Speaking about the principles and goals of Islamic economy which have also been discussed in Martyr Baqir Sadr's "Our Economy", head of the Porch of Wisdom Cultural Institute said, "In order to materialize and achieve these principles and goals, respectively, we need a comprehensive system which has been planned and designed within the 'Islamic Written Thought' theory."

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, "When it comes to the goals of the Islamic School of Thought, several goals have been mentioned. For example, the Islamic economy seeks to establish justice. All economic systems, whether they are capitalist system or communist or Islamic system, claim that they are seeking to establish justice but the interpretation of the Islamic economic system of justice is very different."

See a report on the previous session here. (Link: Quran News Agency; Official Website of the Office of Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani)

He continued, "The second goal of Islamic economy is wealth adjustment. That is to say, the gap between the affluent classes and poor strata of society should be such that the difference for the disabled segments of society should be tolerable. This is an important discussion. Based on the Quranic verses and also traditions, what is more dangerous is the feeling poverty, not poverty itself. Therefore, if you can not reduce the gap between social groups or in other words if the gap is not reasonable, it will result in crisis."

Member of the Supreme Council of Ahlul-Bayt (a.s.) World Assembly added, "When powerless segments of society feel that they are poor and also, when a part of what belongs to them does not reach them, in this case, the community will suffer from economic insecurity which will lead to social and economic crises as well as economic crimes. All of this has something to do with the goals. Many economic experts and scholars including Martyr Baqir Sadr have discussed these goals in their works."

He added, "Generally speaking, there are a series of principles and goals in the economic sphere which have been discussed in Islamic economics, but unfortunately, we have not gone further beyond this. That is to say, it has not been discussed whether or not the Islamic economic system has offered any solutions for reaching those goals on the basis of these principles. Can it be up to us to decide how to use the principles to achieve the goals?"

Head of Fiqh and Law Group of the Council for Reviewing Humanities Text Books in the Ministry of Sciences, Research and Technology also said, "What we have to do in the 'Islamic Written Thought' is to show that Islam has also presented a system to achieve the goals which have been explained and set on the basis of Islamic principles. That is to say, Islam has not designated the task to us to choose which way or procedure we may use to achieve those goals based on those principles; rather, it has designed a system."

"In other words, Islam has defined a set of institutions which are associated with each other, i.e. when the institutions and relationships are formed on the basis of the principles, the outcome would be the realization of the goals.  If the principles accepted and the system is formed with reliance on them, the outcome is that all citizens will avail themselves of minimum resources and the gap will not always remain between the rich and the poor," he further said.

"These principles and that system come within the law. Therefore, if we are supposed to accept ownership, we accept it in the law because we accept whatever the law permits. For example, we accept private and state ownership and that private ownership of some properties is not possible," Ayatollah Hadavi added.

He continued, "In general we can say that the system and the related laws and institutions which are based on these principles take us to the intended goals. So we have to create the system according to the laws. In other words, we must form a legislation set so that institutions may take shape beyond it.

Member of the Board of Trustees of the Iranian Institute of Philosophy further added, "Let's suppose that we have concepts in Islam such as "Interest-free loan is recommended" which we have been encouraged to spread and promote. We try to look at interest-free loan as an institution, one which gives assistance with return or give alms or aid without return."

"The aforementioned institutions amount to an established behavior, one which comes into existence with a legal condition, and which is recorded in a legal text and which will lead to materialization of the goals," Ayatollah Hadavi said.

Lecturer at the post-graduate level of Fiqh and legal jurisprudence in the Islamic seminary of Qom said, "When these established behaviors turn into a habit in society, the ultimate function of the institutions on the basis of these principles is that we will finally reach the intended goals. If we want to see how far the principles have been implemented and materialized, considering their effects, we can evaluate them."

He further said, "If we come to a conclusion that poverty has been uprooted and people have the minimum means to live with and that the economic gap between the rich and the poor is tolerable, then it means that we have been able to set up and materialize the economic system and principles of Islam."

Lecturer at the post-graduate level of Fiqh and legal jurisprudence in the Islamic seminary of Qom reiterated, "If such a thing is not going to take place, then we should see where the problem lies. Is it because some of the principles of Islam have been overlooked? Or is it because some of the institutions are not operating within the system?  Of course, it has been explained in this theory that, since these universal concepts are meta-geographical and meta-temporal, it is necessary that, when we want to apply them to specific circumstances, we should design and work out a mechanism.

Office of Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani

_________________________

Related links: Iranian Quran News Agency