ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Towards An Islamic Economy Author's Introducton Sometime ago requests from my esteemed readers for an additional new and concise' book in the "Islamic Madrasseh" Series became insistent. I could not have readily complied with them' without first completing the second volume of the text-book: "IQTISADUNA" ("Our 'Economy"). For the proposed new booklet was meant to highlight the text-book-s central ideas.

Now that I am able to Offer this booklet, I hope that the readers will find' it helpful even as an outline. In this booklet, I have debated the question as to whether or no Islam offers a suitable basis for formulating a distinct (social-) economic system that overcomes the inadequacies of both capitalism and communism. By an economic system; I mean one that can harmoniously blend with social justice, in the context of man's economic life.

The fact that Islam opposes capitalism and communism both implies its ability to improve the socioeconomic lives of Muslims, who have already begun to seek an Islamic alternative. The discussion in this booklet revolves around a distinction between a socioeconomic system and the pure science of economics.

A socioeconomic system, as already indicated, is supposed to be amenable to social justice, in the processes of production and distribution of wealth, so as to improve the quality of life, Pure economics, on the other hand, can give quantity-oriented assessments of economic life as it is, without going into the question of social justice. With regard to the academic subject of economics, it primarily represents a branch of knowledge.

It will be a mistake to confuse any theoretical knowledge of economics with the more comprehensive matter of a socioeconomic system. This point, too, is explained with examples in this booklet. A typical explanation is that the capitalist system organizes itself on the basis of economic freedom, or free enterprise, which implies independent fixation of price by sellers of goods, among other things.

Pure economists (who take the capitalist system for granted) confine themselves to objective assessments of the market conditions and trends. They do not propose any basic change in the system itself.