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
    ---><---

    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)

    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. Romeo Ionescu, 2012. "Technical Progress as a Solution for Romania and Greece to Face the Global Crisis’ Problems and the Bad Forecasts," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 33-46.
    3. Gracia, Eduard, 2011. "Uncertainty and capacity constraints: Reconsidering the aggregate production function," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), 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. Brennan, Jordan, 2012. "NAFTA, Investiture and Redistribution. The Power Underpinnings of Trade and Investment Liberalization in Canada," EconStor Preprints 157833, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Jesus Felipe & John S. L. McCombie, 2007. "Is A Theory Of Total Factor Productivity Really Needed?," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 195-229, February.
    7. Ricardo Caballero & Alp Simsek, 2018. "A risk-centric model of demand recessions and macroprudential policy," BIS Working Papers 733, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. 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.
    9. Robert L. Vienneau, 2017. "The Choice of Technique with Multiple and Complex Interest Rates," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 440-453, July.
    10. 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.
    11. Javier López-Bernardo & Félix López-Martínez & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2016. "A Post-Keynesian Response to Piketty's ‘Fundamental Contradiction of Capitalism’," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 190-204, April.
    12. Milić Milovanović, 2015. "Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism Revisited," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 62(5), pages 663-677, December.
    13. Roger W. Garrison, 2004. "A Roundabout Approach to Macroeconomics: Some Autobiographical Reflections," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 48(2), pages 26-40, October.
    14. Thomas R. Michl, 2007. "Capitalists, Workers And Social Security," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 244-268, May.
    15. Eduard Braun, 2020. "Capital as in capitalism, or capital as in capital goods, or both?," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 383-395, September.
    16. Heise, Arne & Thieme, Sebastian, 2016. "The Short Rise and Long Fall of heterodox Economics in germany After the 1970s: Explorations in a Scientific Field of Power and Struggle," MPRA Paper 80022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. 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.
    18. Pierre Gosselin & Aïleen Lotz & Marc Wambst, 2019. "Heterogeneity in social values and capital accumulation in a changing world," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 14(1), pages 47-92, March.
    19. David Baqaee & Emmanuel Farhi, 2018. "The Microeconomic Foundations of Aggregate Production Functions," NBER Working Papers 25293, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty; Inequality; Poverty alleviation; The Great Transformation; Multi-dimensional poverty; Zak?h; ?adaq?t; Awq?f.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P4 - 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.

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

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.