Islamic Economy Its Ideological and Legal Foundations

Supplement

G. Touching on these relations, the late A'yatulla'h al-@adr points to another aspect of the issue, namely the relationship between government's economic doctrine and its financial policy which is, in fact, a part of government's planning for enforcement of the laws of Islamic economy, thus, it is a part of the economy itself.

H. We already pointed to the link between Islam's economic system and its ethical system which makes the latter one of the major preludes and the motivating element for the ummah in the way of implementing the economic system and realizing its goals to such an extent that it becomes hard to distinguish between the two systems.

Here I would like to point, as a diversion from the main course of discussion, to the fact that Islam addresses the whole life in general and devises for it the best system which guides toward the goal in a deliberate manner and based on principles of justice and equity. Whereas we find the positivist world today floundering in the establishment of a desirable system for the protection of human dignity, distribution of responsibilities, and realization of rights. Therefore, social systems collapse, one after another, and admit their defeat while Islam remains a straight religion without any deviation.

As an example for this argument, we focus on the slogan which the positivist world spouts through giving it a widespread global character and which has recently altered to a sweeping emotional wave, namely the slogan of equality of women and men in all situations, periods, and places, and with respect to all rights without any exceptions whatever it would be. We have been finding this slogan tens of times in the documents presented in the conferences of Mexico City, Bucharest, Cairo, and recently in a strong and explicit form, in the Beijing Conference on Woman. We see the document produced by this conference concentrating, specifically, on the issues of inheritance, absolute material equality, judgeship, and the so called sexual freedom rights for all ages and so forth.

We consider this slogan as a blind assertion although it has an attractive appearance since equality is one of the principles favorable to the human taste concerning two individuals whose rights are equal in terms of their human dignity and affiliation, i.e. the man and the woman. But this principle is not too general to have exceptions. This is due to the natural differences between man's and woman's physical and emotional structures, nature of the social responsibility which is to be carried out by each, and the extent of participation by each in the social construction including the establishment of social justice.

Hence, we may not call out the slogan of quantitative equality without considering the desired balance otherwise we will commit, through this equality, injustice and unfairness. When the principles of equality and social justice are in conflict, one may ask to which one the priority goes? Undoubtedly, the principle of justice is the one which common-sense testifies to its generality and insusceptibility to exception, therefore, social justice qualifies the principle of equality and even determines its socially desired form.

We feel great regret on the blind, sweeping, global wave that has been put forward thoughtlessly and that criticizes against the Islamic inheritance system pretending to ignore that it is part of a whole and that there is a wonderful balance between this system and the nafaqah [allowance] system and the duties of each of the man and the woman in the social life.