Islamic Economics: Justice and Practicality

By IOL  Team 14/08/2003

As a complete way of life, Islam has provided guidelines and rules for ever sphere of society. Naturally, a functioning economic system is vital of a healthy society, as the consumption of goods and services and the facilitation of this by a common medium of exchange play a major role in allowing people to realize their material and other goals in life. Islam has set some standards, based on justice and practicality, for such economic systems to be established. These standards aim to prevent the enmity that often occurs between different socioeconomic strata, and while they consider money to be among the most important elements in society, the gathering of which concerns almost every human being who participates in transactions with others, they do not lose sight of the fact that its position is secondary to the real purpose of human existence, the worship of Allah. There are three foundational principles that comprise the economic system in Islam: personal property, freedom of activity, and the right of money. An Islamic economic system is not necessarily concerned with the precise amount of fiscal income and expenditure, imports and exports, and other economic statistics. While such matters are no doubt important, Islam is concerned with the spirit of the economic system. A society that implements Islamic laws and promotes Islamic manners will find that it infuses all the systems – social, economic, and so forth – that it deals with. Islam teaches that Allah has created provision for every person who He has brought to life. Therefore, the competition for natural resources that is presumed to exist among the nations of the world is an illusion. While the earth has sufficient bounty to satisfy the needs of mankind, the challenge for humans lies in discovering, extracting, processing, and distributing these resources to those who need them. * Taken with permission from Introduction to Islam