Theoretical Foundations of Islamic Economics Edited by Ha

Top 20 FREQUENT WORDS

islamic 981 economic 426 economics 412 social 180 sharia 146 economy 143 risk 143 transactions 138 muslim 127 conventional 126 individual 126 theory 126 choice 107 research 104 behavior 101 firm 101 function 101 asset 97 profit 97 society 94

DOCUMENT KEY POINTS

international institute of islamic islamic educational scientific thought iiit and cultural organization islamabad isesco rabat islamic research and islamic research training institute institute iri irti international islamic university islamic development bank islamabad jeddah
the islamic development bank islamic research and training institute theoretical foundations of islamic economics edited by habib ahmed book of readings no

isbn the views expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the islamic research and training institute or of the islamic development bank
C islamic development bank islamic research and training institute king fahd national library cataloging in publication data theoretical foundations of islamic economicsedited by habib ahmed a jeddah

in view of the nascent stage of the discipline a good part of the earlier work on islamic economics was focused on explaining the fundamental economic doctrines of islam or attempting to develop viable models for the operation of economic institutions in consonance with islamic teachings
foreword islamic research and training institute irti of the islamic development bank idb islamic educational scientific and cultural organization isesco international institute of islamic thought iiit islamabad and islamic research institute iri of the international islamic university iiu islamabad jointly organized a seminar in islamabad on march with two objectives in mind

doctor mabid ali al jarhi doctor zafar ishaq ansari doctor abdulaziz othman altwaijri director irti chairman iiit islamabad director general scientific and director general iri islamic educational islamic development international islamic university cultural organization bank jeddah islamabad isesco rabat
also motivate scholars to conduct further research in this important and challenging area

islamic economic system not only stands as an alternative to the capitalist one but it also claims to resolve the conflict between equity and growth inherent in the capitalist syste miss furthermore islamic economists assert that the crippling debt problems affecting many developing countries and financial instability witnessed in an increasingly integrated world would be mitigated if the islamic principles pertaining to socio economic matters are followed chapra b and ahmed

the seminar was jointly organized by islamic research and training institute irti of the islamic development bank idb jeddah islamic educational scientific and cultural organization isesco rabat international institute of islamic thought iiit islamabad and islamic research institute iri of the international islamic university iiu islamabad

fahim khan s paper entitled fiqh foundations of the theory of islamic economics a survey of selected contemporary writings on economics relevant subjects of fiqh discusses the islamic rules and principles on economic issues that appeared in some contemporary literature on islamic jurisprudence
he maintains that as long as concepts and principles do not contradict islamic principles they can be adopted in islamic economics

analytical and theoretical contributions the analytical theoretical part of the book contains five papers addressing different economic issues and proble miss though the topics of these papers are varied the main analytical theoretical features arising from these papers are pointed out below

he shows that under competitive conditions the transaction costs of a sale that includes a real transaction type i and nominal transaction purchase of a good or asset using borrowed funds in an conventional economy is higher than that of real transaction type ii credit purchase in an islamic economy
to do so he identifies spot purchases of goods and assets as type i real transaction a price deferred sale of a good or asset as type ii real transaction and a price deferred sale of a monetary asset as nominal transaction

presley use contemporary theory of the firm in their paper on determining moral hazard and adverse selection in the islamic firm to model an islamic financial firm
zamir iqbal s paper entitled portfolio choices and asset pricing in islamic framework discusses a basic issue in financial economics by examining how the portfolio and asset allocation choices can be made in an islamic framework

in this regard islamic economists can learn from academic discourses in new institutional economics and investigate topics like economics of property rights positive political theory institutions of governance transaction costs theory etc
to do so more attention from both fuquha and islamic economists is needed on these topics

umer a the future of economics an islamic perspective the islamic foundation leicester
references ahmed habib exchange rate stability theory and policies from an islamic perspective research paper no

though differences in approaches and views are expected among scholars in any field there should exist among those who belong to the same school a consensus on the fundamental issues of the philosophy methodology and the essence of the theoretical structure of their discipline
to address this question we need to explore the relationship of islamic economics with secular economics and identify the elements that can be adopted from the latter and those which have to be left out

these scholars examined classified and analyzed available knowledge to find out more accurate facts on the nature of relationships between economic aspects and sharia h rules and to deduce the causes and the effects of some common economic proble miss they also developed more understanding of economic and
knowledge comprises all that which accumulate in any field of general information as well as accurate facts that are based on physical sense material observations philosophical contemplation or result from organized intellectual effort

on the one hand it was an expression of the historical islamic heritage and on the other hand it was a reflection of a desire to understand economic issues and problems of the muslim world on modern bases
in other words islamic economics attempts to analyze the causes of economic problems and issues and arrive at practical solutions that suit modern islamic societies within the context of islamic law and values

samuelson is economics is the study of how people and society choose to employ scarce resources that could have alternative uses in order to produce various commodities and to distribute them for consumption now or in the future among various persons and groups in society

this is mentioned in a hadith qudsi in which the prophet pbuh mentions that allah says some of my worshipers are only reformed and best fitted with poverty and if i to enrich them this will spoil them and some of my worshippers are only reformed and fitted with richness and if i to impoverish them this will spoil them

as such islamic economics can be defined as follows islamic economics is the science that studies the best possible use of all available economic resources endowed by allah for the production of maximum possible output of halal goods and services that are needed for the community now and in futue and the just distribution of this output within the framework of sharia h and its intents
in this pursuit of livelihood to meet his wants allah tests his faith as is evident when he says a i i i i i Oi i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i Y i i i a qur an meaning that which is on the earth as an adornment for it in order to test them people as to which of them is best in deeds

islamic economists have to learn how to be committed to the islamic legal frameworks as given by sharia h rules how to take into account and inject the meanings of islamic creed values in their analysis and at the same time how to leave the doors open to benefit from conventional economics whenever possible

while studying the behavior of the muslim consumer there are some sharia h guidelines that would form the axio miss the food drinks and clothes prohibited by sharia h must be excluded from the consumer s feasible set of commodities
for example a rational muslim consumer must not be either extravagant or miser as allah almighty says qur an a i i i i i i Y i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i oi i Y i i i Y i i i T i i i i i a meaning those who when they spend are not extravagant and not niggardly but hold a just balance between those extremes

the only useful remark which can be taken from the marxist analysis is that when the people conduct their life on purely materialistic bases and create their own religion they are bound to be greedy and exploitative if they are the domineering class in the society
the basic rule in this regard is that any interpretation presented by the conventional economic theory that are based on postulates or axioms derived from secular morals or values contradicting partially or completely islamic sharia h and values cannot be accepted or adopted in islamic economics

it would be interesting to examine how these problems were discussed in the context of assumptions postulates that reflect the secular philosophy on one hand and prevailing conditions in practice on the other
man is looked at as a mere economic creature that consumes produces obtains his share from production on purely material bases emanating from seeking his self interest

on the one hand there is technological progress growth of capital production and income in the society and on the other hand the distribution of income continuously worsens against the workers and in favor of the capitalists
in the qur an a i i i a i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i Y i i oi i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i oi i i i i i i i Y i i i i i i i i i i i i a a i i i i i i i i i i i i i a qur an meaning by men whom neither trade nor sale can divert them from the remembrance of allah nor from regular prayer nor from paying zakat their only fear is for the day when hearts and eyes will be turned about

the factors that lead to the growth of output in weber analysis are increase in savings and investment due to religious motives namely hard work and permissibility of accumulating wealth on one hand and virtue of moderate consumption on the other hand
in another qur anic verse allah almighty praises those who say a i i i i i i i i i i i i i Ci i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i a qur an meaning our lord give us good in this world and good in the hereafter in any islamic oriented growth theory these tenets should be reflected in postulates knowing that deviation from them will lead to social disintegration

formulation of theory in islamic economics its preconditions and construction all that has been mentioned above about adhering to sharia h rules and islamic values when dealing with any economic problem on one hand or when getting help from some conventional economic analytical tools and theories on the other hand is essential for research in islamic economics but not sufficient

on the other hand they should have the knowledge of conventional economics to derive in this article i am depending on my definition of mujtahid rather than the conventional islamic one which will in my opinion make difficult if not impossible to perform the role of ijtihad in islamic economics

favorable islamic climate the islamic cultural social and political climate that guard facilitate and encourage the mujtahideen to produce new rules and ideas and develop scientific research is a necessary condition for true progress in islamic economics in the long run
whereas no one can ignore the scientific significance of empirical research we cannot ignore the importance of the deductive method and its known role in the development of the economic theory

the first is where we believe we know the logic of some phenomenon but have little information about it and the second is where we have some information about something and we cannot make much sense of it simon and burstein pp

for example an islamic theory for the firm will include the following normative postulates a the production of goods ie what to produce is determined within the context of islamic sharia h
among the most important features of conventional economics its obsession with realism materialistic philosophy and orientation towards abstraction in the sense of isolating economic behavior from other human factors that affect it

therefore private property should be used according to the commandments of allah and the orders or advices of his messenger pbuh which in fact urge the individual to love the others as loving himself and to give the interest of the muslim community priority if it comes against his interest
should we be committed completely to these observations as is the case in positive conventional economics the answer to this question is vital and must be treated with caution because conditions in reality may or may not be in conflict with normative concepts that are reflected in other postulates

apart from these cases where little information is available there are many fields of economic activities in the muslim countries that are deviant from sharia h and as such cannot be suitable for the empirical work to fulfil the purposes of islamic economics
even though economic events do not repeat themselves yet to learn their logic as to why events happen circumstances that accompanied them and their consequences can be very useful in explaining other events of similar nature and making some predictions on their possible effects

in the qur an allah almighty says a i i i i i Ci i i i i i i i i i i Oi i i i i i Oi i i i i Ci i i i i i i i oi Y i i i i i i a i i i i i i Oi i i i i Ya qur an meaning and did not allah check one set of people by means of another the earth would indeed be full of mischief but allah is full of bounty to all the worlds the explanation of this qur anic verse states that the struggle between right and wrong continued throughout the history of mankind
this meaning is reflected in another qur anic verse qur an a i i a i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i a i i Y i i i i i a i oi i Y i i i i i a meaning and say truth has now arrived and falsehood perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish these verses will help us always to understand that there is an inevitable struggle between right and wrong in this world

furthermore the principles of muslim jurists fuqha who are interested in economics would best benefit the new paradigm by advising the islamic economists on sharia h rules which concern their art reviewing their work and expressing their agreement or disagreement on the use or misuse of sharia h rules in this work
it is true that recipients and sources of zakat are well defined in the qur an and sunnah and that we are not allowed to make independent judgements on what is clearly stated in these sources

adaptability of islamic economics methodology in different phases and reflections on the applicability of the new paradigm given the absence of a modern islamic economic experience before s there was no room for the researchers to use induction

allah sw has indicated in the qur an about the natural weakness and defectiveness of man on one side and his unlimited inner power to purify himself and improve his faculties and performance in every respect at the other extreme

some islamic thinkers would tend to reject this approach on ground of the qur anic verse which says qur an a i i i i i i i oi i i i i oi i Ci i i oi i i i i i i i i i i oi i i Oi i i i i i i i i i oi i i i i i i Ci i i a meaning this day i have perfected your religion for you completed my favor upon you and have chosen for you islam as your religion they would say that sharia h was completed since this verse was revealed

the existence of secular trend among some intellectuals in the muslim countries and the decline in the overall level of islamic knowledge and education among muslim businessmen will also work against the islamic reformation

theoretically we can divide the time necessary to achieve the optimum conditions targeted by the strategy into the following three time phases darrora phase in islamic fiqh some very exceptional situations may arise that would compel the muslims to deviate from normal islamic behavior or commitments
they submit that they are aware of riba or interest prohibition in islam but they assert that they have no available interestfree financial alternative

if not possible then the question that has to be addressed is what is the nature and the size of loss that will be incurred if the required finance is not provided because of the fear of riba and the sincere desire to avoid it this loss has to be estimated in order to judge whether it is negligible will this loss only harm the interests of the firm s owner s will it harm the interests of the workers in the firm also and will make them vulnerable to loosing their jobs will harm the interests of the muslim community if it leads to closure of the firm all these are serious possibilities that have to be searched before deciding upon darrora
what do they do and what kind of solution islamic economists can offer to them until the time comes and an islamic fiscal system is installed there are many other examples that islamic economic research needs to address for the interest of the muslims who are living now and probably for ten years or more to come yet when some better conditions will be prevailing

factors that would be considered in doing so include the fulfillment of the current needs of the muslims and their conformity with the development objectives of the islamic economy in the long run ie the future interests and strength of the muslim community
c there is a need to seek medium term solutions for some of the economic problems from which muslim society suffers under conventional economic syste miss these intermediary or transitional solutions must be characterized by a clear account and understanding of how a gradual transition will be carried from the behavior based on positive secular values and motives to one based on islamic motives and values

is it possible to find such a solution while the authorities in these countries still apply monetary and fiscal policies that are interest based and most of the existing business institutions are not committed to sharia h rules certainly there would not be any ideal or final islamic solution before eliminating all non islamic economic policies and practices
is it possible to promote a motion at the political level supported by serious economic studies to prove that public interest will not be harmed if zakat payments are deducted from taxes that have to be collected islamic economic research should be employed in finding out the consequences of substituting taxes by zakat

the fulfillment of complete structural change needs serious macro economic studies in the areas of optimum allocation of resources and fair distribution of income within the context of sharia h
liquidation should be accomplished at minimum social costs research should also deal with the ways of strengthening economic relations between muslim countries as well as establishing balanced economic relations with the non muslim communities and countries on bases of islamic sharia h

economic analysis and the formulation of any explanatory rules in islamic economics should be based on these postulates or axio miss building an islamic economic theory is indispensable for the development of the new paradigm
however from the islamic perspective utmost care should be taken to ensure that definitions or terminologies postulates or axioms have been carefully phrased and composed in conformity with sharia h and islamic values

al jawziya ibn qayem undated al turuq alhikmiya fi al siyassa alshariya matb et al madani cairo
particular problems of each phase and suggesting the right solutions to them from the islamic perspective

yousri abdel rahman tatawir al fikr al iktisadi al dar al jami eya al ibrahimya alexandria in arabic
nejatullah history of economic thought in islam a survey center of islamic economic research king abdul aziz university jeddah

according to siddiqi the essentials of theory of islamic economics are rooted in the qur an and sunnah and the implications and implementation of these essentials are to be searched in other islamic sources like fiqh usool fiqh and islamic history

does islamic economics have a potential to offer a paradigm needed to replace the conventional models to address the economic problems of humanity does it have a potential to become a distinct discipline the starting point to answer these questions should lie in the comparison of the roots of the islamic economics with those of economics
second some of its basic postulates such as inherent human selfishness unregulated free enterprise consumer sovereignty the absolute freedom to earn save invest or waste are instrumental in creating various economic proble miss solution to present day economic problems requires a complete departure from contemporary conventional wisdom

though the translation of this material in english and french is in process yet it lags behind substantially and non arab economists remain unaware of this literature and cannot benefit from this literature when working on islamic economics
the chapters in the book relating to objectives of sharia h have received special attention as it introduces new dimensions in these monographs are included in the reference at the end of this paper

maslahah refers to preservation of the objectives of sharia h which consists of preservation of following five aspects of human existence in the world i preservation of life nafs ii preservation of property ma al iii preservation of religion deen iv preservation of reason a aql v preservation of descendents procreation nasl what assures and preserves these five conditions is considered to have maslahah and whatever fails to preserve any one of them is mafsadah
there are three grades or levels of maslahah as follows i essential darori level ii complementary haji level iii amelioratory tahsini level at essential level maslahah would include all that protects the five elements life property religion reason and procreation from destruction

this is because if the world is left to follow the peoples instinctive desires it will this would probably what the qur an has often advised to adopt hasan in various spheres of human activities
if any activity does not have a beneficial implication corresponding to shatibi s framework of objectives of sharia h then that activity should not be pursued in production or consumption or exchange

interpersonal comparison at applied and public policy level the concept of maslahah provides a basis for interpersonal comparison of needs and hence can provide a basis for taking measures for social welfare which is something the conventional economics feels constrained because of the problems in making interpersonal comparisons of utility
the economic problem is not merely a problem of choice to satisfy wants it is a problem of meeting needs of individuals as well as the society

for example consider the following rule rule it is permissible to dispose off the property rights of a person if such an act is dictated by urgent need and there is no way to obtain permission of the owner hassan
private property rights and social needs the private property rights and social needs have been defined to allow the public policy to take care of social interests when they clash with private interests or with economic freedom

for example what would make a man to behave economically what can make people to work for improving their economic condition how to deal with the people who prefer to remain in poverty rather than forego their leisure how can people be forced not to waste resources and not to make their uneconomic use such topics may be the concern of what is called development economics which has yet to go a long way to understand and cure a underdevelopment or economic backwardness
the norm of rationality in this respect is different in islamic shari ah than what a economics perceives more discussion on the shari ah concept of rationality is in the later part of this paper

these conditions include among others the maintenance of asset remains the responsibility of owner during the renting period and the renting contract cannot allow sale of the asset to the lessee at the end of the renting period at a pre determined price
however when uncertainty is introduced in economic analysis or these assumptions are used as foundations for macroeconomic analysis then there would be problems because return on financial or monetary capital is not similar in nature as rent on capital in the microeconomic framework

what we like with our property truly thou art the one that forebears with faults and is right minded qur an to those weak of understanding make not over your property which god has made a means of support for youa qur an yousuf ali one of the renowned translators of the qur an also makes similar point when explaining the verse mentioned above
he writes the owner may not do just what he likes absolutely his right is limited by the good of the community of which he is a member and if he is incapable of understanding it his control should be removed

ignoring this economic aspect of human behavior is likely to have stripped economics of the ability to address several questions that could be useful not only for the science of economics but also for its application to the economy to solve the economic problems of the society
for example why people keep on accumulating wealth and do not spend it for social community causes even beyond the level when they are sure that neither they nor their family will have the opportunity to spend it all such questions cannot be explained without incorporating elements of human behavior that the qur an refers to as being qatoora into economic analysis

if utility is the criterion other needs like those relating to property reason and the level of the needs from essentials to complementarities and then to amelioration can make the needs unlimited like wants are unlimited in the conventional economics
on the other hand if maslahah and hence needs as explained earlier alone is the basis for economic decision making then the above mentioned man is obliged to fulfill all his needs and his needs would be endless if meeting social needs is recognized as individual need

the problem is of a setup where the needs of the have nots are either helping them mobilize their own resources or mobilizing the resources of those who have to meet the needs of have nots
and satisfying wants ahwa is the objective then there is a problem created by scarcity but what is the solution economics only will tell what desires he will decide to be satisfied by his resources

from the discussion of fiqh scholars on the responsibilities of custodians of the property of orphans waqf and bait al mal masri generalizes the principles of selling goods at maximum price and making maximum profit when putting one s resources to commercial use
masri starts his arguments by quoting the following verses from the qur an and come not near to the orphan s property except in a better way and he moses said will you exchange the better for the worse

to masri the reference to ihsan in the verses is the reflection of the requirement to seek maximization not only as a custodian of the property of orphan but in any capacity when putting resources to use
it does not refer to the matter of preferring more to less but refers to matter of preferring style higher quality to lower quality of doing things

the point to note is that this type of optimizing behavior has been required not only for one s own needs but also for spending on other s need emphasizing that the concept of maslahah is the concept governing all activities as seen in the following verses in the qur an and render to the kindred due rights as also to those in want and to the wayfarer but squander not your wealth in the manner of spendthrift
going to complementarities or ameliorations before fulfilling essential needs relating to various aspects of living will mean sub optimal use of resources because fulfilling essential needs have higher level of maslahahwell being relative to that of needs at complementary level can be interpreted as one form of israf

masri uses this tradition to support his conclusion about maximizing behavior assumption but the tradition in fact reinforces the following points derived from the qur anic teachings i meeting self and family s needs have priority over meeting the needs of others
according to the tradition a man was told by the prophet peace be upon him to spend his money just on his family and then on others according to his sound judgment

notable of these are contracts of interest contracts of insurance contracts of gambling various forms of contracts of hedging and various forms of forward trading and futures contracts

interest based economies if feasible models can be worked out in theory then how to convert a contemporary economy to this model what will be the problems of transition and how they would be handled though a lot of the work in islamic economics has been concentrated in this area during the last quarter century a comprehensive framework is not yet available as some critiques of islamic economics point out kuran
similarly insurance has acquired a significant role in the operations of contemporary economies as it allows the distribution of risk in economic activity over a large number of risk bearers and hence reduces the economic risks faced by individuals

need thus would not only include the essentials as defined in the context of shatibi s discussion on objectives of sharia h but may also include complementarities and ameliorations for allowing a gharar in contract if elimination of gharar would mean elimination of contract

according to kamali istihsan is generic in that it takes for its scope almost the entire range of the ahkam both in the areas of mu amalat dealings and ibadat worship
the social welfare function thus becomes not only definable but optimizable as well because these principles give explicit guidelines to prioritize public interests resolve conflict between private and public interests and make objective interpersonal maslahah comparison possible

it is concerned with meeting needs of human beings defined in the light of islamic teachings starting from the essential level and going up to the level of amelioration within the given resources
it is concerned with identifying and establishing an institutional infrastructure that will i monitor that individuals do not consistently pursue their instinctive desires at the cost of their sharia h regulated needs ii monitor that individuals pay their minimum obligations to meet needs of others

how would an economy where economic agents operate in the framework of islamic law and ethical norms would compare with the economy of a conventional economic agents operating in the so called laissez faire framework in terms of visualizing economic problem and the means of solving these proble miss
but seek with the wealth which god has bestowed on thee the home of the hereafter nor forget thy portion in the word but do thou good as god has been good to thee and seek not occasions for mischief in the land

in seeking good in essence and not in appearance is he then to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring so that he looks upon it as good
say shall we tell you of those who lose most in respect of their deeds those whose efforts have been wasted in this life while they thought that they were doing good in their works

al dhareer siddiq mohammad al ameen al gharar in contracts and its effects on contemporary transaction eminent scholars lecture series no islamic research and training institute islamic development bank jeddah
al masri rafiq ishamat al fuqaha fil furud al asasyyiat li ilm aliqtesad arabic idb prize winners lecture series no

in khurshid ahmed ed studies in islamic economics the islamic foundation leicester
abu sulayman abdul wahab ibrahim fiqh al dharoora and its contemporary applications arabic eminent scholars lecture series no

such arrangements entail that the bank purchases the commodities and assets from their respective suppliers and resells them on credit to customers satisfying a the author is the director of the islamic research and training institute irti of the islamic development bank idb
lending money in an islamic economy is considered to be a philanthropic act through which someone would provide temporary liquidity to someone else who is temporarily short of liquidity and wishes to fulfil presumably some basic needs

the total cost of real spot transactions can be defined as the sum of spot transactions in goods and services plus the cost of spot transactions in assets vy vy vy
the most important implication is that a policy that lifts entry barriers in the islamic banking market and allows banks to combine commerce with banking activities would contribute to social welfare

ty y ty y p y p y py v yy similarly the total value of transactions in assets ty a can be expressed as a function of asset current prices p a pia their expected prices p a p ia their current rates of return i their expected rates of return i total income py as well as their transactions costs v ya
given that the value of transactions in the ith y commodity is equal to its price pi multiplied by its quantity yi and the value of transactions in the ith real asset is equal to its price pia multiplied by i its quantity aiy ty a p n i y y i p ia aiy

purchase of commodities and assets on credit in all transactions it is possible to postpone either side of the deal the payment of the price or the delivery of commodities

the markup on the spot price of each good and service a u ajy d p jy a p jy p jy and each asset u j p j a p j p j is equal to the difference between the credita d a purchase price and the cash price of each divided by the latter price

most probably the market would provide internal mechanisms to increase velocity in the face of higher transactions as more transactions would mean a higher rate of turnover of money and goods
their total value j would be defined as ty ty ty d d y d a a d d p jy y i d p aj a jy total real transactions type ii can therefore be determined through the following function which is similar to above

in the case of cp the debtor is certain to use the loan towards the acquisition of the commodity or asset in question
a c we can assume that transactions costs would depend on the ability to repay a loan which in turn would depend among other things on what the borrower does with it

adding the transactions costs of using the loan proceeds to make a cash purchase to the transactions costs of borrowing and that of purchasing the commodity directly from the supplier and noting above we obtain d viy b vi v k viy this implies that under competitive conditions purchase on credit cp is more efficient than borrowing followed by cash purchase of the same commodities ie borrowing and purchase bap
what complicates matters is that while the rate of interest reflects the rate of time preference on money markups would reflect the rate of time preference on commodities

as we have seen above people will find it cheaper to carry out credit purchases in one step rather than to do it in two steps borrowing and then purchasing especially if banks were allowed to sell on credit

v v y d v y as shown in above the total of cp and cash purchase transactions costs by banks in would be less than the corresponding total of borrowing and cash purchase transactions costs by individuals in
if both started with the same resources would they end up with the same size the islamic economy has a fragmented credit market as credit must be associated with the purchase of some commodity

analysis of the financial market in such economy would need to consider the full menu of financial assets to see to what extent people who wish to maintain a certain degree of liquidity can do so
here we need to know how such transactions would affect output on the one hand and whether it would have some bearing on economic stability

arrow s five conditions are universal domain that the range of the sets of individual orderings within the domain of the social welfare function will be wide enough such that it will represent or give rise to a true social ordering positive association of individual values independence of irrelevant alternatives citizen s sovereignty ie nonimposition of social choice and nondictatorship
arrow has set down five seemingly innocuous requirements for fairness that should characterize each social welfare function it turns out in fact that these can be inconsistent with one another ie no welfare function exists that will satisfy all of these at the same time

a proof that the complement of the universal set u ie mu is also open and unbounded could be as follows a first assume that we have a subset a of the universal set x that subset if closed implies that the complement must be open ie a a x is called c closed when x a or x ie the complement of the universal set is open janich p
these boundaries however will in fact be fuzzy as regards ma and m inclusions such that for example under m ie makruh some m acts will be considered haram h while some others will be considered makuh m

these efforts include pareto optimum criterion the bergson welfare function criterion the black criterion which has its origin in the th century the cost benefit criterion in the early s the compensation criterion including i little s criterion ii the hicks criterion iii the scitovsky criterion and iv the consumer surplus criterion

according to arrow the objective of choices is social states to gain the following the most precise definition of a social state would be a complete description of the amount of type of commodity in the hands of each individual the amount of labor to be supplied by each individual the amount of each productive resource invested in each type of productive activity and the amount of various types of collective activity such as municipal services diplomacy and its continuation by other means and the creation of statues of famous men p

the possibility of constructing a social welfare function consistent with the islamic tradition the role of the individual in an islamic society can be described with centrality in two respects first the religious aspect where the individual is in fact the raison d etre of the society and must be considered free yet also and at the same time vested with responsibility

nonimposition the social welfare function is not to be imposed the citizen s sovereignty without reference to individuals choices a social welfare function will be said to be imposed if for some pair of distinct alternatives x and y x a o y for any set of individual orderings r rn where a o is the social ordering corresponding to r rn arrow p

then the question arises what should the muslim community do to formulate a social process since the problem of social choice problem cannot be left unsolved in other words what are we to do if we are not able to find a function that meets arrow s conditions we cannot simply say that there is no solution to the problem of social choice
since we are not able to construct a social welfare function for the islamic society this then will drive us into a new direction that is as a muslim society it is more important to focus on the process by which the community is willing to reach a social choice that is consistent with islamic values more than worrying about the nature of the function itself

the importance of consensus in the process of collective choice the theory of collective choice might take political economic or social for miss we must attempt to explain and describe the means by which conflicting interests between individuals within any community will be reconciled
this could be associated through unanimous agreement among all parties in the political group in the society in question agreement among all the individuals in that community over a proposal then becomes the only real method of improvements

point out that the rule of unanimity is the same as the minority rule of one to take any action unanimous agreement must be reached as such if one individual objects to the action actions in question then that action will not be taken according to the unanimity rule the result thus will be that the rule of unanimity is the same as the minority rule of one ie the unanimity rule and the rule of one become identical
to be a mutually exclusive alternative and also it seems impossible that agreements between a b and c could be reached by consensus or unanimity if we assume that individual c for example does not like fish such that c does not agree to collective fishing and if we also assume that individual c for example does not like fish such that c does not agree to collective fishing and if we also assume that individual b in contrast to a and c is really altogether more interested in something other than fish

the role of the individual in islam is crucial to the social choice process the individual is free to choose as long as he or she is consistent with the tradition but also at the same time the individual is responsible for his her actions in other words the individual is a free individual vested with responsibility
also i showed that even though there have been different attempts at altering arrow s requirements by weakening for example the rule required in proceeding from individual to social choice sen for example in this regard suggested that we could redefine the problem in terms of choice functions rather than social orderings he argued that it is possible to redefine this problem by obtaining a rule for social choice more general than arrow s

thus throughout the discussion of this paper i argued that based upon arrow s assumptions and also the islamiclly imposed axiom that will guarantee the constancy with the shari ah which implies that the following must hold to maintain consistency with the shari ah arrow s results will hold such that a whenever t is an element of the choice set x t it will always be chosen over x b whenever to is an element of the choice set it will never be chosen
these main sources might be silent in a certain issue therefore to maintain a continuous law system there are two methods of interpretation that could be used with the context of the qur an and the sunnah ie ijma and analogy society will use these methods in situations in which the main sources contain no clear guidance

as has been shown the objection of one individual under the unanimous rule could block the entire action and to avoid this a muslim community could apply the majority rule criterion as long as consistency with the shariah is maintained

the reason that i think majority rule ought to be adapted to a muslim community in a completely different context as a rule by which the community could achieve a social choice is that since we are not able to construct a social welfare function based upon the individual preferences and also that unanimity rule implies that one individual could act as a dictator and block actions then this rule even though it is not perfect at least will allow society to make choices that belong to the mubah area of the domain and not adhere to the status quo as long as the community is consistent with the shari ah
assume now that we have three projects and society consists of only three individuals a b and c who need to choose from x y and z where x society is to build a school y society is to build a park z society is to build a highway individual a prefers x to either y or z as he has five children and he is looking forward to sending them to school

thus this process might be helpful since under this structure it is reasonable to expect that the logrolling process or compromises between our three component individual could be reconciled since the individual under an islamic structure will not consider only his or her self interests but also the impact of his actions or choices on society

ethics and economics an islamic synthesis the islamic foundation u
studies in islamic economics the islamic foundation united kingdom

one of the main contributions of the founders of the neoclassical school jevons menger and walras to modern economics is outlining the principles of how choices are made in face of scarcity
it is asserted that the distinguishing feature of islamic economics vis a vis conventional economics that while the latter is considered value neutral the former is value laden

the resulting behavior of an individual ie the economic man gives the micro foundations and the underlying characteristics of the neoclassical economy
if islamic economics has to develop as a discipline it is important to clearly identify the analytical tools that can be used to discuss its theory

are there inherent mechanisms built in the behavior of the agents based on islamic belief system that will give the above mentioned distribution of goods similarly analytical tools are needed to clarify the implications of certain claims made in the discipline
another related question that arises is that if a firm operating under islamic principles produces an output level that is different from the neoclassical one is it operating at an inefficient point

we show that even though the paradigm of an islamic economic system is different from the neoclassical one the basic principles of the marginalist analytical tools do not contradict islamic principles and can be used to study the underlying behavior of agents in an islamic system
when islam appeared in the th century it accepted practices of the times preceding it the days of ignorance as long as they did not contradict islam

neoclassical marginalist tools of analysis the origins of marginalist analytical tools can be traced back to the founders of the neoclassical school jevons menger and walras in the early s walsh and gram p
the principle dictum of the marginalists is that choices by economic agents are made to achieve that allocation which of all feasible allocations the contributions where the marginalist ideas were espoused are william s

the main features of the choice process of the marginalist school that laid the foundations of the neoclassical economics are given below a use of mathematics in analysis the fundamental principles of economics are given a mathematical form to make the subject more scientific walsh and gram p
d diminishing marginal utility in consumption and diminishing marginal productivity in production whereas diminishing marginal utility is a behavioral assumption diminishing marginal productivity is a technical proposition

as such the rational behavior of an obedient muslim is not only driven by individualistic considerations but also by altruistic features derived from the belief in the punishment reward of the hereafter
masalih utility that includes social aspects are all activities and things that help achieve this goal falah while mafasid disutilities are for a discussion on the scarcity in details along this argument see also paper by fahim khan in this volume

diminishing marginal utility in consumption can be discussed by examining the two components of the utility function of a muslim consumer discussed above ie as an object and as an agent
he quotes a hadith of saifa salman who was instructed by prophet muhammad pbuh when he came to know that salman decided to spend the whole night praying and whole day fasting your body has a right on your ownself

the above discussion shows that the basic principles of the neoclassical analytical tools do not contradict islamic principles and can be adopted to study the micro foundations and choice theory of agents in an islamic economy
applications of marginalist analytical tools in islamic economics examples in this section we discuss a couple of cases to show how islamic values can be incorporated into economic analysis

the analysis will include the following features of a muslim consumer the referee pointed out that spending on oneself does not necessarily mean that he is not spending for the sake of allah and spending on others does not mean that he is spending in the sake of allah

the solutions from consumer optimization in the above framework should produce the following results a parameter measuring iman or taqwa god consciousness will affect the allocation of resources in consumption
he will not spend any of his income on haram ite miss ii a muslim s income will be derived from sources that are permitted by islam

the self interest part of the objective function will be similar to the conventional counterpart ie utility of the consumer is a positive function of consumption of m different goods xi i a m as shown by the utility function below v v xi v v v and v are the first and second derivatives of the utility with respect to the goods consumed
the optimizing problem of a muslim consumer is given by this formulation is similar to discussions on altruistic behavior see bernheim and stark and stark

he also points out that other than profit a muslim producer s decision will also be affected by factors like the desire to serve the society by producing some thing people need or something that will improve it in material moral or aesthetic terms siddiqi p

a a when the good is forbidden haram when the good is socially undesirable when the good is socially neutral when the good is socially desirable

first as the neoclassical profit maximizing condition gives an output level that yields the maximum profit in nominal value the implication is that output levels that deviate from this neoclassical optimum level for a will give lower nominal profit compared to the neoclassical case

conclusion after outlining the importance of studying the micro foundations and appropriate analytical tools to develop islamic economic theory the paper argues that the neoclassical marginalist tools can be modified and used to study the behavior of islamic man
this paper shows that marginalist analytical tools are not incompatible with islamic principles and can be used to study the behavior of economic agents in an islamic economy

in ausaf ahmad and karim raza awan editors lectures on islamic economics islamic research and training institute islamic development bank jeddah
in aidit ghazali and syed omar editors readings in the concept and methodology of islamic economics pelanduk publications petaling jaya

this paper attempts to theorize behavior of the islamic firm in the wake of concurrent presence of moral hazard and adverse selection proble miss given a the authors were doctoral student research fellow and professor at loughborough university respectively at the time of the seminar
introduction different forms of businesses based on islamic principles of trade and finance have emerged in recent past more significant being emergence of islamic banks and some islamic firms like mudarabah companies in pakistan and some other countries

the nature of the islamic firm the theory of the firm has evolved from its a production function view that says nothing about the nature of relationships dynamics of decisionmaking and internal organisation of factor inputs to transaction costs institutional and other approaches under the new theory of the firm
according to alchian and demsetz the firm is a contractual organisation of inputs in which there is joint input production by several input owners one of them being common in all contracts of the joint inputs and who can negotiate any input contract independently of contracts with other input owners holds the residual claim if observable effort must at least be unverifiable for example by a court of law and therefore unenforceable

the islamic firm can be defined as a community of autonomous people individuals who are contractually bound to co operate with each other to employ and account for factors of production to produce goods and services with an ultimate objective to sell and profit
another distinguishing characteristic of the islamic firm is that its capital structure is based on either of three sets of equity based modes of financing namely profit loss sharing pls profit sharing ps and output sharing os

the former is in the nature of a rule in the sense that it is predetermined at the time of the contract while the latter is in the nature of discretion in the sense that the real rate of return is contingent upon the circumstances that take place after the contract has been signed
moreover there are a number of contractual arrangements for small scale business including inter alia partnership in artistic or professional intellectual skills and business based on acquisition of resources from consumers by promises of future delivery bai al salam

the islamic firm is thus less integrated than a conventional firm in the sense that capital although used by the islamic firm is not owned by it rather it is owned by the capitalist who does not have any ex post control on the production process

the reason that there exists an ambiguity in general as to the incentive effect of these contracts is because reducing the share ratio which obtains for profits less than the target increases the discontinuous jump in pay but decreases the agent s share of realised profits which are below the target baldwin
then we shall derive a condition which is necessary for a contingent share ratio scheme to implement this contract menu when effort is unobservable leaving both the investor and entrepreneur with expected utility equal to that which is obtained in the optimal pure adverse selection outcome

the share ratio of the entrepreneur which obtains if realised profit is no less than the performance target is and for realised profit less than the performance target the share of ex post profits allocated to the entrepreneur is
the investor offers the entrepreneur a contract menu ea ka xc a on a take it or leave it basis where ea ka a are the incentive compatible effort and investment pair parameterised by entrepreneur type in the pure adverse selection problem

further iff h k e is non decreasing in see appendix then we can instead replace the global incentive compatibility constraint with the locally true condition where the expectation is over the distribution of exogenous uncertainty

if a type entrepreneur truthfully declares his type and selects a contract e k from the menu the expected utility of the investor is u p where e h k e a rk a u a a q e u p a a we also require u or equivalently u for a maximum ie the monotonicity condition dh k e d
a u a a now differentiating u a totally by the chain rule setting and applying we derive the local incentive compatibility truth telling constraint as du a a u a d a from this immediately yields du a e h k e d or equivalently u u a e h k s e s ds a a where u a a u a and e

since the pay of the entrepreneur can be no less than zero the approach will be to derive a necessary condition which ensures implementation of the that is for each factor of production being effort and capital the marginal factor product exceeds the marginal factor cost
from integrating a u df by parts gives a u a a a e h k e f d a u a df finally substituting into point wise optimisation gives the first order conditions for all a as a f a a oa o a a h k a e a dg r a f a a o a f a a oa o a a h k a e a dg q a e a a f a a o where the optimal pure adverse selection contract menu is denoted ea ka a a

for ea ka given by and the type entrepreneur therefore chooses an incentive compatible contract ea ka supplies in contrast when no floor exists to limit the pay of an agent which is less than zero threats of unrestricted punishment can always at worst asymptotically induce the optimal pure adverse selection effort zou
denote the critical realisation e of ex ante uncertain variable for effort e and investment ka of a type entrepreneur such that xc a x ka e e from if type entrepreneur supplies effort e for a Y e x a Y x c and for e x x c

therefore for a entrepreneur supplying effort ea from with e a o the optimal pure adverse selection allocation obtains if a x k a ea dg u q ea a e h k a e a d a o a a finally dividing by we obtain the necessary condition for contract menu ea ka xc a to implement the best pure adverse selection outcome for threats of a lower share ratio to induce effort greater than e ea we a a e e assume that
effort ea and receives expected utility e h ka e rka q ea provided e a a x e k a e a dg a x e k a e a dg o e a d e a a a x c g e a a Y q a e a de also note however from that xc x ka ea x ka e e implies that e a o

the reason for excessive investment and employment effort is that the investor finds that the most efficient way to reduce the cost of the information asymmetry is to award information rents that just overcome the temptation of the agent to lie
however there is an optimum point at which further trade off ceases to be efficient and this where the actual point of overinvestment and over employment occurs

therefore in summary without loss of generality we have assumed only non negative profit since mudarabah contracts award the agent no share of loss outcomes thereby rendering redundant the incentive effects of profit outcomes which are non positive for models admitting outcome distributions which permit losses
whilst presley and sessions have shown how a mudarabah type contract may serve as a second best revelation device in this paper we have derived a necessary condition under which the first best allocation of information and effort is a preferred strategy for entrepreneurs which commit to a mudarabah type agreement

if the banks use a punishment strategy similar to the one prescribed here on the assets side and use a mixed contract for mudarabah deposits this will mitigate not only the inefficiencies associated with adverse selection and moral hazard but also stabilize the depositors income while maintaining the true spirit of the profit and loss sharing as prescribed by islamic scholars
the proposals of introducing a minimum return on liability side and a punishment scheme on the asset side of islamic banks may be contrary to the rules of mudarabah and questionable from the sharia h point of view the editor

appendix global applicability of locally true incentive compatibility constraints we will now show that h k e non decreasing in is both a necessary and sufficient condition for locally true incentive compatibility to obtain globally

if global incentive compatibility obtains then a necessary condition is that condition a is satisfied implying that h k e is non decreasing in

markets and hierarchies analysis and antitrust implications new york free press
islamic economics the emergence of a new paradigm

returns to financial assets in islamic economic system are directly linked to the return in the real sector and therefore portfolio choices and pricing risk largely depends on determination of a system wide rate of return on capital which is closely linked to the return on the real sector

more importantly since these instruments represent the activities in the real sector of the economy return on an efficient index of ifrns can serve as proxy for return on real sector of the economy
further it is argued that it may be possible to design a rolling islamic floating rate note ifrn based on those asset backed islamic instruments that are not debt instruments but are structured to result in a pre determined and fixed rate of return similar to a debt security

the other conditions are that the terms of the contract are not in violations of the precepts of the sharia h and is disposed to agreement based on the consent of the parties involved so long as the shares of each are contingent upon uncertain gains mirakhor b
basic building blocks can be divided into two broad categories of assets to cater needs of different investors first category consists of asset backed securities which are backed by a real asset either through a sales or a lease contract whereas second category consists of financial claims and are purely based on equity partnership e

given the attitude of islam towards risk and considering that a muslim is expected to be a rational decision maker who is conscious of obligations toward individuals and society and will comply with the rules of the system it is fair to assume that an investor in islamic framework will be risk averse in his general behavior mirakhor
modern portfolio theory mpt suggests that a utility maximizing risk averse investor will base his her investment decisions only on two parameters ie expected return and risk where risk is uncertainty risk or the chance that actual returns on investments or portfolios will differ from expected or mean returns

instead islam does recognize time value of money depending on the time value of resources and when and in what form this time value can actually be realized ie time value can not be realized in an exchange of monetary resources such as loans but the time value can be realized in an exchange transaction of real goods and services only khan

the primary role of asset pricing models is to specify the appropriate measure s of risk and the appropriate risk return profile and to study the implications of competitive equilibrium in securities market for the pricing of risk
however this paper argues that existence or non existence of risk free security is not the only issue as basic assumptions of asset pricing it is often argued that future sustainable growth of islamic financial markets will largely depend on innovating new securities to match investors demand for well diversified portfolios and securities for extreme ends of maturity structure see askari and iqbal and iqbal and mirakhor

this is because first any analytical work in context of islamic economic system under the assumption of conventional asset pricing model will not be valid and second to recognize the need for developing a model compatible with islamic economic system
markowitz considers efficient frontier a portfolio that has either the highest expected return for a given risk or the lowest risk for a given expected return

derived from cml where price of the risk is the slope of the line the difference between a risk free rate and the expected rate of return on the market portfolio and the quantity of risk commonly referred to as
f i m e ri r f e rm a r f f m pr ice of risk slope of line e r m a r f f i m cov rm ri quantity of risk i f m var rm none of the assumptions of modern portfolio theory contradict any of expected behaviors of investors in islamic economic system

first the assumption of a fixed and predetermined rate of interest is not necessary either for the determination of saving investment behavior or for the existence of a long run equilibrium of the economy and that therefore absence of interest bearing assets does not hamper macro economic analysis or the workings of the economic system in closedor openeconomy models mirakhor

capital market line with zero beta asset zero covariance with market as black s version of capm resolves the condition of risk free interest rate it introduces another strong assumption of unlimited short selling by investors at will and requires close scrutiny
return on an asset will be expressed as following f z m e ri rz e rm a rz f m figure shows black s version of capm which is similar to figure except that a risk free rate rf is replaced with the return on zero beta asset rz copeland and weston

as far as borrowing a security is concerned as matter of principle it can be argued that it is a simple qard loan from one party to another and the contract stipulates returning of qard loan at face value without any additional reward attached to this loan and therefore could be acceptable by sharia h

a large number of assets than states simple requires some assets to be perfect substitutes for portfolios of others and arbitrage ensures that the prices of these redundant assets equal the prices of those assets or combinations of assets to which they are equivalent eichberger and harper
it is a simple instrument where interest rate on a pre determined principal is not fixed but instead is linked to a pre agreed interest rate index and is determined jarrow argues that in absence of assumption of short sale asset prices will be more volatile and may be higher than under assumption of unconstrained short sales

bai muajjil is sale on credit in which the delivery of the commodity by the seller to the buyer and enabling it to possess and benefit from the commodity with the understanding that the buyer will pay the agreed upon price at a certain future date where usually the deferred price is higher than the cash price see khoja and abu ghuddah

instead of paying back principal and mark up to the investor at the end of the period both parties can agree to pay mark up amount back to the investor and to re invest the principle for the next cycle of production at prevailing mark up or profit rate
since initial cash outflow mark up and final cashflow are known at the time of contract an internal rate of return r can be computed as following p m r a p this simple contract can also be viewed as a zero coupon note where investor invests funds p at time t and receives a pre agreed face value p p m which is higher than p at maturity

at end of each period lender is paid back pre agreed profit or mark up and the principle p is re invested at pre agreed profit or mark up for alternatively both parties can agree to re invest principle and mark up for the next period so that the lender does not receive mark up amount back each period but receives a large lump sum with re invested interim profits at the end of pre agreed period
at the end of p npre agreed a p period which for ri the series of transaction is executed investor is paid back pn which i will be equal to above example is a simple demonstration of constructing a floating rate note using one of the instruments allowed by shariah

since asset side will consist of low risk securities yielding a pre agreed profit or mark up rate modarabah will become a pass through vehicle such that current market profit or mark up rate will be passed through periodically to the investors after deducting nominal fees for operational costs

as a result determination of the profit or mark up will be directly linked to the current and future demand and the supply of the commodity or the product being financed in addition to a risk premium to cover credit and operational risk varying from entrepreneur to entrepreneur
in other words once a market for ifrns is developed where entrepreneurs issue ifrns of different maturities an index can be defined to measure the relative performance of different ifrns in different sectors

the return on the index will be representative of return on transactions which are actually consists of asset backed instruments of islamic economy and are close proxy to the activities of real sector of the economy
within development projects financing can be separated into activities that can be financed through asset backed instruments and activities that will have to be financed through issuing equity clai miss for example procurement of raw materials for a project or import of oil can be financed through bai muajjil or murabahah

rate of return on ifrns will be based on market rate because it is argued that in an islamic economy social rate of return on infrastructure and development project undertaken by the governments must be greater than or at least equal to the rate of return in the private sector otherwise there is no justification for governments to undertake these projects on financial grounds choudhry and mirakhor
if this is the case can this be used to create a leverage in the capital structure of the firm where some operations are financed through ifrns and others through issuing equity by creating an optimal combination of ifrns i and equity e capital firm may be able to lower its weighted average cost of capital wacc

cost of capital in absence of ifrns wacc cost of equity ke cost of capital with ifrns i e wacc ki ke e i e i where ki cost of financing through ifrns i total portion of capital structured financed through ifrns ke cost of equity e total portion of capital structured financed through equity several researchers are of view that usage of instruments resembling fixed income should be limited due to sharia h s preference of equity partnership over these instruments
it is argued that even among sharia h approved instruments some can be considered strongly islamic in that they conform to islamic objectives both in form and substance and some only weakly so in that they conform to islamic norms in form only but not in substance

it is also suggested that in a well developed market of ifrns an efficient index of ifrns will be representative of activities in the real sector and therefore return on index will be close proxy for the return on real sector
this paper suggests a design for islamic floating rate notes ifrns based on sharia h compatible asset back fixed income like securities which can be used in private and public sector to finance activities suitable for assetback islamic instruments

gharar ambiguity and uncertainty in transactions arising from events whose occurrence is subject to chance and thus not known to the parties of a transaction at the time of the contract

sharia h the islamic law derived from the divine guidance as given by the qur an and the sunnah embodying all aspects of islamic faith including belief and practices

waqf assets voluntarily transferred to charity or trust for the pleasure of allah so that its usufruct may accrue to pl
zakat a compulsory levy payable to the poor and needy by a muslim on his her wealth above nisab as a part of religious obligation

Please note, This is an auto generated summary based on sentances position in the document and other factors

DOCUMENT WORD ANALYSIS

Main Category

AlHuda Material\islamic economics

KeyWords

DOCUMENT REFERENCES

Number of Pages

194

Published Date

2005-03-12 12:17:18

Full Document

Read the Full Document

Theoretical Foundations of Islamic Economics Edited by Ha

Contents

Top 20 FREQUENT WORDS

DOCUMENT KEY POINTS

DOCUMENT WORD ANALYSIS

Main Category

KeyWords

RELATED DOCUMENTS

DOCUMENT REFERENCES

Number of Pages

Published Date

Full Document

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation

Tools

Categories