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(Download pdf) Islamic Finance Fintech And The Road To Sustainability Reframing The Approach In The Post Pandemic Era Zul Hakim Jumat full chapter pdf docx
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Edited by Zul Hakim Jumat
Saqib Hafiz Khateeb · Syed Nazim Ali
Series Editors
Nafis Alam, Henley Business School,
University of Reading, Selangor, Malaysia
Syed Aun R. Rizvi, Suleman Dawood School of Business,
Lahore University of Management Sciences,
Lahore, Pakistan
The Centre for Islamic Business and Finance Research (CIBFR) is a
global center of excellence for developing Islamic business and finance as
a scientific academic discipline and for promoting Islamic financial prod-
ucts, monetary and fiscal policies, and business and trade practices. Based
at The University of Nottingham campus in Malaysia, CIBFR looks at
the multi-dimensional aspects of Islamic business, cutting across the
major themes of Islamic economics, Islamic finance and the Halal mar-
ket. True to the pioneering nature of the research CIBFR undertakes,
the Palgrave CIBFR Series in Islamic Finance offers empirical enquir-
ies into key issues and challenges in modern Islamic finance. It explores
issues in such varied fields as Islamic accounting, Takaful (Islamic insur-
ance), Islamic financial services marketing, and ethical and socially
responsible investing.
Zul Hakim Jumat · Saqib Hafiz Khateeb ·
Syed Nazim Ali
Editors
Islamic Finance,
FinTech, and the
Road to Sustainability
Reframing the Approach in the Post-Pandemic Era
Editors
Zul Hakim Jumat Saqib Hafiz Khateeb
Center for Islamic Economics and Research Division, College of Islamic
Finance, College of Islamic Studies Studies
Hamad Bin Khalifa University Hamad Bin Khalifa University
Doha, Qatar Doha, Qatar
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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Preface
v
vi PREFACE
play a huge role in ensuring economic recovery from the current set-
back and can provide a prospect for a new chapter of human develop-
ment by utilizing a good blend of both the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and the higher objectives of Islamic law,
otherwise known as the maqasid al-shariah. In the past, several initiatives
have been undertaken by Islamic multilateral institutions like the Islamic
Development Bank (IsDB) to ease the situation of natural calamities and
disasters in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, other member countries. In
present times, the prevalence of the internet and omnipresence of tech-
nology along with the enhancements in financial products help support
the idea of stretching the social finance products and making them pan-
global initiatives through the various platforms, which in turn serves
both the aims of maqasid al-shariah and SDGs at once in times of emer-
gency and otherwise.
The book, thus, provides critical discussions on the role of Islamic
finance in the post-pandemic economic recovery. It highlights how
selected Islamic finance tools can help usher in a new era that will not
only ensure financial sustainability but also promote socio-economic pol-
icies that will aid the much-desired economic recovery. In particular, it
focuses on the role of Islamic finance in the post-pandemic economic
recovery while focusing its analysis to three key areas: sustainability and
socio-economic recovery, social and sustainable impact financing, and the
role of FinTech. An effort has been made to bring studies on the current
issues related to the tools of Islamic social financing that provide oppor-
tunities to usher in much needed resilience in the post-pandemic era.
It will help industry leaders, policymakers, and people from all income
groups and nations, to navigate financial industry disruptions and transi-
tion to a new normal by harnessing converging technologies. Thus, the
book aims to discuss the importance of leveraging social finance to miti-
gate the impacts of the raging pandemic while utilizing the digital world
that in turn is creating both vast promises and potential perils. The book
compiles current topics related to the adoption of FinTech and its related
technologies that have been adopted by Islamic finance institutions, in
addition to those promising technologies that may be adopted by them.
In brief, it provides fresh discussion in relation to the 4th Industrial
Revolution and its relevance to the Islamic Finance industry.
ICIF, the International Conference on Islamic Finance, an annual
event at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), Hamad Bin Khalifa
University (HBKU), is the platform for sharing the research results
PREFACE vii
ix
Contents
xi
xii CONTENTS
Index 351
Notes on Contributors
xv
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Mustafa Adil is the Head of Islamic Finance, Data & Analytics, for
the London Stock Exchange Group. He is responsible for leading the
Islamic finance and Islamic markets businesses for the organization, pro-
viding knowledge solutions and bespoke services to support the con-
tinued growth and increasing depth of the Islamic finance industry. He
works in collaboration with government entities, multilateral organ-
izations, and leading financial institutions to support them in fulfilling
their aspirations and executing their strategies in the Islamic market
space. Previously, he was the Head of Islamic Finance for Refinitiv and
for Thomson Reuters. He has also served as a leading consultant in the
Islamic Financial Services team at Ernst & Young, providing advisory
services to some of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the GCC
and globally. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute
of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and holds a Bachelor’s
degree in Mathematics from Imperial College in London.
his credit on: shariah compliance of Islamic banks’ products and struc-
tures; the opportunities and challenges of Islamic finance; case studies
of Islamic banks and financial institutions; Islamic insurance and rein-
surance; Islamic microfinance; sukuk; and dispute resolution in Islamic
banking and finance, among others. He is currently the founding edi-
tor, senior editor, and editorial advisory board member for a number of
internationally renowned refereed journals, including some published by
Emerald Group Publishing in the United Kingdom. He is also serving as
the Shariah Audit Executive at the Islamic Bank of Australia Group.
Syed Nazim Ali is currently the Director of the Research Division and
Director of the Center for Islamic Economics and Finance at the College
of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). Prior to join-
ing HBKU, he was the Executive Director (Acting) of the Islamic Legal
Studies Program (2010–2013) at Harvard Law School and the Founding
Director of the Islamic Finance Project at Harvard University since its
establishment in 1995. During the last thirty years, he has spearheaded
many research landmarks in the areas of Islamic finance and faith-based
financial initiatives. He has paid special attention to lines of inquiry that
seek to examine and interrogate the frontiers, facilitate research, and
encourage dialogue among various stakeholders and external discussants.
During his nearly two-decade association with Harvard, he has led the
organization of several conferences, workshops, and symposia in the
field, including the internationally renowned biennial Harvard University
Forum on Islamic Finance, the proceedings of which are serially com-
piled and published under his supervision; and the annual workshop at
the London School of Economics, which brings together the sector’s
leading economists, shariah experts, and practitioners. He is a member
of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Islamic Finance at
the University of Bolton. His most recent publications include FinTech,
Digital Currency and the Future of Islamic Finance (Springer, 2020),
FinTech in Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2019),
and Shari’a Compliant Microfinance (Routledge, 2012). He received his
Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K.
joining the IsDB, Dr. Ashraf worked with Prince Mohammad Bin Fahad
University in Saudi Arabia and TD Bank Financial Group in Canada. His
research interests are in sustainable ethical finance, portfolio management,
banking, corporate finance, and artificial intelligence applications in finance.
He has published in several international journals, and he has presented his
research work at various international conferences. He is also a subject edi-
tor of Emerging Markets Review and the Journal of International Financial
Markets, Institutions, and Money. He has led teams to produce several vital
reports on the policy side, including the first two editions of the Global
Report on Islamic Finance, the impact of COVID-19 on Islamic finance
and the use of artificial intelligence to harness financial inclusion.
“The Best Ph.D. Thesis Award 2011” and Research Excellence Awards
in 2020 and 2022 at Universiti Malaysia Perlis. He is a member of the
Asian Academy of Management, the Malaysian Institute of Management,
and an associate member of the Malaysian Finance Association. His most
recent research has focused on FinTech, entrepreneurship, blockchain,
the blue economy, Islamic banking, and sukuk.
and books on Islamic finance and law. He co-authored the first text-
book on Islamic finance titled: Introduction to Islamic Banking and
Finance: Principles and Practice (United Kingdom: Pearson Education
Limited, 2013). He is also a co-author of IFSA 2013: Commentaries
on Islamic Banking and Finance, and Alternative Dispute Resolution in
Islam (Kuala Lumpur: IIUM Press, 2013). He co-edited Islamic Finance
and Development (Cambridge, Massachusetts: ILSP, Harvard Law
School, 2014) and Emerging Issues in Islamic Finance Law and Practice
in Malaysia (United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing, 2019). He is also
the lead editor of FinTech in Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice (UK:
Taylor and Francis, Routledge, 2019), a pioneering, authoritative book
on the dynamics of financial technology in Islamic finance. He received
his L.L.B. (Hons.) in Common and Islamic Law from the University
of Ilorin, Nigeria; a Master of Comparative Laws (with Distinction); a
Professional Master’s degree in Financial Laws from York University,
Canada; and a Ph.D. degree from the International Islamic University
Malaysia.
xxvii
xxviii LIST OF FIGURES
xxxi
xxxii LIST OF TABLES
1 Introduction
The unprecedented economic downturn and global supply chain disrup-
tion of 2020 by the recent COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated the
urgency for sustainable financing infrastructure that is agile, adaptable,
S. H. Khateeb · S. N. Ali
Research Division, College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University,
Doha, Qatar
e-mail: skhateeb@hbku.edu.qa
S. N. Ali
e-mail: snali@hbku.edu.qa
Z. H. Jumat (*)
Center for Islamic Economics and Finance, College of Islamic Studies,
Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar
e-mail: zhakim@hbku.edu.qa
the impacts of the raging pandemic and utilizing the digital world has
proved to be the aiding hand towards resilience that in turn is creating
both vast promises and potential perils.
The fourth edition of the International Conference on Islamic Finance
(ICIF), held in April 2021 in the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin
Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar, brought together a substantial body of
literature on various aspects of its central theme: Implications for Islamic
Finance and the Economy in the Post-Pandemic Era. After a double-blind
peer review, 32 papers were selected for presentation. Then, under the
theme of reframing the approach of Islamic finance in the post-pandemic
era, 14 papers were invited and peer-reviewed before becoming part of this
book, apart from the introductory chapter. The chapters are divided into
three major sections. Section I is on reframing Islamic financial sustainability
and socio-economic developments. Section II deals with innovative Islamic
financial tools for sustainable and socio-economic impact. The final Section
III covers discussions on the role of FinTech in the road to sustainability.
In Section II, Mustafa, Henk, and Zul Hakim study the growing con-
vergence between ESG considerations, Islamic finance, and the United
Nations’ SDGs. Based on its analysis of the convergence, the chapter fur-
ther looks at various aspects such as demand for ESG sukuk and the role
of Islamic capital markets in fulfilling the SDGs. Shariah-based finance,
ESG concerns, and the sustainable development goals share a variety of
underlying principles that make them head together towards sustainable
6 S. H. KHATEEB ET AL.
finance at the global level. The financial innovation of sukuk has geared
the Islamic markets towards sustainable finance at unprecedented levels,
courtesy of the key developments in governance aspects that include issu-
ances, regulations, and strategic announcements in IFIs. Sukuk is driving
next-generation innovation in Islamic capital markets in three significant
aspects, namely green sukuk, sustainability-linked sukuk, and the blue
sukuk that has recently emerged.
While some countries have the capacity to source development finance
by issuing sovereign sukuk, Salman highlights how other countries with
low per capita incomes and national savings require more focus on social
finance institutions. Islamic finance has both market-based and non-mar-
ket-based solutions for mobilizing development funds for effective use
in socio-economic development needs. Economic growth cannot neces-
sarily lead to economic development because the growth that increases
income inequalities eventually becomes unsustainable and can undermine
the democracy and overall well-being of a society. Islamic injunctions of
pure altruism insist and reinforce the need for sharing and giving to poor
people and social causes, while Islamic institutions can help in contribut-
ing towards effective mobilization, institutionalization, and utilization of
social savings and philanthropic and humanitarian assistance. The chapter
discusses the solutions offered by Islamic finance through its value sys-
tem and worldview and through its set of commercial and social finance
institutions to participate effectively in development assistance through
and beyond markets.
Khairunnisa and Sutan undertake Indonesia’s Sovereign Green Sukuk
as a case study, which is the world's first sovereign green sukuk, to
address key topics of green sukuk as an innovative Islamic green financial
instrument. Indonesia has prioritized environmental development, disas-
ter resilience, and climate change as its national priorities. The govern-
ment ensures that policy transformation, an enabling environment, and
financial investment go hand in hand to support the national agenda.
This sukuk plays an important role in supporting the achievement of var-
ious sustainable development goals of the UN, like SDG 7 (Affordable
and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth),
SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable
Cities and Communities), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Following
the success of Sovereign Sukuk and as part of the government’s com-
mitment to the Paris Agreement, several other sukuk schemes, like the
cash waqf linked sukuk and esham alternative, are suggested to the
ISLAMIC FINANCE, FINTECH AND THE ROAD … 7
Language: English
BY
HARRIET MARTINEAU.
IN NINE VOLUMES.
VOL. VI.
LONDON:
CHARLES FOX, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
MDCCCXXXIV.
LONDON:
Duke-street, Lambeth.
CONTENTS.
A Tale.
BY
HARRIET MARTINEAU.
LONDON:
1833.
PREFACE.
Chap. Page
1. Mourning 1
2. An Excursion 21
3. Family Arrangements 42
4. Wise Men at Supper 56
5. Going Northwards 81
6. News from Home 90
7. A Night's Probation 108
8. News at Home 124
9. Close of a brief Story 132
Messrs. VANDERPUT & SNOEK.
Chapter I.
MOURNING.
During the days when the prosperity of the United Provinces was
at its height,--that is, during the latter half of the 17th century,--it
could hardly be perceived that any one district of Amsterdam was
busier than another, at any one hour of the day. There was traffic in
the markets, traffic on the quays, the pursuit of traffic in the streets,
and preparation for traffic in the houses. Even at night, when the
casks which had been piled before the doors were all rolled under
shelter, and dogs were left to watch the bales of merchandize which
could not be stowed away before dark, there was, to the eye of a
stranger, little of what he had been accustomed to consider as
repose. Lights glanced on the tossing surface of the Amstel, as
homeward-bound vessels made for the harbour, or departing ships
took advantage of the tide to get under weigh. The hail of the pilots
or the quay-keepers, or of a careful watchman here and there, or the
growl and bark of a suspicious dog, came over the water or through
the lime avenues with no unpleasing effect upon the wakeful ear,
which had been so stunned by the tumult of noon-day as scarcely to
distinguish one sound from another amidst the confusion.
One fine noon, however, in the summer of 1696, a certain portion
of the busiest district of Amsterdam did appear more thronged than
the rest. There was a crowd around the door of a handsome house
in the Keiser's Graft, or Emperor's-street. The thickly planted limes
were so far in leaf as to afford shade from the hot sun, reflected in
gleams from the water in the centre upon the glaring white fronts of
the houses; and this shade might tempt some to stop in their course,
and lounge: but there were many who were no loungers flocking to
the spot, and making their way into the house, or stationing
themselves on the painted bench outside till they should receive a
summons from within.
The presence of one person, who stood motionless before the
entrance, sufficiently explained the occasion of this meeting. The
black gown of this officer, and his low cocked hat, with its long tail of
black crape, pointed him out as the Aanspreeker who, having the
day before made the circuit of the city to announce a death to all who
knew the deceased, was now ready to attend the burial. He stood
prepared to answer all questions relative to the illness and departure
of the deceased, and the state of health and spirits of the family, and
to receive messages for them, to be delivered when they might be
supposed better able to bear them than in the early hours of their
grief. Seldom were more inquiries addressed to the Aanspreeker
than in the present instance, for the deceased, Onno Snoek, had
been one of the chief merchants of Amsterdam, and his widow was
held in high esteem. The officer had no sooner ended his tale than
he had to begin it again;--how the patient's ague had appeared to be
nearly overcome; how he had suffered a violent relapse; how the
three most skilful French apothecaries had been called in, in addition
to the native family physician; how, under their direction, his son
Heins had opened the choicest keg of French brandy, the most
precious packages of Batavian spices in his warehouse, for the sake
of the sick man; how, notwithstanding these prime medicaments, the
fever had advanced so rapidly as to prevent the patient from being
moved even to the window, to see a long expected ship of his firm
come to anchor before his own door; how he seemed to have
pleasure in catching a glimpse of her sails through the trees as he
lay in bed; but how all his endeavours to live till morning that he
might hear tidings of the cargo, had failed, and rather hastened his
end, insomuch that he breathed his last before dawn.
Among the many interrogators appeared a young man who was
evidently in haste to enter the house, but wished first to satisfy
himself by one or two questions. He wore the dress of a presbyterian
clergyman, and spoke in a strong French accent.
"I am in haste," he said, "to console my friends, from whom I have
been detained too long. I was at Saardam yesterday, and did not
hear of the event till this morning. I am in haste to join my friends; but
I must first know in what frame the husband,--the father,--died. Can
you tell me what were the last moments which I ought to have
attended?"
The officer declared that they were most edifying. The patient's
mind was quite collected.
"Thank God!" exclaimed M. Aymond, the divine.
"Quite collected," continued the officer, "and full of thought for
those he left behind, as he showed by the very last thing he said. He
had most carefully arranged his affairs, and given all his directions in
many forms; but he remembered, just in time, that he had omitted
one thing. He called Mr. Heins to his bed-side, and said, 'my son,
there is one debtor of ours from whom you will scarce recover
payment, as I never could. Meyerlaut has for many months evaded
paying me for the last ebony we sold to him. Let him therefore make
my coffin.--Stay!--I have not done yet.--You will, in course of nature,
outlive your mother. Let her have a handsome coffin from the same
man; and if it should please Heaven to take more of you, as our
beloved Willebrod was taken, you will bear the same thing in mind,
Heins, I doubt not; for you have always been a dutiful son.'"
"This is the way Heins told you the fact?" asked Aymond. "Well,
but were these the last,--the very last words of the dying man?"
Heins had mentioned nothing that was said afterwards; so the
divine pursued his way into the house with a sad countenance.
Instead of joining the guests in the outer apartment, he used the
privilege of his office, and of his intimacy with the family, and passed
through to the part of the house where he knew he should find the
widow and her young people. Heins met him at the door, saying,
"I knew you would come. I have been persuading my mother to
wait, assuring her that you would come. How we have wished for
you! How we----"
Aymond, having grasped the hand of Heins, passed him to return
the widow's greeting. She first stood to receive the blessing he
bestowed in virtue of his office, and then, looking him calmly in the
face, asked him if he had heard how God had been pleased to make
her house a house of mourning.
"I find dust and ashes where I looked for the face of a friend,"
replied the divine. "Can you submit to Heaven's will?"
"We have had grace to do so thus far," replied the widow. "But
whether it will be continued to us when----"
Her eyes filled, and she turned away, as if to complete her
preparations for going forth.
"Strength has thus far been given according to thy day," said
Aymond. "I trust that it will be thus bestowed for ever." And he gave
his next attention to one whom he was never known to neglect; one
who loved him as perhaps nobody else loved him,--Heins's young
brother, Christian.
Christian had suffered more in the twelve years of his little life than
it is to be hoped many endure in the course of an ordinary existence.
A complication of diseases had left him in a state of weakness from
which there was little or no hope that he would ever recover, and
subject to occasional attacks of painful illness which must in time
wear him out. He had not grown, nor set a foot to the ground, since
he was five years old: he was harassed by a perpetual cough, and in
constant dread of the return of a capricious and fearful pain which
seldom left him unvisited for three days together, and sometimes
lasted for hours. When in expectation of this pain, the poor boy could
think of little else, and found it very difficult to care for any body; but
when suffering from nothing worse than his usual helplessness, his
great delight was to expect M. Aymond, and to get him seated
beside his couch. Aymond thought that he heard few voices more
cheerful than that of his little friend, Christian, when it greeted him
from the open window, or made itself heard into the passage,--'Will
you come in here, M. Aymond? I am in the wainscoat parlour to-day,
M. Aymond.'
Christian had no words at command this day, He stretched out his
arms in silence, and sighed convulsively when released from the
embrace of his friend.
"Did I hurt you? Have you any of your pain to-day?"
"No; not yet. I think it is coming; but never mind that now. Kaatje
will stay with me till you come back. You will come back, M.
Aymond."
When the pastor consented, and the widow approached to bid
farewell to her child for an hour, Christian threw his arms once more
round Aymond's neck. His brother Luc, a rough strong boy of ten,
pulled them down, and rebuked him for being so free with the pastor;
and little Roselyn, the spoiled child of the family, was ready with her
lecture too, and told how she had been instructed to cross her hands
and wait till M. Aymond spoke to her, instead of jumping upon him as
she did upon her brother Heins. Christian made no other reply to
these rebukes than looking with a smile in the face of the pastor, with
whom he had established too good an understanding to suppose
that he could offend him by the warmth of an embrace.
"I am sorry you cannot go with us, my poor little Christian," said
Heins, who had a curious method of making his condolences
irksome and painful to the object of them. "I am sorry you cannot pay
this last duty to our honoured parent. You will not have our
satisfaction in looking back upon the discharge of it."
"Christian is singled out by God for a different duty," observed the
pastor. "He must show cheerful submission to his heavenly parent
while you do honour to the remains of an earthly one."
Christian tried to keep this thought before him while he saw them
leaving the room, and heard the coffin carried out, and the long train
of mourners, consisting of all the acquaintance of the deceased,
filing away from the door.--When the last step had passed the
threshold, and it appeared from the unusual quiet that the crowd had
followed the mourners, Christian turned from the light, and buried his
face in one of the pillows of his couch, so that Katrina, the young
woman who, among other offices, attended upon him and his little
sister, entered unperceived by him. She attracted his attention by the
question which he heard oftener than any other,--'the pain?'
"No," answered the boy, languidly turning his head; "I was only
thinking of the last time----" Either this recollection, or the sight of
Katrina's change of dress overcame him, and stopped what he was
going to say. The short black petticoat, measuring ten yards in width,
exhibited its newness by its bulk, its plaits not having subsided into
the moderation of a worn garment. The blue stockings, the neat
yellow slippers had disappeared, and the gold fillagree clasps in the
front of the close cap were laid aside till the days of mourning should
be ended. While Christian observed all this, contemplating her from
head to foot, Katrina took up the discourse where he had let it fall.
"You were thinking of the last time my master had you laid on the
bed beside him. It will always be a comfort to you, Christian, that he
told you where he was departing."
"He did not tell me that," said the boy; "and that is just what I was
wondering about. He said he was going, and I should like to know if
he could have told where."
"To be sure he could. He was one of the chosen, and we know
where they go. So much as you talk with the pastor, you must know
that."
"I know that it is to heaven that they go, but I want to know where
heaven is. Some of them say it is paradise; and some, the New
Jerusalem; and some, that it is up in the sky among the angels. But
do all the chosen know where they are going?"
Certainly, Katrina believed. The dying believer was blessed in his
hope. Christian was not yet satisfied.
"I think I shall know when I am dying," said he. "At least, I often
think I am dying when my pain comes in the night; but I do not know
more about where I am going then than at other times."
Katrina hoped his mind was not tossed and troubled on this
account.
"O, no; not at all. If God is good to me, and takes care of me here,
he will keep me safe any where else, and perhaps let me go about
where I like. And O, Kaatje, there will be no more crying, nor pain! I
wish I may see the angels as soon as I die. Perhaps father is with
the angels now. I saw the angels once, more than once, I think; but
once, I am sure."
In a dream, Katrina supposed.
"No, in the broad day, when I was wide awake. You know I used to
go to the chapel before my cough was so bad; as long ago as I can
remember, nearly. There are curious windows in that chapel, quite
high in the roof; and I often thought the day of judgment was come;
and there was a light through those windows shining down into the
pulpit; and there the angels looked in. I thought they were come for
me, unless it was for the holy pastor."
"But would you have liked to go?"
"Yes: and when the prayer came after the sermon, instead of
listening to the pastor, I used to pray that God would send the angels
to take me away."
Katrina thought that if Christian had lived in another country, he
would have made a fine martyr.
"I don't know," said the boy, doubtfully. "I have thought a great deal
about that, and I am not so sure as I used to be. If they only cut off
my head, I think I could bear that. But as for the burning,--I wonder,
Kaatje, whether burning is at all like my pain. I am sure it cannot be
much worse."
Katrina could not tell, of course; but she wished he would not talk
about burning, or about his pain; for it made him perspire, and
brought on his cough so as to exhaust him to a very pernicious
degree. He must not talk any more now, but let her talk to him. He
had not asked yet what company had come to the funeral.
Christian supposed that there was every body whom his father
had known in Amsterdam.
Yes, every body: and as there were so many to drink spirits at the
morning burial, her mistress chose to invite very few to the afternoon
feast. Indeed her mistress seemed disposed to have her own way
altogether about the funeral. Every body knew that Mr. Heins would
have liked to have it later in the day, and would not have minded the
greater expense for the sake of the greater honour.
"I heard them talk about that," said Christian. "My mother told
Heins that it was a bad way for a merchant to begin with being
proud, and giving his father a grand funeral; and that the best honour
was in the number of mourners who would be sure to follow an
honest man, whether his grave was filled at noon or at sunset. My
mother is afraid of Heins making a show of his money, and learning
to fancy himself richer than he is."
Katrina observed that all people had their own notions of what it
was to be rich. To a poor servant-maid who had not more than 1000
guilders out at interest----
"But your beautiful gold chain, Kaatje! Your silver buckles! I am
sure you must have ten pair, at the least."
"Well, but, all this is less than many a maid has that has been at
service a shorter time than I have. To a poor maid-servant, I say, it
seems like being rich to have I don't know how many loaded ships
between China and the Texel."