Land Ownership Reform in Islam

This article shows that Islam has laid the foundations of agrarian law reform or land reform, from the oppressive and exploitative pre-Islamic system of land ownership towards the fair, equitable and humanist-religious-based distribution of land ownership. The purpose of agrarian reform cannot be separated from the objectives of the law in general, that is to create justice, expediency and law certainty which describe the legal values either juridical, sociological or philosophical. To explain the idea of agrarian reform in Islamic law, there are some discussions proving the existence of the notion of land ownership reform in terms of the process of land right ownership and patterns of land distribution by the State based on the historical data, especially early history of Islam. Shifting paradigm from the feudalist pre-Islamic ownership system to the communalist-religious Islamic ownership system under the single authority of the head of state on the basis of the principle of fairness rests on the spirit to realize the ideals of public benefit.