When the principle of private ownership makes a cornerstone...

When the principle of private ownership makes a cornerstone of the capitalist doctrine, and the principle of common ownership a cornerstone in the socialist Marxist doctrine, why can't the principle of combined ownership (the one that has both public and private sectors) be the cornerstone in the Islamic economic system? Another example is related to the income earned from the ownership of the sources of production. Capitalism permits such earning in all its ways.

Whoever owns a source of production has the right to rent it and earn an income from its rent without doing any labor at all. Marxist socialism prohibits all sorts of income earned from the ownership of the sources of production because such earning, according to its philosophy, does not require any labor.

The wages which, say, the owner of a mill receives from those who use his mill, and the wages the capitalist receives in the name of interest from those who borrow his money, are not allowed in Marxist socialism, while they are permitted in capitalism. Islam treats the same subject-matter from a third viewpoint. It distinguishes between the earning methods based on the ownership of the sources of production and other methods as well. It prohibits interest while allowing the mill's wages.

Capitalism permits both interest and the mill's wages in agreement with the principle of economic freedom or free enterprise. Marxist socialism does not permit the capitalist to earn interest on loans, or the mill's owner to receive the wages, because labor is the only justification for legal earning: When the capitalist lends his money, and when the mill's owner lends his mill, neither of them does any labor at all.

Islam does not permit the capitalist to earn interest, but it admits the mill's owner to collect rents, according to the capitalist theory of distribution which we will explain in the coming issue [of these series], Insha-Allah . These are three various situations, each varies according to its own viewpoint regarding distribution.

When someone describes the capitalist or Marxist stance as "doctrinal", why can't he say the same about the Islamic stance, even though the latter expresses the viewpoint of a third economic doctrine which differs from both of the other two?!…