A Qur'anic Model for a Universal Economic Theory

30 Mohammad E. Biraima
children, self and mind, and the expected output of iman or thankfulness. Iman is the
essence and the embodiment of religion. It is also not difficult to see why they are of
absolute necessity since the MPC would be void without any one of them. It is also
clear that the importance of the four inputs is a derivative of the primary importance of
the output of iman.
For iman to be the outcome of the MPC the four inputs must be combined
according to a particular formula. It is the divine Islamic Shari'ah (law) that defines that
formula. In other words, Islam as a worldview is the only recipe available for man to a
successful completion of the test. Given my limited knowledge in this area my personal
hunch is that the traditional four main classifications of the Islamic Shari'ah (ibadat,
aadat, mu'amalat, Jinayat) deal basically with the four inputs of the MPC. Thus Ibadat
like prayer, fasting, zakah and pilgrimage are mainly directed to the input of the self
with the purpose of making the righteous self the dominant aspect of the human being.
Thus the main role of Ibadat is to promote those attributes and motives which generate
actions that God identifies as good deeds, and to demote those attributes and motives
that generates actions which God identify as bad deeds. Thus, for example, according to
the Holy Quran 'prayer' forbids - through psychological training - what is bad and evil'
'fasting' is ordained to help the self to be pious - through its dampening effects on the
desire of the self for wealth and sex; 'zakah' purifies the self from the traits of
miserliness and selfishness; and sincere 'hajj' deletes all sins and leaves the self in its
original state of purity, thus, enables it to start afresh the test in the MPC. In other
words, 'Ibadat' cover the entire range of the human psychology. Aadat, on the other
hand, define the two inputs of wealth and children and specify the appropriate formulae
for dealing with their various aspects, e.g.,the right way of eating, drinking, clothing,
sheltering, marriage, sex, raising children, etc. Muamalat and Jinayat both dealt with
the interactive aspect of human beings. This interaction of course is the necessary
outcome of combining all the inputs of the MPC together. Thus to produce wealth and
to consume it, people need to interact and their consequent social actions will either
emanate from the righteous self - in terms of motives - or from the wrong-doing self.
The area of Muamalat in Shari'ah prescribes the formulae for those types of interactions
and their consequent social actions that can only be forthcoming from the righteous self.
However, sometimes social actions may emanate from the wrong-doing self and injury
of some sort will occur for individuals and society. Jinayat in Islamic Shari'ah deal with
this particular out come of the human self.
The purpose of all these four aspects of Shari'ah, whether prescriptive or
descriptive is to provide that framework within which the inputs of the MPC interact
such that the outcome is thankfulness. For this purpose the main injunctions of the
Shari'ah are in the form of do's and don'ts. The conformity on the part of man to these
normative injunctions reflects his willingness to be thankful to God for His bounties. On
the other hand, non-conformity represents a state of defiance and in gratitude.
The verses in section (b-1) summarize the fundamental norms of the Holy Qur'an
with respect to those economic actions which if man conforms to he will be thankful to
God for His economic bounties. The most outstanding feature of the Islamic economy
revealed by these verses is that it is an economy of private spending. Spending is
defined in these verses as the spending of wealth in the way of God. This spending