310 chapter seven
differences. Shah Wali-Allah seemed to have been more of an inno-
vator than a follower, and of revolutionary than evolutionary. His
views continued to be popular among the Muslims of India well into
the twentieth century.
The Economic Thought of Shah Wali-Allah
The political environment of Shah Wal-Allah, as was depicted above,
was a case of Muslim’s disorientation, disillusion, loss of power over
what used to be a Muslim empire, and almost a loss of identity. His
major work Hujjat Allah al-Bàlighah(Allah’s Overwhelming Proof ) is
still studied by Muslims until today as an exemplary treatise that
blends the Holy Text with the power of reasoning in searching for
Islamic ideals. Even with the norms of today, the anthropological
analysis of Shah Wali-Allah seems remarkable. For that, his views
deserve to be given special attention in a book of this kind.
The central theme of his work is social justice, conceivably in
reflection to the prevailing injustice in his time, and state gover-
nance. This is based not only on the fundamental concept of social
justice in Islam but also on “irtifàq”. The emphasis on “irtifàq” is an
emphasis on the need of individuals for one another, as irtifàqcon-
notes the meaning of co-operation and the collective effort necessi-
tated to accomplish a mission economic or otherwise ( Jalboni, 1992,
Baljon, 1992).
While irtifàqmay not be so required in a primitive form of liv-
ing, or what might be called loosely a primitive society, it becomes
a necessity in a more developed form of community living together,
and the more the community life develops the more becomes the
needs for irtifàq. In an advanced complicated society where excel in
skill and specialization in expertise are the main features, co-operation
and collectivity of task performance, irtifàq, becomes inevitable. By
the mere reasoning, as collectivity is necessary for the development,
particularly economic development, collectivity in sharing the benefits
of work becomes of equal necessity.
In a logically progressive manner, Shah Wali-Allah proceeded to
look into the various phases of life, which he enumerated as four
phases, beginning from the purely individualistic form, or the prim-
itive or jungle life, to the final form of life which is the interna-
tionalization phase. It was as if he anticipated the globalization as
we know it today. In this last phase, he devoted considerable atten-