islamic economic renaissance 377dations. Refinements include activities and goods that go beyond the
limits of convenience and incorporate goods that though they do not
remove or relieve difficulties and hardships, they compliment, brighten
or adorn life (Zarqa, 1980). Zakàh is also discussed as playing a reli-
gious and social role in shaping the consumer’s social function.
Kahf focuses on the concept of falàh, success, as an objective in
consumer behaviour (Kahf, 1980). The concept of falàhimplies suc-
cess in life and the life after and this would not be achieved unless
consumers maximize utilities in both worlds: the here and the here-
after. Kahf concludes by suggesting that: (a) with the virtue of Zakàh,
the Islamic economic system will lead to the Islamic consumer having
a higher rate of savings than consumer in other systems, (b) the nature
of the Islamic system will make investment an integral part of the
savings decision, (c) by the effect of Zakàh, the level of wealth will
be maintained in an Islamic system, (d) by increasing the disposable
income of the poor through the distribution of Zakàh, the Islamic
system provides for an increase in aggregate demand and hence an
increase in output, (e) the Islamic system secures larger resources for
growth and development than other systems, (f ) the Islamic system
mobolises non-active resources, and (g) the Islamic system provides
the state with an effective information tool through the administra-
tion of Zakàh (Kahf, 1980).
In his Islamic perspective of the theory of consumer behaviour,
Khan focuses on the concept of muslaha, or the welfare of society,
in shaping the behaviour of the Muslim consumer (Khan, 1992). He
differentiates between “wants” and “needs” and argues that the wants
are not the motivating forces for consumer behaviour in Islam. Islam,
he argues, negates the assumption that all wants are equally impor-
tant and that unlimited wants need to be satisfied. Instead Islam
recognises that there is a set of needs that should be fulfilled first
before the wants may be considered and that even these needs have
a scale of preference where some may be more important than oth-
ers. In deciding whether a good or a service is a want or a need,
the concept of muslahacan be used to examine if the production of
the good and the rendering of the service would increase the wel-
fare of society, muslaha, or not. If it does it is a need and may be
produced and consumed otherwise it is a want that can wait until
all needs are satisfied. Therefore, Muslim consumers should be moti-
vated by their needs more than their wants in shaping their pattern
of consumption. Reiterating the views of the fourteenth century writer,