Thus, the Islamic worldview rearranges his utility function...

Thus, the Islamic worldview rearranges his utility function in so lofty and transcendental a manner that all good deeds and services make him happy and satisfied. In fact, he regards himself as God’s servant by his grace and honor and it demands that he love people and offer his services to them. Such an exalted utility function will increase his nation’s wealth and will accumulate the stock of capital while no corruption will appear.

An optimum portfolio of ownership Islam offers a quite elaborate plan of ownership. In this plan, the real and absolute ownership over the whole universe belongs exclusively to God. Humankind, as His vicegerent or steward, however, is authorized to use all this on behalf of Him to carry out the Islamic mission.

Thus, in the light of this teaching a Muslim discovers a vast spiritual vocation to employ His Almighty trust to fulfill his mission with pleasure, not to satisfy those utilities derived from his selfishness. To realize its complex mission in the context of its vision, Islam acknowledges different forms of property rights simultaneously and lays down the principle of multi-faceted ownership.

Thus Islam differs essentially from capitalism which respects unlimited private ownership as a key economic principle and focuses merely on efficiency and capital accumulation but does not concern itself at all with the Issue of social justice and the fatal, widening income gap. Although capitalism recognizes nationalization and public ownership too, these are exclusively legitimate in the case of social necessity.

Islam also differs from socialism, which is biased toward public ownership as a main economic principle and which avoids recognizing private property rights over the means of production. Even if this school of thought satisfies the egalitarian distribution of wealth, it fails to satisfy political or economic freedoms as well as prosperity for a populace, because of its inefficiency (see: Hayek, 2001).

To benefit from maximum efficiency of economic performance while satisfying social justice, Islam sets up an optimum portfolio of different forms of ownership. It respects private property rights for economic activities as a key element of its multi-faceted principle and permits nothing to blemish it. This facet of ownership obviously guarantees motivation at the maximum level.