ECONOMICS IN AN ISLAMIC SOCIETY: A THEORETICAL EXPOSITION

This study is an attempt to explain the role of economics in an Islamic society, as a foundation to the proper understanding of the broad Islamic economic ideology as outlined in the Islamic moral code. In accomplishing this task, the study explains the life of the individual, from the Islamic perspective, as one oriented towards attaining a spiritual end (i.e., seeking Divine Pleasure through servitude). Economic pursuit plays only a functional role in this, serving, primarily, as the means to acquiring material provisions for the fulfilment of needs basic to the functioning of the individual in light of his/her spiritual pursuit. When the society is established as a community of such spiritual beings, and as cooperation towards enhancing their spiritual aspiration (for which they collectively adopt the moral code as their guide), the broad social outlook reflects the overriding spiritual goal. In this broad context, economics is functional to the broad social aspiration, which, essentially, is spiritual. Thus, the economic institution (as an integral element of the social structure) is designed to ensure that all individuals have equitable opportunity to acquire their necessary material provisions, while economic relations are morally policed (by the state) to keep them within the confines of the moral code, and within their functional bound