Nature and Content of Islamic Economics

To be meaningful and relevant, economics must explicitly recognize its purpose. It is man's concern with survival, hence the primacy of need fulfillment, which prompts him to understand nature and society. Man is a social being and society requires a just order. Justice had always been the major concern of social thinkers, especially those morally inspired. Then come the concerns for efficient use of resources and growth with a promise of convenience, comfort and dignity which nature can well afford. These ends are to be realized within the framework of freedom, which is the very essence of being human. Once the moral purpose of economics is recognized formal techniques of analysis would cease to be ends in themselves determining content of economics to the exclusion of what a method cannot handle even though its consideration may be basic for the overall purpose. To some extent the current methodological crisis in economics is a product of this realization of the primacy of ends over means of analysis.

Source: Dr. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi, Economics An Islamic Approach. Republished with permission.