QURANIC ECONOMIC ORDER

By Awais Durrani 

Quranic Order ascribes supreme value to the human self & aims at creating conditions in which the self can freely develop and gradually attain perfection.This distinguishes the order from other systems & ideologies.Let us not be misled by superficial resemblance between the Quranic society & communist state .The communist state is no doubt is free from the vices of capitalism but it functions in the interest of the group or rather the party & is not interested in the individual man .The masses are mere raw material which the party leadership can mould as it likes. The Quran on the other hand ,seeks to protect ,preserve & enhance man's self .This intense preoccupation with personal worth distinguishes Islam from communism & totalitarianism .Quran is presenting a matchless economic remedy which eliminates all inequalities despite some members with superior capabilities & therefore declares accumulation of wealth as unpardonable crime .No classes can be created merely on this basis of sharp contrast of earning capacity.Quran recognises & accepts that this gulf can't be bridged but offers such a beautiful remedy that if made operational then the menace of classes on this basis is vaporised .This is why these teachings are matchless & unparalleled .We are unfortunately raising the economy of Quran on these obsolete systems which have now been declared as inhuman by the Western intellectuals.It is capitalism being the term of Quran as Ar-riba .This term can't be translated from man'lexicon .Just find out its meaning from Quran.In pre-Islamic era capitalism was in scattered forms of exploitation.Just classify all those ayat relating various periods of the messengers , a complete picture of today's capitalism or free-trade economy will emerge .Quran declares this world as Mata'un & offers a welfare state beyond Western concept of welfare state..The Western social scientists have rejected this system & are in search of a system which is Quran .Let us draw conclusion from them. Arnold Toynbee in his book " The present Day Experiment in Western civilization " If we avoid committing mass-suicide ,there is no reason why we should not eventually be able to have a world-state with a democratic parliamentary constitution . But if we are to avoid mass-suicide ,we must have our world-state quickly & this probably means that we must have in a non-democratic constitutional form to begin with .Parliamentary Govt --& a fortiori, democratic parliamentary govt -is practicable only in a community whose members have a number of things in common -common political principles deriving from a common outlook that derives, in turn, from a common way of life.The different races ,nations ,civilizations & religions of the present- day world are still far indeed from having even approached this degree of homogeneity & solidarity . And this is what Quran emphasised 1400 years ago 2/213 & 10/19 = Mankind is but one single community .The social order of Quran is the practical means to integrate mankind into one harmonious community .Such is the religion which Erich Fromm looks forward to appear within the next few hundred years " A religion which corresponds to the development of the human race ;the most important feature of this religion would be its universalistic character ,corresponding to the unification of mankind which is taking place in its epoch ; it would embrace the humanistic teachings common to all great religions of the East & the West ,It will be the first fully human religion in history. The world need not wait for hundred years for such a religion to appear .It is already preserved in Quran.The difficulty is that it has not been presented to the world in its true colour & for this we confess ,the blame lie on us --the custodians of that book but committing a crime by searching out remedies out of this exploitative system.