Islamic Economy Its Ideological and Legal Foundations

Salient Features of the Islamic Economy

When we study the Islamic economy as a way which Islam prescribes for individual and social behavior in the economic field and examine Islam's rules in this area, we can conclude that its most important attribute is social justice. In this respect, the Islamic economy resembles all other systems that claim to be serving human being and realizing his social aspirations but it differs from them in the details of its conception of social justice.

Justice cannot emerge unless the following requirements are present: first, believing in the private and social property on an equal and advanced level in a way that the private property acts on the fulfillment of man's natural demands for possessing the result of his effort and obtaining the benefits of his business. While the public property aims at guaranteeing that social action enjoys a social product through which the provision of some needs and shortages would become possible.

Second, faith in individual economic freedom as a general, continuous, comprehensive principle which stems from the nature of the ownership along with the belief in the existence of some limits at which this freedom ends. This is for the purpose of either guaranteeing individual's interest as in the case of objects the use of which was outlawed because of the physical or moral damage that they could inflict upon the individual, or to secure others' rights and liberties which is also a natural guarantee admitted by all religions and human affiliations.

Third, faith in the principle of mutual responsibility. Islam guarantees, for every individual in the Islamic society, the subsistence level, i.e., provision of his natural needs. The government is obliged to provide this minimum for all and it is absolutely impermissible that even a single needy person is found in the Islamic society. Regarding how to make the society economically capable of doing this, the following factors may be mentioned:

Obliging individuals to accomplish their responsibilities and duties with respect to the provision of the necessary needs of others. Since one of government's responsibilities is to compel individuals to perform their obligations, even those which are individual, it may bind individuals to carry out these duties as well.

The legal power of wali'y al-amr [head of the Islamic government] to determine the limits of public domain (saddu man>aqat al-muba'a't) through legislation supplies the government with the desirable power.

Public properties and anfa'l [properties with no particular owner/s] which are designated by the government as public properties which the government oversees and uses to achieve the above goal.

Financial punishments and methods that are devised by Islam to transfer private properties to the public ownership as with respect to mawqu'fa't [endowments] or the lands the inhabitants of which perished or the dead without heirs and so forth. Nature of the Islamic legislation--as Shahi'd al-@adr (r) put it--which aims at strengthening the social structure for the realization of this mutual responsibility.

Fourth, belief in the principle of social balance and refusal of the class system in the Islamic society. We came to know through the third point that the required minimum is to provide subsistence for all individuals. As far as the maximum is concerned, it may be assumed through the following factors:

  1. The prohibition of tabdhi'r and isra'f [wasting and squandering] in all areas, therefore, an individual cannot possibly trespass to the line of isra'f.

  2. The prohibition of every action that leads to misuse of particular properties, and of lahw [amusement] and muju'n [impudence].

  3. Rejection of all social and economic privileges which discriminate between different groups of people which, in turn, eliminates all the grounds for the emergence of the class system.

If we go back and scrutinize all of these features and expose them to human nature and conscience we will find them principles that may be admitted in a natural way. This explains the return of each of the two extremist systems of capitalism and socialism to a moderate position after its collision with opposing natural factors--as we believe.

The natural basis of these views is evidently emphasized by general regulatory and conceptual authoritative texts (nu#u'#) that are numerous and to some of which we point here:

There are nu#u'# that stress the inherence character of private and public property:

The Exalted says: "And the man shall gain nothing but what he strives for." (53:39) (naturally if we interpret it as including worldly possession).

Ami'r al-mu'mini'n (`a) says: "This property is indeed neither mine nor yours but it is a collective property of the Muslims ... what is earned by their hands does not belong to any mouths other than theirs." (Nahj al-Bala'ghah, sermon 232)

There are some nu#u'# that emphasize the economic freedom in a natural form the clearest of which is the rule on which all fuqaha'' [Islamic scholars] rely, namely the rule (Al-na'su musalla>u'na `ala' amwa'lihim [people are in control of their properties]). Naturally, there are some limits to this freedom which are mentioned by other nu#u'# stressing that this restriction is only for the benefit of the individual and the society.

There are some nu#u'# that emphasize the inherence of mutual responsibility and cooperation and further consider all kinds of negligence with respect to this principle as a general rejection of di'n [faith and religion]. The Exalted says: "Have you seen the person who rejects the religion? He is the one who treats the orphan with harshness, and does not urge (others) to feed the poor." (107:1-3)

Finally, there are some nu#u'# that stress the necessity for the realization of balance in the society through their emphasis on the prohibition of isra'f and also the necessity of renouncing poverty and providing subsistence for every individual. The Ima'm (`a) says, while speaking of the duties of the wali'y al-amr [leader] toward the needy: "He keeps giving him from zaka'h till he makes him needless."