By Ayatullah Muhammad Ali Tashkiri
Every system, intending to achieve certain goals, must be designed in a realistic manner. Therefore, if the system is supposed to be implemented in order to serve human life, particularly in the long-run, it must serve man's goals and be consistent with his fitrah (primordial nature). This is not possible unless the designer of the system has a command over the knowledge necessary for understanding social and individual aspects of man. Besides, the designer should have a thorough understanding of actual relations between those two aspects of man and the primordial nature of man as well. In addition to those prerequisites, the designer should understand the historical trends of such a relationship, the needs for the development of such relationships and methods for pursuing those needs in order to realize an evolutionary, human approach toward actualizing the goals of the creation of man.
Indeed, the way the aforesaid satisfaction of needs is to be carried out should not overlap other systems which are meant for satisfying other needs of man. In other words, such a system should observe a wise balance and study the role and interrelationship of other systems which together comprise the whole system of life.
If we assume that the designer of the system possesses all those necessary prerequisites, we should assess subsequent stages in the process of achieving the desirable realism which is necessary for a system to be able to provide a proper context for itself. By this we mean the extent to which this system is compatible with the norms and values of the society (where the system is to be implemented), the extent of consistence between those norms and values and the emotional values presented by the system, and finally the extent to which this system assures the realization of a desirable education to create social obedience for those ideological views and emotional values.
Although the system may be realistic, accurate, and rational in perceiving the reality and understanding its needs and their satisfaction, it will remain incapable if it is not preceded by an ideological impetus which supplies the society with bases for the stance that it should take toward the universe, the life, and the man itself. Consequently, the ideological impetus will guarantee the system the element of iman [faith] rescue it from the most important civilizational maladies including ilhad [atheism], which is the opposite of iman, and shirk [polytheism], which signifies the excessive belief in false gods, and shakk [doubt], which is a manner resembling other destructive attitudes. Unless these requirements are realized, we cannot assure the provision of the first contextual element for the system's implementation. Similarly, as long as the emotional motivations, which are the focus of education, are not perfectly compatible and harmonious with the ideological structure of the society, we cannot guarantee balance in man's personality when there is a wide gap between his beliefs and the internal and external values and motivations that the system provides in order to satisfy his needs. Moreover, these emotional motivations cannot form human behavior and action unless they are strong and clearly defined.
So far, we have realized the necessity of two factors for every system intending to materialize its human goals: first, the planner's holistic approach towards human reality, including his relations and needs as well as their fulfillment concomitant with the rest of the system; second, facilitating its implementation through faith and compatible emotional motivations.
Realism, in turn, requires the following two fundamental factors: first, the system should contain legal guarantees binding all those who oppose the harmonious human nature or those few who have not chosen the complete iman or the full commitment to the requirements of iman; second, it has a perfect flexibility to accommodate the temporal and spatial variations in human life and provides fixed solutions for fixed elements of human life and flexible ones for the accommodation of its alterable elements.
We believe that Islam was correct in announcing its rule in the form of general rules. Thus, it did not ignore any one of those aspects, but observed them perfectly and completed the religion which provides appropriate answers to man's needs till the Day of Judgment.
Accordingly, it announces that the whole Islamic system is based on reality and nature and that it is the fixed truth aiming at serving human beings and accomplishing the purpose of his creation. Thus, it enjoins whatever is desirable and forbids whatever is refused by the nature.
God, the Exalted, says: "Then set your face upright for religion in the right state, the nature made by Allah in which He has made men. There is no alteration in Allah's creation. That is the right religion but most people do not know." (30:30)
And He, the Exalted, says: "Say: O people! Indeed there has come to you the truth from your Lord ..." (10:108)
And He, the Exalted, says: "O you who believe! Answer (the call of) Allah and the Apostle when he calls you to that which gives you life, and know that Allah intervenes between man and his heart, and that to Him you shall be gathered." (8:24)
And He, the Exalted, says: "Those who follow the Apostle Prophet, who was taught neither to read nor to write, whom they find written down with them in the Tawrah and the Injil [Old and New Testaments], (who) enjoins them to do good and forbids them from doing evil, and makes the pure and good things halal [lawful] for them and makes impure and harmful things haram [prohibited] for them, and remove from them their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So (as for) those who believe in him and support him and help him and follow the light which was sent down with him, they are indeed the saved." (7:157)
The proof of this argument is the same one that proves its attribution to the Great Creator as it proves for this Creator all attributes of knowledge about all facts and full, absolute control over the formation of shari`ah (the comprehensive body of Islamic rules), and perfect kindness to the servants and other attributes which are not imaginable for any body other than Him the Exalted.
We are not to present any reasoning for this but only point to the Holy Qur'an's emphasis on this fact in all occasions when it points to Allah's kindness and knowledge:
"Does He not know Who He created? He it is Who made the earth smooth for you, therefore go about in the spacious sides thereof, and eat of His sustenance, and to Him is the return after death." (67:14-15)
"Say: Allah suffices as a witness between me and you. Surely He is Aware of His servants, Seeing. And whomsoever Allah guides, is the follower of the right way, and whomsoever He causes to err, you shall not find for him guardians besides Him. And We will gather them together on the day of resurrection on their faces, blind and dumb and deaf. Their abode is hell, whenever it becomes allayed We will add to their burning." (17:96-97)
After this introduction, we try to discuss several points pertaining to the core of the discussion with emphasis on the following subjects:
1. Major attributes of the Islamic economy, their natural character, and
Islam's emphasis on them.
2. The proper grounds Islam prepares for its economic system.
3. Relationship between this system and other systems.
4. Flexibility of the Islamic economic system.
Salient Features of the Islamic Economy
When we study the Islamic economy as a way which Islam prescribes for individual and social behavior in the economic field and examine Islam's rules in this area, we can conclude that its most important attribute is social justice. In this respect, the Islamic economy resembles all other systems that claim to be serving human being and realizing his social aspirations but it differs from them in the details of its conception of social justice.
Justice cannot emerge unless the following requirements are present: first, believing in the private and social property on an equal and advanced level in a way that the private property acts on the fulfillment of man's natural demands for possessing the result of his effort and obtaining the benefits of his business. While the public property aims at guaranteeing that social action enjoys a social product through which the provision of some needs and shortages would become possible.
Second, faith in individual economic freedom as a general, continuous, comprehensive principle which stems from the nature of the ownership along with the belief in the existence of some limits at which this freedom ends. This is for the purpose of either guaranteeing individual's interest as in the case of objects the use of which was outlawed because of the physical or moral damage that they could inflict upon the individual, or to secure others' rights and liberties which is also a natural guarantee admitted by all religions and human affiliations.
Third, faith in the principle of mutual responsibility. Islam guarantees, for every individual in the Islamic society, the subsistence level, i.e., provision of his natural needs. The government is obliged to provide this minimum for all and it is absolutely impermissible that even a single needy person is found in the Islamic society. Regarding how to make the society economically capable of doing this, the following factors may be mentioned:
Obliging individuals to accomplish their responsibilities and duties with respect to the provision of the necessary needs of others. Since one of government's responsibilities is to compel individuals to perform their obligations, even those which are individual, it may bind individuals to carry out these duties as well.
The legal power of waliy al-amr [head of the Islamic government] to determine the limits of public domain (saddu mantaqat al-mubahat) through legislation supplies the government with the desirable power.
Public properties and anfal [properties with no particular owner/s] which are designated by the government as public properties which the government oversees and uses to achieve the above goal.
Financial punishments and methods that are devised by Islam to transfer private properties to the public ownership as with respect to mawqufat [endowments] or the lands the inhabitants of which perished or the dead without heirs and so forth.
Nature of the Islamic legislation--as Shahid al-Sadr (r) put it--which aims at strengthening the social structure for the realization of this mutual responsibility.
Fourth, belief in the principle of social balance and refusal of the class system in the Islamic society. We came to know through the third point that the required minimum is to provide subsistence for all individuals. As far as the maximum is concerned, it may be assumed through the following factors:
1. The prohibition of tabdhir and israf [wasting and squandering] in all areas, therefore, an individual cannot possibly trespass to the line of israf.
2. The prohibition of every action that leads to misuse of particular properties, and of lahw [amusement] and mujun [impudence].
3. Rejection of all social and economic privileges which discriminate between different groups of people which, in turn, eliminates all the grounds for the emergence of the class system.
If we go back and scrutinize all of these features and expose them to human nature and conscience we will find them principles that may be admitted in a natural way. This explains the return of each of the two extremist systems of capitalism and socialism to a moderate position after its collision with opposing natural factors--as we believe.
The natural basis of these views is evidently emphasized by general regulatory and conceptual authoritative texts (nusus) that are numerous and to some of which we point here:
There are nusus that stress the inherence character of private and public property:
The Exalted says: "And the man shall gain nothing but what he strives for." (53:39) (naturally if we interpret it as including worldly possession).
Amir al-mu'minin (`a) says: "This property is indeed neither mine nor yours but it is a collective property of the Muslims ... what is earned by their hands does not belong to any mouths other than theirs." (Nahj al-Balaghah, sermon 232)
There are some nusus that emphasize the economic freedom in a natural form the clearest of which is the rule on which all fuqaha' [Islamic scholars] rely, namely the rule (Al-nasu musallatuna `ala amwalihim [people are in control of their properties]). Naturally, there are some limits to this freedom which are mentioned by other nusus stressing that this restriction is only for the benefit of the individual and the society.
There are some nusus that emphasize the inherence of mutual responsibility and cooperation and further consider all kinds of negligence with respect to this principle as a general rejection of din [faith and religion]. The Exalted says: "Have you seen the person who rejects the religion? He is the one who treats the orphan with harshness, and does not urge (others) to feed the poor." (107:1-3)
Finally, there are some nusus that stress the necessity for the realization of balance in the society through their emphasis on the prohibition of israf and also the necessity of renouncing poverty and providing subsistence for every individual. The Imam (`a) says, while speaking of the duties of the waliy al-amr [leader] toward the needy: "He keeps giving him from zakah till he makes him needless."
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