238 chapter six
famous book, al-Aghanì, seemed to have acquired his name from
the city of A›fahàn, as he lived between A›fahàn and Baghdad dur-
ing the first part of the eleventh century. His date of birth does not
seem to be known, though it is said that he died in 502 A.H./1108
A.C. (Al-Agami, 1985). He is said to be of the Sunni-Shafì"i school
of thought, though some have included him among the Shi"iah as his
writings show a considerable admiration to the house of Caliph Ali.
As for himself, he never declared a political inclination to either the
Sunni or Shi"ì. He did not show a particular interest in the pre-
vailing political dispute among Muslims at that time. As for being
among a particular sect of intellectual thinkers of the day, some sug-
gested that he was a Mu"tazili as he devoted a significant part of
his thinking to the importance of mind and mental reasoning, while
others related him to other sects such as the Ash"ari who adopted
an opposite view in their interpretation of religious texts. This per-
haps symbolises the state of contradiction, and even confusion, among
the several religio-political sects of the day.
Further, the works of al-Ràghib al-A›fahànì may be classified
under moral philosophy, as he mixed his ideas, economic or other-
wise, with moral and ethical issues—an early history of moral eco-
nomics if we use the terms of today. Even though, the emphasis on
ethical issues should not be inferred as being particularly related to
moral philosophy as we can hardly see Qur"ànic texts separating sec-
ular issues from ethical values. But the interest in classifying al-
A›fahànì’s works, and those of others, as such, could have been a
product of the influence of the Greek philosophy which began to
have a significant impact on the thinking of Muslim philosophers at
that time.
The Book
The book, which has some relevance for Islamic economics, is “al-
Zarì"ah fiMakàrìm al-Sharì"ah”, or ‘Means of Glorious Sharì"ah’.
Although the book’s title is not on Islamic economics exclusively, the
script includes important issues relating to the subject. Of the seven
chapters of which the book consists, two are on economic issues
exclusively, while other chapters are not entirely void of discussion
of issues related to economics such as consumer behavior. In total,
the issues covered in the book could be categorised as follows (Donia,
1984):