The mechanism of the Islamic school and economic system is a product involving cooperation of economic experts and jurisprudents. There is one group that evaluates the existing economic situation and another group that deduces and discovers the Islamic school and economic system.
According to a report published by International Quran News Agency (IQNA), Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani, speaking in the "Summit on Written Islamic Thought" at Quran News Agency headquarter, said, “The Islamic economic philosophy, school and system are concepts that a religious scholar should obtain and deduce. The term ‘religious scholar’ refers to a jurisprudent and the word philosophy here means theological philosophy and the methodology of theological philosophy. Also, when we speak of an Islamic school or system, it is from the legal –jurisprudential category or type and its methodology is legal and jurisprudential. There is no doubt that only a faqih (jurisprudent) who is well-versed and well acquainted with economy can highlight and explain the economic system. That is to say, a jurisprudent who explains the economic system should be acquainted with second sciences in the same way as he is acquainted with religious issues.”
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani further stated, “The mechanism of the Islamic school and economic system is a product involving cooperation and collaboration of the economic experts and jurisprudents. In fact, two groups of experts should work out this mechanism. There is one group that can evaluate the existing economic situation and a second group that is able to deduce the Islamic school and economic system. The second group are the jurisprudents.”
Member of the supreme council of Ahlul-Bayt (a.s) World Assembly further added, “The joint cooperation process between these two groups ultimately results in a mechanism and a model which we can apply to our own circumstances in the sense that the model should be applicable to the existing situation and should help us reach the defined goal of Islamic economy.”
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani went on saying that ‘Islamic – Iranian progress pattern’ propounded by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic republic of Iran involves a road map which is characterized by Islamic conception of economy. Also the term “Iranian” in this context means that the pattern should be coherent and consistent with the circumstances in Iran. The word “progress” means to move forward. Thus, progress in its literal meaning is intended here by the Supreme Leader, not its technical meaning.”
Head of Fiqh and Law Group of the Council for Reviewing Human sciences Text Books in the Ministry of Sciences, Research and Technology also said, “The Islamic – Iranian progress pattern is meaningful within the written thought theory in the sense that, first of all, we should obtain the Islamic concepts such as philosophy, system and school from the Islamic sources. These are the concepts which are not subservient to any conditions and circumstances since they are applicable to every country and every system.”
He added, “Then, these concepts have to be applied to the conditions and situation existing in Iran not the conditions of other countries because the two countries have different situations. The application of these concepts is called mechanism according to the written through theory. That is to say, we must find out the Islamic mechanism, one which is a process involving cooperation of economic experts and jurisprudents.”
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani stressed that this theory redresses a part of the issues in society. “Among the issues which seem to be a matter of concern in our society is the subject of the unity of Hawza and University which in the written thought theory is defined as the theoretical ground for cooperation between Hawza and University. That is to say, when it comes to economic matters, the written thought theory determines where and what is the task of the economic experts and where and what is the task of the jurisprudent. It also determines where they can collaborate with each other.”
He further stated, “When it comes to Islamic human sciences which have also in recent years been the focus of the Supreme Leader’s attention, the question which arises here is whether or not Islam has human sciences or humanities. In addition, can we have both human sciences and non-Islamic human sciences? A simple answer is that human sciences are based on certain unscientific presuppositions from the philosophical and ideological category. Therefore, every human science is formed on the basis of a series of presuppositions.”
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Iranian Institute of Philosophy added, “If those presuppositions are socialist, in this case, we can have socialist human sciences and if those presuppositions are capitalist, then in this case we will have a capitalist human science. Likewise, if the presuppositions are Islamic, we will, as a result of those presuppositions, have an Islamic human science.”
“Nevertheless, a question still arises whether or not Islam has human sciences. The written thought theory answers to the question in the positive. We have humanities in Islam. In fact, Islam does have such concepts in every domain and sphere of human life, and it does not mean that there is no need for any intellectual or human activities. We definitely need man’s human and intellectual activities so that we may be able to derive and extract these concepts and then apply them to different situations and circumstances, as and when necessary.” he noted.
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani further said that application is a concern and duty of science. There is a logical answer to question in the written thought theory that Islam has human sciences that are presentable. Also, there is also an answer to this question whether or not human sciences are accessible and attainable. In this theory, the demands from Islam have been made clear.
He further continued, “In the economic domain, we have the philosophy of economy, Islamic economy and economic system in Islam on whose basis we can work out an economic mechanism and we can, by extension, extract the economic law and economic rules. Generally speaking, if we make an economic study in a society in which these concepts have been implemented, we can name that economic study as Islamic economics.”
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani concluded, “The science that analyzes Islam’s economic behaviors on the basis of Islamic anthropology and basic economic concepts in the area of religion, and the man who lives in this atmosphere are the products of Islamic economics. Since this theory seeks to be applied to all domains and spheres, it naturally acquires an abstract format.
Office of Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani
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Related link: Iran Quran News Agency