Economics in Islamic Law

About the Book

The Book in its present shape will be immense contribution Economics in Islamic Law as envisaged in the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith. Islam's Economic Philosophy create a powerful drive for development Economic relations, specially those in production and exchange of wealth, should be co- operative in nature. Holy Qur'an Ordains:-

"Rivalry and cut-throat competition make no sense in this context" (73 : 27)

"Co-operation is seen as the basic value in Islam's Economic Philosophy" (8 : 36 : 77)

The author has deep in sight in the intricacies of the subject and with a view to catering to the requirements f those readers, who desire to have a background knowledge of Economics Islamic Law and Western model of Economics in general, the present work will be of immense help to him.

Introduction

The Qur'an confines itself to certain broad principles and values. so far as the economic aspect of man's life is concerned. It does not hold any brief for a feudal, capitalistic or socialistic structure of society, or for any particular structure for that matter. It gives us clearly defined values that should guide economic policy in an Islamic society irrespective of time and place. The ultimate objective of "Islamic economics" is to establish just social order in which the material and the spiritual aspects are welded together, with the result that "Progress" and "Prayer" do not represent two watertight compartments but two sides of the same coin, with prayer acting as a stepping stone to human progress and progress leading to the glorification of the creator.

Islam being a code of life for the whole of mankind and not for any particular nation, has not handed down any cut and drived constitution. What it refers is certain broad and general principles for making a well organised social system. According to Qur'anic behests an Islamic state must in all respect be formed upon the law laid down by Allah through his prophet (peace be upon him).

The government which runs such a state will be entitled to get obedience in its capacity as a political agency set up to enforce the laws of Almighty Allah and the practices of His Prophet (peace be upon him).

Islam is a complete way of life and culture in the light of values and principles revealed by the Allah for man's guidance. Human life is looked upon as an organic whole and its problems are approached, not in a purely mechanical way, but in the light of moral values and social ideals that Islam expounds. (The purely positivistic vision of social sciences developed in the West becomes obsolete in this new context''.

The Muslim economist starts from the assumption that economic neither is, nor can be, totally value free. The social sciences have to have their own instance viz-a-viz human objectives and values. Other economic philosophies fail to encompass the life hereafter and exalt the material value to the status of the ultimate ends. But Islam makes material values insuring in man, reflecting the divine will and ensuring the welfare of both the phases of man's life. This is the feature distinguishing Islam's economic. system from the other systems. It removes the edge from economic competition and puts human relations on a co-operative basis. It also serves as a principle hormonising the economic system with the spiritual, social and political system of Islam. Islam's economic system can be properly studied only in the context of the Islamic way of life as a whole. We have a corpus of injunctions relating to almost every aspect of the economic aspect. Life itself is, however, an integrated whole in which the ultimate ends are served by a number of means, spiritual, moral, material, economic and political. For example, the ultimate value-end of ibadat or Tawheed: that man should owe allegiance to the one God in all his thought and action. Moral strength enabling steadfast adherence to the right path of temptations and pressures, and freedom from domination by any authority other than that deriving its sanction from God is also necessary. It also requires that man is not crushed under the strain of such privations as destroys the will, making spiritual and moral independence almost impossible.

1.1 General Considerations

Islam is founded on the ideological belief in the Oneness of God, the Prophet, the book and the Religion. In accordance with this belief, human life is conceived as one whole, oriented towards one ultimate goal. This goal has many expressions in the Islamic faith and literature, such as, serving Allah, "Entering the Paradise", "Worshipping Allah", "seeking salvation in order to escape Hell", "passing the trial on the Day of Judgement". etc. In fact all these expressions may be said to be that of "obtaining the consent of Allah"4.

Islam has not ignored the importance of man's material wants, needs and satisfaction. Additionally, Islam is never satisfied by only awakening human consciousness and putting it on the right track; but rather, it always creates the environmental conditions that are necessary for the proper functioning of this consciousness.

In Islam, the economy is submerged in social and ethical foundation of the religion. In other words, Islamic economics is neither positive, nor normative economics. Generally speaking, positive economics studies economic problem as they are. Normative economics concern what ought to be. Islamic economics requires that both the ends and means must be Islamically legitimate''.

Islam's ethical system provides such a general theory in that it can explain the multifaceted economic behaviour in an Islamic state with reference to its essential unitary character. It is important to understand what this statement implies. At a deeper level, it highlights the "relative" character of Islamic economics: its basic prepositions hold only within the radius of the Islamic ethical value system. In this sense, these prepositions may not be "universally" valid, if the universe is defined to include the incompatible elements of the value system of other religious as well However, this does not mean a “defeat” of the Islamic economic system; it is merely a statement of a general truth.

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