economic thought in the qur"àn and sunnah 45Economic resources: consumption
Economic resources: income distribution
Economic Resources: role of the stateThe above classification, we hasten to emphasise, is not arbitrary.
Instead, it is meant to reflect the stages of economic activities on
earth and in reflection to the sequence of God’s creation. First, eco-
nomic resources need to be defined, or at least described. Second,
a form of ownership of these resources can be established. Third,
these resources need to be developed so as the fruit of development
may be realised. Fourth, consumed, otherwise consumption without
development would lead to the depletion of these resources. Fifth,
within the embedded concept of social justice in Islam, the surplus,
or value-added to use a modern economic term, should be distrib-
uted fairly among the participants to avoid injustice, and finally the
role of the state as well as, not necessarily as opposed to, that of
the individual need to be clarified. These issues are examined below.
Economic Resources: Definition and Perception
With some variation, the nearest analogy to Islamic economic resources
in Western economic theory can be viewed as the factors of pro-
duction. But factors of production emphasises the function of pro-
duction in particular, looking at it from the specifically narrow angle
of a certain use of these resources as related to the exact task of
production. In Islamic economics, by the virtue of the Islamic ide-
ology above, a classification of resources would need to be wider
and more comprehensive so as to look at the resources first as a
blessing bestowed upon humankind by the divine force and second
by examining how these resources have been put to use. The line
might be fine between the classification of the Western theory and
the Islamic theory, but the demarcation line, fine as it might be,
reflects the basic philosophy of the two systems. The economic
resources are classified below into natural resources, labour and cap-
ital. The arrangements of these resources in this particular sequence,
we hasten to emphasise, is not random. Rather, they reflect the
sequence of God’s creation of the universe: the resources were made
available by Him first, then man was created and later labour and
toil were needed to exploit the economic resources, and capital was
developed later as a result of the combination of labour, natural
resources and time.