Al-Sadr, Muqaddimah fl al- tafsir(Kuwait:al-Dir al-'Islimiyyah, 1982), 104-107.

Al-Sadr, Muqaddimah fl al- tafsir(Kuwait:al-Dir al-'Islimiyyah, 1982), 104-107. [^31]. Iqtisaduna, 670. [^32]. Ibid, 671. Chapter 8 : The Role of the State As indicated in the theory of distribution, the Islamic State possesses the sole right of ownership of natural resources. Consequently, it has absolute control over all aspects of economic activities. The owner of natural resources or, primary commodities, according to Sadr, is the sole owner of the secondary commodities.

Basically, the govern­ment of the Islamic State can determine the flow of wealth in society and define the economic process. The major objective of the Islamic State is to set up policies to develop the natural resources to the fullest extent to benefit the entire society. To achieve such an economic objective, the State has the right to distribute social economic resources to attain the maximum amount of production that brings prosperity to all people.

The State has the responsibility to provide for the minimum essential needs of society and ensure the economic welfare of the people. It is unlike the capital­ist State, which leaves that function to the fluctuations of the market. Nor it is like the Marxist-Leninist theory that advocates State control of all aspects of economic activities. The Islamic State sets the direction of economic activities, while giving individuals the right of private ownership to achieve the social goal.

The government's role is to over­see and regulate economic activities. Accordingly, Islam has left the government with a high degree of flexibility in developing new regula­tions to meet any emergent economic circumstances. Sadr called the absence of restrictions in the Shari'ah as manatiq al-faragh (the dis­cretionary sphere of the law), where the jurist; has the authority to make judgements and rulings according to the principles of jurispru­dence.

[^33] He considers this area of legislation on the part of the lawgiver as a realistic approach to ensure the development of economic activities and the means of production. The leadership of the Islamic State then could initiate any new legislation and regulations that it sees as appro­priate to the new emergent circumstances in order to meet the eco­nomic needs of the people and secure maximum utilization of eco­nomic resources.

In other words, the Islamic government is free to adopt a wide range of economic policies from full control of the economy to free-enterprise in order to achieve its social goals.