescribed to observe Lailat al-Qadr by spending the night in prayer.

One of the best du'aa's that may be recited on Lailat al-Qadr is that which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) taught to 'Aa'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her). Al-Tirmidhi narrated, and classed the report as saheeh, that 'Aa'ishah said: "I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, if I know which night is Lailat al-Qadr, what should I say on that night?' He said, 'Say: Allaahumma innaka 'afuwwun tuhibb al-'afwa fa'afu 'anni (0 Allah, You are forgiving and You love forgiveness, so forgive me)."

We should also keep in mind that this night is meant for developing a special connection and bond with one's Creator, this is a night for devoting oneself to Allah Ta'ala with one's soul and heart. It is seldom that this purpose be achieved in congregations and assemblies. This is the reason why it is not advisable to hold ceremonies or deliver lengthy talks and lectures or illuminate the mosques. Rasoolullah (s.a.w.) never tended to celebrate this night through lectures, meetings, gatherings, distribution of food or even by offering prayers in congregation, rather he used to individually perform acts of worship in solitude.

Indeed the blessings of our Lord are innumerable, but fortunate are those who reap them and regard them as significant.

(Abu Noman Mohammad Tarek is Imam, Kingston Islamic Centre)

Who's to blame for this mess?

Simon Jenkins

Who are they? Where are they now? They said it could not happen again. They said they were masters of the universe. They had conquered history itself and had that wily monster quivering at their feet. There would be no more crashes, no more recessions, no more booms and busts, just moonbeams and rainbows and jam for tea.

If the mistakes that have collapsed the world's financial markets had been made by statesmen and had led to war, there would be corpses swinging from lampposts. If they had been made by generals, they would be falling on their swords. If they had been made by judges or surgeons or scholars, some framework of professional retribution would be rolling into action. But those responsible for our finances can apparently vanish into the forest like Cheshire cats, leaving only gold-plated grins. Not for them a Hague tribunal or a Hutton inquiry. They are not just good at shedding risk -- they shed blame.

We are seeing what historians of ideas call a paradigm shift. In the last century, the necessities of war and the rise of socialism thrust government intervention to the fore. When that failed in the 60s and 70s, the "Reagan-Thatcher revolution" turned the emphasis back to private enterprise and deregulation. That era has ended with astonishing abruptness. Governments in Britain and the US have been nationalising and spending public money with a will that would have made Attlee or Roosevelt blush.

Those of us who learned economics in the old days were taught that banks had to be regulated oligopolies because their role in a capitalist economy was crucial. It relied on the sustenance of public trust which only government, backed by the citizen as taxpayer, could dispense. In Britain, retail banks, merchant banks and building societies were legally distinct, separated by barriers to prevent cross-pollution of the sort that caused the 1929 crash.

JK Galbraith's book on that crash is the Dr Strangelove of financial holocaust. If it offers one lesson, it is that crashes are not acts of God; they are caused by the interaction of corporate behaviour and state regulation. Nor does the market supply its own discipline. Understanding that, wrote Galbraith, "remains our best safeguard against recurrence".

Such lessons learned in youth tend to stick. Hence I remember feeling queasy when Thatcher's "big bang" of 1986 demolished the firewalls and permitted the trading of risk and reward across the entire financial sector. It was a reform repeated in the US with the repeal of the post-depression Glass-Steagall law. The same nervousness greeted each subsequent shock to the system - the 1991 housing crash, Lloyd's of London, Barings, Enron, Northern Rock. Each time we were assured that new lessons had been learned. Light-touch regulation was working fine, even if sometimes boys will be boys.

The naivety of all this is now exposed. Politicians encouraged the public to treat home ownership as a "right"; property became the citizen's gilt-edged stock. Bankers encouraged staff to speculate with depositors' money by awarding them huge bonuses to maintain turnover. Those charged with the guardianship of other people's savings behaved, in effect, like thieves. Sheer greed drove young men and women mad. Nobody in authority batted an eyelid.

At the same time Gordon Brown "set free" the Bank of England to fix interest rates. I recall one commentator telling me that I should be "overjoyed your children and grandchildren will now never have to experience inflation". No, they are just unemployed. It was a charade. On the back of low inflation, the Bank fuelled a credit boom that was clearly vulnerable if prices rose and/or credit collapsed. Both have occurred.

There is no such thing as a "non-political" official rate of interest. The Bank is now under pressure both to cut rates to beat recession, and yet raise them to beat inflation. It cannot do both. Since it would be 1929-style lunacy to increase rates just now, Brown must in effect tell the Bank to reduce them by shifting his inflation target.

There is no perfect market. Markets need regulation, just as communities need law. Yet as Galbraith again wrote, regulators may start life "vigorous, aggressive, evangelical, even intolerant", but mellow with age and become "an arm of the industry they are regulating - or senile".

To ignore the danger in 125% mortgages or the City bonus culture showed both industry capture and senility. The first was loan-sharkery, and the second was obscene. So distorting to sound finance are year-end bonuses that they should simply be banned. Those with the responsibility of gambling with other people's savings should do so on salary.

While naive Thatcherism may have taken a pasting, there is no reason why capitalism should protest the presence of big government in what is its proper realm. We do not curb state power when the security of the state is at risk. Nor should we do so when the security of the economy is equally jeopardised.

The strangest phenomenon these past few days has been the eagerness to enforce "moral hazard", a concept regarded by the governor of the Bank of England as a deterrent to risk-taking. This is absurd. The collapse of Enron was no deterrent to Lehman derivative traders. The psychology of money does not work that way. The victims of the credit crunch are not just a few wild traders. They are all participants in the UK economy. I cannot see the sense in letting Northern Rock or Lehman or any other deposit-holding institution go bust just so regulators who have failed in their jobs can seem macho after the event.

This is not a question of blowing taxpayers' money on fat cat financiers. I would happily arrest and try all those whose stupidity and greed are about to cause untold hardship to millions - if I could find a law they had broken. Dr Johnson was quite wrong to say a man is "never more innocently employed than in getting money". But when a building collapses, you do not kill the architect. You try to get him to build it again.

Underpinning financial credit is an absolute function of government and one that has not changed since the birth of capital. Then we can be told what needs mending, and whom to take out and shoot.

Simon Jenkins is a veteran British journalist and former editor of The Times. This article first appeard in the Guardian