Works on public finance by the sixteenth century Muslim scholars

The subject of public finance and taxation marked the beginning of systematic and rather exclusive writing on economic issues in Islamic tradition in its earliest period. Within a few centuries a large number of works came out on the subject. This trend continued in the later centuries but with a difference in quantity, quality and style. Their number decreased, coverage contracted and they increasingly tended to deal with specific issues. Writings in the later centuries were characterized by imitation and repetition. In the sixteenth century the major works on the subject include al-Balatunusi's "Tahrir al-Maqal….." and Ibn Nujaym's "Risalah fi'l-kharaj" and " Mas'alat al-Jibayah …. " From the Persian speaking East, Fadl-Allah Khunji has discussed the Islamic provision of public finance in much details in his work Suluk al-Muluk a very comprehensive treatment of the subject in the 16th century. It presents many insights on the Islamic theory of public finance. In the Safawid Iran the issue of kharaj was a very controversial topic. But this controversy centered on whether acceptance of stipend from kharaj income is permissible for religious scholars.Public Finance; Public Expenditure; Kharaj; Iqta`; Bait al-mal; Ibn Nujaym, Khunji, History of public finance in Islam.

The case against the Islamic gold dinar

The claims that the Islamic gold dinar will avoid inflation and other ills of current economic crises are examined by studying how coinage systems actually functioned in history.The article shows that not only these claims are baseless but also that coinage would increase the prevailing interest rate in an economy - hardly an Islamic position. It is argued that a gold or silver based dinar would be harmful for Islamic societies and attempts to introduce them should therefore be prohibited.Islamic gold dinar, interest rate, Gresham's Law, barter, commodity money, money as a medium of exchange, fiat money

Works on market supervision and shar'iyah governance (al-hisbah wa al-siyasah al-shar'iyah) by the sixteenth century scholars

In Islamic tradition two sets of works – al-hisbah and al-siyasah al-shar‛iyah – appeared that proved to be a rich source of economic thought of past Muslim thinkers. Works related to al-hisbah generally discussed socio-economic control, moral and market supervision, prevention of monopolies, check on cheating and fraud and such other corrupting practices, standardization of products, facilitation of the supply of necessities, etc. As far works pertaining to al-siyasah al-shar'iyah are concerned, they generally dealt with the rules of governance, economic role of the state, sources of public revenue, public expenditure (in addition to works exclusively devoted to public finances), maintenance of law and order, internal and external defense, etc. The present paper aims to discuss the state of these two institutions in the sixteenth century and writings on the subject by the scholars of the period.Market Supervision; Standardization of product, Check on monopoly, public duties, good governance; hisbah; siyasah shar`iyah.

Thirty years of research in the history of Islamic economic thought:Assessment and future directions

The present paper examines and evaluates research experiences in the area of the history of Islamic economic thought during the last 30 years with the objective to see the pace of research and its coverage, both author-wise and idea-wise, and to determine the future research agenda in the light of the past progress and trends of the literature. The paper begins with a brief survey of the early literature on the history of Islamic economic thought, prior to 30-years, to provide a background. Then it studies and evaluates the research during the last thirty years, 1976-2006. It finds that hitherto the research in the history of Islamic economic thought has been language, region and period specific – Arabic, the Middle East and up to 9th/15th century respectively. More attention has been paid to write on economic thought of few personalities than others. The situation is still worse in case of idea-wise research. However, this literature has exerted some effects on scholars of the main stream economic thought and a few of them are trying to rehabilitate it in the main body of economic thought. At the end, the paper emphasizes on need for intensive and extensive research to include more personalities, ideas, periods, languages and regions and to write a systematic history of the subject.Economic Thought, History of islamic Economic Thought

Islamic distributive scheme: a concise statement

The present paper highlights the institutional arrange¬ment of Islam for distributive justice. It begins with a note that while Islam gives absolute guiding principles about production and functional distribution, its focus of attention is "re-distribution of income and wealth”. The paper also attempts to provide a comprehensive list of provisions in this regard prescribed by Islam and the main objectives thereof. It concludes with a note that since the primary concern of Indian planners and policy makers is to build a humane prosperous country based on justice and equity, they may benefit from the Islamic measures of distributive justice and can follow the broad outline given by Islam to enhance the social justice.Economics of Distribution, Islam and redistribution, Islamic Economics.

Hak dan perlindungan pelarian Muslim Filipina menurut syariah dan undang-undang Malaysia: kajian di negeri Sabah

Migrasi pelarian Muslim Filipina ke Sabah telah direkodkan berlaku pada awal tahun 1970-an. Sehingga kini, kewujudan mereka telah memberikan pelbagai impak sama ada dari sudut ekonomi, politik, sosial dan keselamatan negeri Sabah. Walaupun kewujudan mereka dominan memberikan impak negatif, namun dari suatu sudut mereka merupakan golongan yang terdedah kepada ancaman bahaya yang memerlukan kepada perlindungan. Oleh itu, makalah ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis hak dan perlindungan terhadap golongan pelarian. Hak dan perlindungan tersebut dibahaskan dari aspek undang-undang dan praktik Malaysia serta dibandingkan dengan syariah Islam. Hak dan perlindungan yang ditumpukan adalah hak mendapatkan perlindungan suaka, hak tidak dihantar pulang (nonrefoulement), hak tidak didiskriminasikan dan hak pendidikan kanak-kanak pelarian. Kajian ini merupakan kajian kualitatif dengan menggunakan metode kepustakaan melalui instrumen analisa dokumen. Dapatan menunjukkan hak dan perlindungan golongan pelarian Filipina Muslim di Sabah masih kabur dan tidak menepati piawaian undang-undang antarabangsa dan syariah Islam. Golongan tersebut masih berada di persimpangan dalam mendapatkan kelangsungan hidup yang lebih baik dan terjamin. Diharapkan makalah ini dapat memberikan garis panduan kepada penggubal dasar sesebuah negara Islam dalam berdepan dengan golongan pelarian antarabangsa yang majoritinya melibatkan orang-orang Islam

Ius in Bello under Islamic International Law

In 1966, Judge Jessup of the International Court of Justice pointed out that the appearance of an English translation of the teaching on the ‘Islamic law of nations’ of an eighth-century Islamic jurist (Shaybānī) is particularly timely and of so much interest because of the debate over the question whether the international law, of which Hugo Grotius is often called the father, is so completely Western-European in inspiration and outlook as to make it unsuitable for universal application in the context of a much wider and more varied international community of States. However, there has been little analysis of the role of Islam in shaping the modern European law of war and its progeny, international humanitarian law. This article argues that there is a room for the contribution of the Islamic civilisation within international humanitarian law and a conversation between different civilisations is needed in developing and applying international humanitarian law norms

Small dams and social capital in Yemen: how assistance strategies affect local investment and institutions

Dams / Investment / Development aid / Irrigated farming / Villages / Water delivery / Yemen