political fragmentation and cultural diversity 249but its value lies in the fact that it assumes pictures of all things”
(Vol. IV, p. 96).
He outlined the effect of money supply and price levels by stat-
ing that hoarding gold and silver is a misuse of the purpose for
which they were made. Emphatically, the person who hoards gold
and silver “does oppress and makes inoperative the purpose for which
God had made them”. They are not meant to be for individuals
per se but for being as a medium of exchange of goods. Also, affecting
the supply of these precious metals by using them for utensils, cups
and the like, is sinful and the person in this case, “acts contrary to
the object for which these are created”, and, “is ungrateful to God
and commits sins”, p. 96.
Trading in gold, by selling gold for gold, or in silver, by selling
silver for silver, for the purpose of making profit is condemned by
al-Ghazàlì. It is a transaction that, “has got no meaning”, as it
restricts the function of these metals as a medium of exchange. Selling
gold for silver, or vice versa is permissible, however. He explained
this by stating that there are goods, the value of which is so small
and can only be priced in pieces of silver, which have a lower value
than that of gold. Exchanging gold for silver makes it possible there-
fore to conclude these transactions of small value; the opposite is
also true, (Vol. IV, p. 97).
Industrial integration
The affairs of this world do not become orderly except through activ-
ity. Human activities are divided into three categories:
(a) The first category includes four fundamental activities without
which the world cannot go without, and these are agriculture,
weaving for manufacturing clothes, architecture for building houses,
and government for regulation of human relations to facilitate
living in peace and harmony.
(b) The second category includes such activities as are helpful to the
above mentioned activities, such as iron-crafts, or ploughs for
cultivation, machinery for spinning and weaving clothes and other
implements.
(c) The third category includes such activities as are supplementary
to the principal industries previously mentioned such as eating,
drinking, making dresses, and sewing clothes, (Vol. 1, p. 27).