Economic Policy
In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful, is the formula a Muslim recites at the beginning of any and all undertakings. It is likewise the fundamental starting point of Islamic economics. Compassion and mercy are two elements without which our humanity is lost, and if our humanity is to be maintained within any system, these two elements are required. Capitalism never had these elements and never wanted them as they interfered with its primary policies of maximum accumulation and maximum profit.
Islam rejects these aspects of capitalism. Islam rejects the ethos whereby the measure of human worth is degraded to a toting up of bank balances. We as Muslims reject that system of economics whereby millions of human beings have to starve to death and suffer utter deprivations in order that a country can pay off extortionate interest payments on foreign debts. We also reject that system of economics whereby a food mountain in one part of the world is refused to the starving in another, so that the international price of this or that commodity is not threatened.
Islam, the religion of serenity, humanity and practicality, seeks the alleviation of economic degradation and suffering and seeks to re-establish human beings at the centre of its economic considerations with the furtherance of humanity as its ultimate goal. And as humanity cannot progress one iota towards contentment without a recognition of God, Who lies at the very heart of that humanity, Islam seeks the implementation of the revealed instructions of God as its day to day practice.
Therefore, as God is compassionate, His revealed system of economics is compassionate. He informs us:
'I, Allah, am the best knower. This book, there is no doubt in it, is a guide to those who keep their duty (Qur'an, 2;1-2) ... Those who swallow usury cannot arise except as he whom the evil one has demented by his touch. That is because they say trading is like usury. But Allah has allowed trade and forbidden usury. ... Allah will blot out usury and cause charity to prosper.... 0 you who believe, keep your duty to Allah and relinquish what still remains due to you, if you are indeed believers. But if you do not, then expect war from Him and His messenger; and if you repent then you may keep your capital. Wrong not and you shall not be wronged. ... And if the debtor is in difficulty let there be a postponement till he is in ease, though if you remit it as alms it would indeed be better for you, if you only knew.' (Qur'an 2;275-280).
God is just, therefore His Qur'an promotes justice and ethics in our commercial and economic activities.
'O you who believe, when you contract a debt for a fixed term, commit it to writing. And let a scribe record it between you with fairness.... And let him who owes the debt dictate the terms, and also observe his duty to Allah, his Lord, and not diminish anything from it."" (Qur'an 2;282)
As God is Wise, the economic system in Islam is supremely practicable and conducive to human survival insisting on recognising human efforts and labour as the primal element and not capital, which should be a useful servant and not the cruel master it has become under the present system devoid of mercy. Islam recognises the link between economics and the relationship it defines, and the socialisation of the individual operating within that system. The alienated relationships defined by the institutions of interest are dehumanising resulting in the primacy of money as a self-reproducing all powerful entity which subjugates the human being and his skills to the status of a commodity to be hired or fired at will. Islam rejects this concept most vehemently.
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