Distributive Justice And Need Fulfilment In An Islamic Economy

Containing some of the papers presented to the second International Conference on Islamic Economics held in Islamabad in 1983, this text reflects Muslim thinking on some of the most important economic issues of the late 20th century.

Distributive Justice and Need Fulfilment in an Islamic Economy is a collection of six papers delivered at The Second International Conference on Islamic Economics held in Islamabad in March 1983. All of the papers are accompanied by comments of as signed discussants as well as a transcription of general discussion from the floor. The whole enterprise has been introduced by Dr. Munawar Iqbal and in his Foreword, Professor Khurshid Ahmad represents it as the first serious effort by professional economists to, on the one hand, clarify the conceptual framework in which Islam deals with the problem of income distribution and, on the other, to explore concrete and policy relevant avenues for establishing a just economy in the context of the contemporary world.

Under the rule of the current economic order, social injustice is ever-increasing. Issues such as poverty, inhumane working conditions, inadequate wages, social insecurity and an unhealthy labor market continue to persist. Many states are also unable to produce policies capable of resolving these problems. The characteristics of the capitalist system currently render it unable to provide social justice. In fact, on the contrary, the system reinforces these injustices and prevents economic and social welfare from reaching the masses. Many Muslim scholars have analyzed and, indeed, criticized this system for years. This book argues that an alternative and more equitable theoretical and practical economical order can been developed within the framework of Islamic principles. On the other hand, the experiences of societies under the rule of Muslim governments do not always seem to hold great promise for an alternative understanding of social justice. In addition, the behaviors of Muslim individuals within their economic lives are mostly shaped by the necessities of daily economic conditions rather than by the tenets of Islam that stand with social justice. Until 1990s, studies of Islamic economics made connections between finance and the notion of social justice, but work conducted more recently has neglected this issue. It is therefore evident that the topic of social justice needs to be revisited in a more in-depth manner. Filling an important gap in existing literature, the book uniquely connects social justice and Islamic finance and economics on this topic. Theory, practice and key issues are presented simultaneously throughout this book, which is based on the writings of a number of eminent scholars.

This book has resulted from a conference on Islamic Economics held at the Institute of Islamic Economics, Islamabad, the underlying theme of which was a study in income distribution. This is the second volume, the first already published under the title: Distributive Justice and Need Fulfillment in an Islamic Economy (also published by the Institute). Hence, some important aspects of the discussion are not to be assumed to have been neglected as one reads just this volume.

Containing some of the papers presented to the second International Conference on Islamic Economics held in Islamabad in 1983, this text reflects Muslim thinking on some of the most important economic issues of the late 20th century.

This thesis concerns the idea of distributive justice, an important subject matter immensely debated in studies of philosophy, political, behavioural and social sciences; yet to be thoroughly analysed in economics. Despite its relevance, works in the formulation of the Theory of Distributive Justice in Islamic Economics are lacking relative to those available in Western scholarship. The existing scholarly products deal mainly with limited and applied aspects of distributive justice. Alternatively, the current work is a comprehensive analysis of the notion of distributive justice in Islamic economics aimed to guide individuals and policymakers in finding practical solutions to economic problems in the Muslim world in particular. This thesis attempts to undertake two tasks, namely; to critically review accessible literature written on distributive justice from the Islamic and western perspectives and to develop a model of distributive justice in based on Islamic heritage that can serve as a foundation to resolve the glaring distributional challenges faced by a number of Muslim countries. It consists of seven chapters, of which four are core to identifying, examining, and cognizing distributive justice within the economic sphere. The first part of the thesis is arranged into two chapters that include the research background, objectives and methods, followed by another chapter exploring justice as a general concept in Western and Islamic Economics. The second part of the thesis investigates distributive justice in its natural form from the perspectives of the western mainstream economists and Islamic economists in two continuous chapters. The academic contribution lies in the extensive literary survey conducted together with the critical appraisals generated as part of responding to the stated research objectives. The second half of the thesis concentrates on developing a model of distributive justice based on the Holy Quran and Sunnah. More specifically, the last two core chapters develop the proposed design of distributive justice according to the Islamic heritage (Turath) and offers a detailed account of the process of operationalizing the theoretical concept of distributive justice; beginning from the identification of key components to its potential dimensions and eventually to the proposed blueprint from an Islamic standpoint. The final contribution is put forward in the forms of assessment, confirmation and justification for the proposed Islamic model of distributive justice . In particular, it contains the required information that supports and validates the proposal as acceptable. Overall, these two chapters synthesise the responses to the remaining research objectives. The concluding chapter offers closing remarks and more importantly, recommendations for future studies related to theories of economic distributions, comparative distributional policies between mainstream economics and Islamic economics as well as empirical analysis of the economic implications of different distribution mechanisms readily available in the Shari’ah.

THEORY OF PROFIT WITH ISLAMIC DIRECTIONS deals with a controversial and neglected, but nonetheless important subject. Readers will find the narration interesting and innovative, for it does not discuss profit theories of various writers separately in chronological order; instead, it identifies issues in the area and analyses the views of various writers on each to propose restructuring of the theory as per Islamic directions. The issues raised include the definition and seat of profit, the cause of its emergence and sources, the motivational aspects and their impact on allocation of resources and incomes distribution, the nature of profit and the regulatory policy role. The work concludes that the source of prevalent confusion on the subject lies in defining profit as a costs/revenues differential of firms and the insistence that it is exclusively attributable to the entrepreneurs who tend to be vanishing in the modern corporate era. For a reformulation of the theory to get rid of inconsistencies, the work suggests that profit should be viewed only as a cost/revenue differential delinked from reward; the firm – not the entrepreneur – should be the focal point for its study, the surplus beyond normal profit must be shared between capital and labour, subject to a minimum wage constraint, to promote social harmony and distributive justice. This book will appeal to the general reader who is looking for a lucid narration on a topic of common interest. Academics will find it interesting because of its historical updating and novelty of treatment. University students of economics will find this work an invaluable resource.

The Islamic perception of the socio-economic process is dynamic and its insistence on social justice is uncompromising. To produce the best social structure, according to this view, man's economic endeavours should be motivated by a meaningful moral philosophy. In the face of the challenges presented by the modern world, the practice of Islamic economics raises many complex and profound issues. These are addressed in this highly important work, which must be considered essential reading for all those who live in the vision of the 'right'.