Towards A Unified Zakat System

certain circumstances not. to cancel such freedom but toenhance and support economic freedom without causinginjustice to producers or consumers (Al-Asal, 1997). Forinstance, the government would accept the rejection of asale contract by one party if he was tricked or givenmisleading information (al-Albani, h. nos. 7449,7589). InIslam the state's role is to make sure that information isas good as possible in the market by punishing or removingthose individuals and companies who take advantage of thesellers' or buyers' ignorance, giving them falseinformation to sell to them at higher prices or buy fromthem at lower prices. Moreover, the government mayintervene to restore competition and prevent monopolisticpractices (ihtikar) which the Prophet warned against (Al-Jammal, 1980). Most jurists have agreed, however, thatmonopoly is only forbidden in important and vitalcommodities (Al-Jammal, 1980).The government may encourage certain industries oractivities if they are crucial or beneficial for society.Also, the government can direct and provide incentives forcertain types of work when there is a need for manpower insuch activities (Chapra, 1992). The government may alsointerfere in the job market if it sees that workers need90