Introduction 5
ISLAM’S CONCEPT OF JUSTICE
As mentioned earlier, a central aim of Islam is to establish a just and moral
social order through human agency. This all-embracing desideratum of the
Islamic system is the ruling principle from which human thought and behav-
ior, the substantive and regulative rules of the Shari’ah, the formation of the
community and the behavior of polity and of political authority derive their
meaning and legitimacy. It is this emphasis on justice that distinguishes the
Islamic system from all other systems. It is via the concept of justice that
the raison d’etre of the rules governing the economic behavior of the indi-
vidual and economic institutions in Islam can be understood. What gives the
behavior of a believer its orientation, meaning, and effectiveness is acting with
the knowledge that justice evokes Allah’s (swt) pleasure; and injustice, His
displeasure. Whereas justice in Western thought is a quality of the behavior
of one individual in relation to another and his actions can be perceived as
unjust only in relation to the “other,” in Islam it has implications and conse-
quences for the fi rst individual as well. That is, even when one does injustice
to someone else, there is always reciprocity, in that through injustice to
others, ultimately, one also does injustice to oneself and receives its results
both here and in the hereafter.
Justice in Islam is a multifaceted concept, and several words or terms
exist for each aspect. The most common word in use, which refers to the
overall concept of justice, is the word adl. This word and its many synonyms
imply the concepts of “right,” as an equivalent of “fairness,” “putting things
in their right place,” “equality,” “equalizing,” “balance,” “temperance,”
WHY IDEOLOGY MATTERS
The strength of ideology determines the strength of rule compliance,
and therefore the strength of institutions, which, together with tech-
nology, determine the performance and effi ciency of an economic
system. Effi ciency is measured by the cost of a given level of eco-
nomic performance. The stronger the ideology, the less the divergence
between the choices individuals make and those expected of them by
the objectives of institutions, and, consequently, the lower the cost
of enforcement of contracts and rules of conduct. By implication, in
an ideal situation, with a strong ideology, in which all rules of con-
duct are complied with and are universally enforced, there will be
no divergence between what institutions expect of individual choices
and the actual choices. Therefore, in the ideal situation, asymmetry and
moral hazard are minimized since a large part of uncertainty will be
eliminated with rule compliance. The remaining risks will become
insurable.