IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/abd/kauiea/v31y2018i1no4p69-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Islamic Approach to Inequality and Poverty مقاربة إسلامية لمشكلتي عدم المساواة والفقر

Author

Listed:
  • Asad Zaman

    (Vice Chancellor, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad)

Abstract

We argue that ways of thinking about poverty changed dramatically due to the Great Transformation in Europe which created a market society. These ways spread to the rest of world due to the colonization and global conquest of Europe. The market society requires a labor market which dehumanizes people turning them into commodities. This and other related changes in attitudes toward wealth and poverty are the sources of the difficulties created by poverty and inequality. An Islamic approach requires re-creation of society on the basis of generosity and cooperation, values which are antithetical to greed and competition, the basis of market societies. We sketch a three-dimensional approach to resolving problems created by inequalities and poverty, based on spiritual, social, and institutional components. In each area, the source materials of Islam and Islamic history provide ample guidance and precedent for a radically different approach to these problems. نقرر في هذه الورقة بأن النظريات وطرق التفكير حول الفقر تغيرت بشكل كبير بسبب "التحول الكبير" في أوروبا الذي أدى إلى خلق مجتمع السوق. وانتشرت هذه النظريات إلى بقية العالم بسبب الغزو العالمي والاستعمار الأوروبي. مجتمع السوق يتطلب سوقا للعمال الأمر الذي يسلب إنسانية الناس ويحولهم إلى سلع. هذا وغيره من التغيرات في المواقف ذات الصلة تجاه الغنى والفقر هي مصادر الصعوبات الناجمة عن الفقر وعدم المساواة. المقاربة الإسلامية لهاتين المسألتين تتطلب إعادة خلق المجتمع على أساسيّ الكرم والتعاون؛ القيم التي تتناقض مع الجشع والمنافسة، التي هي أساس مجتمعات السوق. نرسم في هذه الورقة نهجا ثلاثي الأبعاد لحل المشاكل الناشئة عن عدم المساواة والفقر، قائما على العناصر الروحية والاجتماعية والمؤسسية. وفي كل مجال، توفر مصادر الإسلام والتاريخ الإسلامي توجيهات وافرة لمقاربة مختلفة جذريا إزاء هذه المشاكل.

Suggested Citation

  • Asad Zaman, 2018. "An Islamic Approach to Inequality and Poverty مقاربة إسلامية لمشكلتي عدم المساواة والفقر," Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute., vol. 31(1), pages 69-92, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:abd:kauiea:v:31:y:2018:i:1:no:4:p:69-92
    DOI: 10.4197/Islec.31-1.4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://iei.kau.edu.sa/Files/121/Files/153869_31-01-04-AsadZaman-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4197/Islec.31-1.4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parkinson, J. E., 1995. "Corporate Power and Responsibility: Issues in the Theory of Company Law," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198259893.
    2. Avi J. Cohen, 2003. "Retrospectives: Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 199-214, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Munawar Iqbal, 2018. "Poverty, Inequalities and the Perceptions on Distributive Justice الفقر وعدم المساواة والتصورات حول العدالة التوزيعية," Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute., vol. 31(1), pages 115-128, January.
    2. repec:abd:kauiea:v:31:y:2018:i:1:p:115-128 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Abdel-Hameed Bashir, 2018. "Reducing Poverty and Income Inequalities: Current Approaches and Islamic Perspective الحد من الفقر وعدم المساواة في الدخل: المناهج الحالية والمنظور الإسلامي," Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute., vol. 31(1), pages 93-104, January.
    4. repec:abd:kauiea:v:31:y:2018:i:1:p:93-104 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:abd:kauiea:v:31:y:2018:i:1:p:69-92 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Martins, Nuno Ornelas, 2021. "The economics of biodiversity: Accounting for human impact in the biosphere," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Gracia, Eduard, 2011. "Uncertainty and capacity constraints: Reconsidering the aggregate production function," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 5, pages 1-50.
    4. Ali Hosseiny, 2015. "Violation of Invariance of Measurement for GDP Growth Rate and its Consequences," Papers 1507.04848, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2016.
    5. Xiaofeng Liu, 2019. "A Contribution to Theory of Factor Income Distribution, Cambridge Capital Controversy and Equity Premium Puzzle," Papers 1911.12490, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2019.
    6. John S.L. McCombie, 2011. "'Cantabrigian Economics' and the aggregate production function," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 8(1), pages 165-182.
    7. Brendan Markey†Towler, 2017. "The Oxford Handbook of Post†Keynesian Economics, Volume 1: Theory and Origins," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(303), pages 659-661, December.
    8. Roger W. Garrison, 2004. "A Roundabout Approach to Macroeconomics: Some Autobiographical Reflections," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 48(2), pages 26-40, October.
    9. Junko Doi & Takao Fujii & Shinya Horie & Jun Iritani & Sumie Sato & Masaya Yasuoka, 2021. "Construction of an Aggregated Economy - Aggregated TFP and Price Level -," Discussion Paper Series 228, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University.
    10. Thomas R. Michl, 2007. "Capitalists, Workers And Social Security," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 244-268, May.
    11. Martin de Wit & Matthew Kuperus Heun & Douglas J Crookes, 2013. "An overview of salient factors, relationships and values to support integrated energy-economic systems dynamic modelling," Working Papers 02/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    12. Flavio Calvino & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2016. "The Innovation-Employment nexus: a critical survey of theory and empirics," LEM Papers Series 2016/10, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    13. Fidel Aroche, 2018. "Estudio de la productividad y de la evolución económica en América del Norte. Una perspectiva estructural/A study on productivity and the economic evolution in North America. A structural perspecti," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 33(1), pages 151-191.
    14. Mazouch, P. & Krejčí, I., 2016. "The Analysis of the Age Structure of Regional Fixed Capital in the Agriculture," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 8(2), pages 1-13, June.
    15. G. C. Harcourt, 2015. "On the Cambridge, England, Critique of the Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 47(2), pages 243-255, June.
    16. Dennis Ridley & Aryanne de Silva, 2020. "Game Theoretic Choices Between Corrupt Dictatorship Exit Emoluments and Nation-Building CDR Benefits: Is There a Nash Equilibrium?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 65(1), pages 51-77, March.
    17. Brennan, Jordan, 2013. "The Power Underpinnings, and Some Distributional Consequences, of Trade and Investment Liberalisation in Canada (Preprint)," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(5), pages 715-747.
    18. Duncan K. Foley & Thomas R. Michl, 2010. "The Classical Theory of Growth and Distribution," Chapters, in: Mark Setterfield (ed.), Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Matteo Degasperi & Thomas Fredholm, 2010. "Productivity Accounting Based On Production Prices," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 267-281, May.
    20. Blair Fix, 2019. "The Aggregation Problem: Implications for Ecological and Biophysical Economics," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, March.
    21. Voxi Heinrich S Amavilah, 2004. "Economic Performance in a Cross-Section of U.S. Native American Economies," GE, Growth, Math methods 0405003, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty; Inequality; Poverty alleviation; The Great Transformation; Multi-dimensional poverty; Zakāh; Ṣadaqāt; Awqāf.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P4 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:abd:kauiea:v:31:y:2018:i:1:no:4:p:69-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cikausa.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.