The Islamic "Free Market": Explaining Some Key Aspects Of The Islamic Theory of The Market and its Relations With Society
Özet
This study is a three-essay dissertation that seeks to explain the notion of Islamic market within the context of the Islamic holistic worldview and, in the process, correct misinterpretations on the subject in recent times, which has resulted, largely, from the influence of the Western worldview. The first essay explicates Islamic market theory as established on basis of the ideals of justice (derived from the main sources of Islamic law), and explains the precepts and norms of the Islamic market ideology as oriented towards the achievement of public good (broadly defined to encapsulate the idea of the holistic conception of life). The second essay discusses the Islamic notion of right to property and enterprise within the context of the Islamic philosophy of life (at both the individual and societal levels) and establishes how material pursuit is intricately connected with the spiritual end and why material pursuit is meaningless without the spiritual connection. Finally, the third essay discusses how the differing conceptions of morality and justice in Islam and capitalism inform how economic freedom is conceived in both systems, with the objective of establishing an unequivocal basis upon which the stark difference between the two systems can be understood.
