The Economic System of Islam   
      
   1-An introduction to the principles Islam has legislated to guide the economic   
   system of society. Part 1: The sources from which the laws that guide   
   economical activity are derived.   
   2-The Ideological Basis of Economic Activity and the general principles by   
   which they are guided   
       
   Introduction   
   As a complete way of life, Islam has provided guidelines and rules for every   
   sphere of life and society.  Naturally, a functioning economic system is vital   
   for 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 sections.  Of course, it is   
   true that the gathering    
   of money concerns almost every human being who participates in transactions   
   with others.  Yet, while these standards recognize money as being among the   
   most important elements in society, they do not lose sight of the fact that   
   its position is secondary    
   to the real purpose of human existence, which is the worship of God.   
      
   An Islamic economic system is not necessarily concerned with the precise   
   amount of financial income and expenditure, imports and exports, and other   
   economic statistics.  While such matters are no doubt important, Islam is more   
   concerned with the spirit    
   of the economic system.   
      
   A society that implements Islamic laws and promotes Islamic manners will find   
   that it bring together all the systems – social, economic, and so forth – that   
   it deals with.  Islam teaches that God 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.   
      
   Islam consists of a set of beliefs which organizes the relationship between   
   the individual and his Creator; between the person and other human beings;   
   between the person and universe; and even the relationship of the person to   
   himself.  In that sense,    
   Islam regulates human behavior, and one type of human behavior is economic   
   behavior.  Economic behavior is dealt by Muslims as a means of production,   
   distribution, and consumption of goods and services.  In Islam, human behavior   
   -whether in the economic    
   area or others - is not value free; nor is it value neutral.  It is connected   
   with the ideological foundation of the faith.   
      
   The Sources of Islamic Economics   
   The fundamental sources of Islam - the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet[1]   
   - provide guidelines for economic behavior and a blueprint of how the economic   
   system of a society should be organized.  Therefore, the values and objectives   
   of all “Islamic”    
   economic systems must necessarily conform to, and comply with, the principles   
   derived from these fundamental sources.  The purpose of these articles is to   
   outline the most salient characteristics of an economic system based on the   
   fundamental sources of    
   Islam.  The focus here is on the principal features of the Islamic system.   
      
   The Islamic economic system is defined by a network of rules called the   
   Shariah.  The rules which are contained in the Shariah are both constitutive   
   and regulative, meaning that they either lay the rules for the creation of   
   economic entities and systems,    
   as well the rules which regulate existing one. As an integral part of the   
   revelation, the Shariah is the guide for human action which encompasses every   
   aspect of life – spiritual, individual, social, political, cultural, and   
   economic.  It provides a    
   scale by which all actions, whether on the part of the individual agents,   
   society, and the state, are classified in regards to their legality.  Thus   
   there are five types of actions recognized, namely: obligatory; recommended;   
   permissible; discouraged;    
   and forbidden.  This classification is also inclusive of economic behavior.   
      
   The basic source of the Shariah in Islam is the Quran and the Sunnah, which   
   include all the necessary rules of the Shariah as guidance for mankind.  The   
   Sunnah further explains these rules by the practical application of Prophet   
   Muhammad, may the mercy    
   and blessings of God be upon him.  The expansion of the regulative rules of   
   the Shariah and their extensions to new situations in later times was   
   accomplished with the aid of consensus of the scholars, analogical reasoning -   
   which derived rules by    
   discerning an analogy between new problems and those existing in the primary   
   sources - and finally, through textual reasoning of scholars specialized in   
   the Shariah.  These five sources - the Quran, the Sunnah, consensus of the   
   scholars, analogical    
   reasoning, and textual reasoning - constitute the components of the Shariah,   
   and these components are also used as a basis for governing economic affairs.   
      
   Justice   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)