Therefore...

Therefore, it is unthinkable in Islamic economics, states Sadr, for someone to employ others and provide them with rent and tools so that he alone owns the products of their labour. [^17] Likewise, industries and production units that employ many workers can function in an Islamic State only if they are owned publically.

In Sadr's theoretical vision industrial capitalist production can no way evolve in an Islamic economic system except through State's direct involvement and control in economic development. The State, on behalf of society, which is the sole owner of economic resources, can employ people and pay them only wages for their work and not give them share of the produced commodities.

Furthermore, since the utilization of the economic wealth of the environment is the responsibility of society as a whole-the sole proprietor and beneficiary of natural resources-it gets a share of the produce of primary commodities. The State, in this stage of produc­tion, has the right to collect what is known as tasq (income tax) from producers to finance social welfare expenditures and meet the eco­nomic needs of the people.

[^18] As for the production of secondary commodities, Islam gives the owner of primary commodities the right to establish his claim to final products. The legitimacy of his ownership does not cease because someone aids him in transforming his commodity into different forms. An individual, if he/she owns the raw materials, has the right to manu­factured commodities produced out of that material.

To put it plainly, the worker, in this case, does not only own the product of the natural resources but also the produced commodities in latter stages of pro­duction. If the State, for example, extracts or mines certain natural resources through its publically owned enterprises, then it also has the right of ownership of all the finished goods extracted from those natural resources. People who participate in the production would get paid for their labour.

Industries that develop natural resources, such as oil and minerals, theoretically speaking, cannot be owned privately in an Islamic economic system. It is because the State is the primary owner of natural resources, which gives it the right to own the pro­duced product.