Summary of Mohamed Arif (1985) paper on Islamic economics

Toward a Definition of Islamic Economics: Some Scientific Considerations. (Arif, 1985)  

In this brief write-up, we will look into Mohamed Arif’s paper and what it discusses about. In the earlier part of the paper, he discussed two definitions of Islamic economics, namely that of Hasanuz Zaman’s (1985) and M Akram Khan’s (1985).

Zaman defines IE as follows: “Islamic economics is the knowledge and application of injunctions and rules of the sharia that prevent injustice in the acquisition and disposal of material resources in order to provide satisfaction to human beings and enable them to perform their obligations to Allah and the society”.

While Akram’s famous definition with the concept of falah is as follows: “Islamic economics aim at the study of human falah achieved by organising the resources of the earth on the basis of participation and cooperation”.

Arif presents his three criteria that any definition of Islamic economics should be put to, and according to him, the two above-mentioned definitions has many shortcomings. The three criteria, or traditions, was formulated based on his view of other practitioners in their development of a certain paradigm. The three traditions are as follows:

1) To differentiate between Islamic economics and its paradigm

2) To develop terminology that is unique

3) Islamic economics definition should state basic economic problem as a built in phenomenon of human life.

According to Arif, there are five philosophy behind Islamic economic system, which are Tauhid, Rububiyah, Khilafah, Tazkiyah and accountability. He presents this to show that Islamic economics should be about Muslims and he includes the study of Muslims in his definition presented later in the paper.

One of his striking point is that when one comes up with a definition, that definition should be about our understanding of the economic problem and it should not talk about the ways to solve that problem. A solution to the given problem should be in the paradigm later of the said economic system, and should not be in the definition itself. This is his first point based on the first criteria. 

Compare this with Khan’s definition, his definition includes the words cooperation and participation, both are unnecessary for a definition and should be put in its paradigm instead. For the second criteria, Arif criticizes Zaman’s definition as not being unique enough. According to Arif, Zaman’s definition could also work well under a conventional economic system, and even words such as “satisfaction” can also be rather vague and conjure up other conventional economic concepts such as utilization in the context of capitalism.

The author also left a scathing criticism on both Zaman and Khan’s definition, by pointing out that the concept of falah and shariah is imposed on the individual, and the definition would not apply if the individual do not care about neither of the two.

Arif attempts to solve the problem by providing a new definition, which is “Islamic economics is the study of Muslim’s behaviour who organizes the resources, which is a trust, to achieve falah” . This definition is presented as meeting all three criterion, and it also has a built in assumption, namely the individual is a ‘Muslim’, meaning to say that he would have to have leanings towards achieving falah. It also limits the statement to a basic economic problem only and does not seek to provide a paradigm on how to achieve that falah.