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Need
for Government
We
need government to provide the fundamental legal and social
framework for a free market economy. This framework implies
necessary laws that define the property and other rights, enforce
contracts, and describe the status and form of various business
organizations. We need government to define the rules of the game.
Through legislation the government acts as a referee and forbids
foul play. It prohibits cheating and the sale of adulterated foods
and drugs; it establishes quality standards and defines the
qualifications of those providing professional services such as
lawyers and doctors. We need government to create conditions that
ensure free competition. In the absence of a central agency with
necessary coercive powers, private markets tend to operate in an
indifferent and sometimes cruel manner.
Business
firms like to collude, if they can, in their self-interest and
against the interest of the consumers, the poor, and the weak. Also,
the reverse may happen. If the number of buyers is small and the
sellers are many, the buyers may collude to coerce the sellers.
Neither situation is desirable.
Implications
of Government Intervention
Government
intervention in the economy has far-reaching consequences. Before
the government decides to intervene, it must understand what it will
mean to different actors in the economy. In a free market economy,
buyers and sellers interact. When a consumer goes to the market to
buy something, he expresses his desire through his purchasing power.
The desire to buy one thing rather than another means that the
consumer is carrying a basket of exercisable options.
These
options are in preference to an infinite number of other
combinations of goods that he can buy. The options expressed through
his purchasing power represent a given pattern of income and wealth
distribution in the society. This brings with it the prevalent set
of property rights and institutions. When the government intervenes
in the market by levying a tax, regulating a business, imposing
restrictions on production or consumption, transferring income or
goods to certain groups or persons, or granting rights to property,
the government is effectively manipulating property rights. These
property rights affect income distribution and through them the
basket of options that each individual carries to the market. It is
a complex situation, and government decisions to intervene or not to
intervene, to regulate or not to regulate, have far-reaching
effects. They affect the power relationships in the society. The
issue of government intervention boils down to the redistribution of
individual rights. The moot question in each situation is whose
rights, whose welfare, whose ends, and whose wants the government is
going to gratify? Whenever the government intervenes, it restricts
one person's liberty to give liberty to someone else. How a
government acts or fails to act depends upon the overall social
framework. The free market capitalist economy, for example, answers
the question according to the political or other pressures of the
special interest groups. In an Islamic society, ideally, the answer
to the question comes from the theory of maslahah.
Theory
of Maslahah
Maslahah
literally means "utility" or "welfare." The
jurists use it to denote public interest or general human good. The
first important case in Islamic history using maslahah as a basis of
public policy was the decision of Caliph 'Umar for the land
management of southern Iraq. 'Umar decided, on the basis of public
interest, not to distribute the conquered lands of southern Iraq
among the soldiers of the Muslim army. He argued that if he did so
it would create a class of feudal lords who would own large tracts
of land resulting in the coming generations getting nothing.
Therefore, he decided that the conquered lands would be made the
property of the entire Muslim Ummah and that the existing owners
would cultivate these lands as before but would pay a tax known as
kharaj. This decision became a precedent for later jurists to invoke
public interest as a basis for public policies.
The
concept of maslahah remained in its rudimentary form in the writings
of early jurists until Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 505 a.h./1111 a.d.)
developed it into a mature concept. Al-Ghazali stated, and this has
been unanimously agreement upon since his time, that the ultimate
purpose of the Shari`ah is to further the maslahah of the Ummah. The
concept of maslahah was developed further by Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi
(d. 790 a.h./1388 a.d.).(1)
Both Ghazali and Shatibi divide the masalih (plural of maslahah)
into the following three categories:
essential
(daruriyah), complementary (hajiyah), and desirable (tahsiniyah).
The essentials refer to those masalih that protect religion (din),
life (nafs), offspring (nasl), reason ('aql), and property (mal).
The government's primary duty is to safeguard these at any cost. The
complementary and desirable masalih tend to vary according to social
and economic conditions. The government protects them only when it
has fulfilled its primary duty of protecting the essential
interests. In the case of a trade off, the three categories of
interests will be fulfilled in their hierarchical order. Generally,
the jurists have agreed that the government should strive to protect
the three categories of maslahah because they entail human needs.
Anything beyond them is extravagance or prodigality.(2)
These categories are interconnected and complementary and,
therefore, should be protected. For the maslahah of the hereafter we
must take into account the masalih of this world.(3)
Shatibi
discussed the question of when one's maslahah is harmful to others.
Striving for maslahah, even when it may cause harm to some
individuals, is allowed if the number of beneficiaries is more than
those who suffer harm.(4)
There is no need to search for an absolute maslahah. Seeking
self-benefit is forbidden only when the harm to others is actual and
not just potential.(5) The
ultimate criterion of maslahah is that is provides good to a larger
number of people than it harms.(6)
There is a possibility that a Shari`ah-oriented policy results in
some form of collective harm. In such a situation the policy will be
discarded in favor of a policy that is more beneficial to the
society since the ultimate goal of the Shari`ah is to be beneficial
to the society.(7)
Creating
an Islamic Society
All
civilized societies have some built-in system of indoctrination to
ensure that people behave in a socially acceptable manner.(8)
The Islamic society is no exception to this. The Islamic government
cannot remain passive to the ethical conditions of the people since,
to a large extent, it depends on the voluntary ethical behavior of
its people. The Qur'an obliges the Islamic state to enforce proper
behavior and to restrain people from improper behavior. An Islamic
society is responsible for creating institutions that inculcate each
citizen with Islamic norms. People should learn to sacrifice their
short-term personal interests for the greater good of the society.
The belief in the hereafter should be embedded in the minds of all
so that everyone abides by the rules of social conduct. Society
should also create a system of threats for those who try to violate
the norms. Only in this way can the Islamic society perpetuate
itself and be safe from external onslaught.
Regulatory
Role of the Islamic State
The Institution of al-Hisba
We
can take inspiration for the regulatory role of the government from
an Islamic institution known as al-hisba. When the Islamic
civilization was at its height, it regulated the market. Al-hisba
was a state institution in all Muslim societies up to the colonial
period. It had three functions. First, it enforced proper ethical
behavior and restrained people from improper and unethical behavior.
Second, it was responsible for providing some municipal services
such as street lighting and street cleaning, preventing
encroachments, and protecting the environment. Third, it regulated
markets by checking weights and measures, enforced contracts, forced
payment of debts by defaulters, and prohibited unlawful trade
practices.
With
the advent of Western colonialism, al-hisba, like most Muslim
institutions underwent drastic modifications and decline: It either
disintegrated into a number of departments or remained an
ineffective appendage of the state. By the 19th century, Persia,
Turkey, Egypt, and India had already transformed the hisba function
into a number of secular departments, discarding its religious
content as irrelevant. The hisba department effectively regulated
markets in Muslim lands. It performed several of the functions that
a modern regulatory agency performs. For example, the hisba ensured
that resources flowed into the production of undesirable goods or
services. The muhtasib (the head of the hisba department) kept a
strict watch on the supply position of the essential commodities so
that the public did not face hardship. The muhtasib guarded free
competition and took action against business persons who tried to
collude against the public. He would not seek to control prices
unless they were being artificially inflated by traders. He ensured
free entry into and exit from the market.
In
this age, the role of government and its interface with the market
has increased and become more complex. Instead of the hisba, the
democratic state has several regulatory agencies. The Islamic hisba,
which generally only regulated the markets, has been replaced by
institutions that regulate the government as well; therefore, in
this age any implementation of the hisba department through
imitation is decidedly misguided. In addition, the old institution
of al-hisba indicates that the Islamic state should not be oblivious
to the moral conduct of its citizens; after all, marketplaces and
government offices also require ethical behavior in the absence of
which civilized living is not possible. Then what is the harm if
some agency oversees this aspect of individual and organizational
behavior? We shall have to make sure that such a regulatory body
does not become a monster itself. A system of checks and balances
are needed to implement this idea.
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