economic thought in the qur"àn and sunnah 47- Labour is not confined to hired labour. Instead, it incorporates
all types of labour including that which is embodied in capital
and land. As such labour in the Islamic context may include
entrepreneurship. - Work is regarded as a duty on the Muslim even if he/she is rich.
There is no room for the idle rich. - Full devotion to worship is not an acceptable reason for not work-
ing; there is no monastery or nunnery in Islam. The Prophet is
reported to have seen a man who had been spending all his time
worshipping in the mosque, when he asked who was supporting
the man and was told that some people did he said that those
people were better than him. - Employers should be “fair” to their employees; paying them their
wages in time, providing them with reasonable work conditions,
assigning tasks to them according to their abilities and treating
them as equal. The Prophet is reported to have said, “Your
employees are your brethren whom God has made your subor-
dinates. So he, who has his brother under him, let him feed him
with what he feeds himself and clothe him with what he clothes
himself and not burden him with what overpowers him. If you
do so help him” (flaœìœal-Bùkhari).
On the basis of the teachings on the previous point, setting minimum
wages, as the wages that is sufficient to cover feeding and clothing in
a manner similar to that of the employer, establishing a system for
maximum working hours, creation of appropriate working conditions,
enforcement of precautionary measures against work hazards and
adaptation of technological innovations to reduce hardships would
be fully in conformity with the spirit of Islamic teachings (Chapra,
1980).
Labourers are expected to do their best to meet work require-
ments; they should be honest, diligent and efficient. The Prophet
said, “An employee who excels in his devotion to God and also ren-
ders to his employer the duty, sincerity and obedience that he owes
him, for him there is double reward with God” (flaœìœal-Bukhari).
Capital
Capital has been regarded as stored labour embodied in commodi-
ties and used in the process of producing other commodities (Abù-
Saud, 1965). The definition as such refers to economic labour as the