Reformation and development in the muslim world islamicity indices as benchmark (political economy of islam)

In light of conditions in many Muslim countries—dictatorial and autocratic governance, little or no personal freedoms, massive abuse of human rights, sub-par economic performance, social

IN THE MUSLIM WORLD

Islamicity Indices as Benchmark

POLITICAL ECONOMY

OF ISL AM

Series editors

Hossein Askari

George Washington University Washington DC, USA Dariush Zahedi

University of California, Berkeley, USA

All Middle Eastern countries, with the exception of Israel and Lebanon, profess Islam as their state religion Islam, whether simply in words or in fact, is woven into the fabric of these societies, affecting everything from the political system, to the social, financial and economic system Islam is

a rules-based system, with the collection of rules constituting its tions in the quest to establish societies that are just Allah Commands mankind to behave in a fair and just manner to protect the rights of oth-ers, to be fair and just with people, to be just in business dealings, to honor agreements and contracts, to help and be fair with the needy and orphans, and to be just even in dealing with enemies Allah Commands humans to establish just societies, rulers to be just and people to stand

institu-up for the oppressed against their oppressors It is for these reasons that

it said that justice is at the heart of Islam In the same vein, the state (policies) must step in to restore justice whenever and wherever indi-viduals fail to comply with divine rules; government intervention must enhance justice This series brings together scholarship from around the world focusing on global implications of the intersections between Islam, government, and the economy in Islamic countries

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14544

Hossein Askari · Hossein Mohammadkhan

Liza Mydin Reformation and Development in the

Muslim World

Islamicity Indices as Benchmark

Hossein Askari

International Business Department

George Washington University

Political Economy of Islam

ISBN 978-3-319-56025-0 ISBN 978-3-319-56026-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56026-7

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Liza Mydin Mont Kiara Malaysia

especially to uphold freedom, justice, and the rule of law

In 2015, we published a book—Islamicity Indices: The Seed for Change—

and now barely two years later we are following it up with another book with Islamicity Indices again in the title! Why? These indices continue

to receive widespread attention in Muslim countries, especially among Muslim youth who are crying out for political, social, and economic reforms in their quest for more freedom, social progress, and economic prosperity

To be most helpful, these indices require continuous improvement and updating Indices are work in progress The indices reported in our ear-lier book are for one year, 2015, affording no historical perspective on how countries have performed over time and limited indication on which policies are helpful and which are harmful to progress In this book, we provide historical trends dating back to 2000 Additionally, we hope that this volume provides an improved and better benchmark for Muslims to assess their individual performance and that of their communities, to hold their governments accountable, and to peacefully work for institutions that would serve as the foundation for thriving Muslim communities

In light of conditions in many Muslim countries—dictatorial and autocratic governance, little or no personal freedoms, massive abuse of human rights, sub-par economic performance, social and cultural stagna-tion, economic and social injustice, and virulent rhetoric of a few thou-sand Muslim extremists—there can be no doubt Muslim countries need reform A standard Muslim excuse for past failures is foreign exploita-tion and foreign support for illegitimate rulers While foreigners have, in

part, contributed to the current state of many Muslim countries through intervention and support for autocratic rulers, Muslims must acknowl-edge that they have the principal role in the evolution of their com-munities and their shortcomings At the same time, while placing the major responsibility of failed Muslim societies and Muslim extremism on Muslims could be understandable, its extension to Islam and its teach-ings by Islamophobic observers has no basis whatsoever and poisons bet-ter inter-faith relations There are a few Muslims who are terrorists and they could be called Muslim terrorists or Muslim extremists, but Islam

is a religion and there are no Islamic terrorists or Islamists Westerners

do not refer to other atrocities by the presumed religion of their trators, so why do so in the case of Muslims? Why disparage a religion and 1.7 billion Muslims? Western politicians and their advisors only show their ignorance and stoke fires for political advantage when they make the connection to Islam or label Islam as a “dark” religion

perpe-It was in this setting that we started to develop Islamicity Indices—to assess which societies reflected the teachings of the Qur’an and to gauge their performance relative to this benchmark In other words, which

societies practiced what Islam preached in the Holy Qur’an and through

the practice of the Prophet? The Prophet is reputed to have said, “faith without commensurate action is like a body without a head.” Thus we wanted to know to what extent Islamic teachings were practiced and prevalent in Muslim societies; in other words, “how Islamic were indi-vidual Muslim countries?”

Our goal was not to determine if Muslims pray five times a day or

if they attend friday sermons, but to provide a benchmark to assess whether societies adhere to the political, social, and economic teachings

of Islam, such as providing a scaffolding of justice and affording viduals freedom and equal opportunities to develop, and to suggest insti-tutional reforms and policies that would enhance their political, social, and economic performance Be this as it may, some observers may be unhappy with our results because we do not give weight to the five Pillars of Islam and to other factors that they might deem as important

indi-We appreciate any and all comments and in response would make

a number of comments and suggestions Such indices can always be improved and must be updated to be relevant, so we invite all help-ful comments and suggestions We believe that we have captured most of the important teachings of Islam that affect the well-being

PREfACE ix

of a community, but again we are always open to helpful suggestions

We have done our best to find data and indicators that represent these teachings and again recognize that improvements will come with time However, there is one inescapable fact—the Muslim World is not flour-ishing and the problem is not with Islam but with Muslims who are not practicing the guidelines of the Holy Qur’an and the interpretations of the Prophet (sawa)

We have been heartened by the publicity and the many comments

we have received While the publicity has been global, from Muslim and non-Muslim affiliated sources and from all forms of media—television, radio, print, and numerous social media outlets—the individual com-ments have come from Muslims These diverse comments have con-firmed the need to continue our work At one extreme, where we have received the overwhelming majority of reactions and feedback, Muslims have said that while they appreciate the details of our work, its mes-sage and how it might be used to achieve reforms, the broad results have been long obvious to them They see much more freedom, jus-tice, and equality of opportunities to develop—the hallmarks of what Islam preaches—in much of the West than in any Muslim country A few Muslims have also added that our message cannot be even discussed in the Muslim majority country where they live At the other extreme, a few Muslims have dismissed our work precisely because we do not give weight to the five Pillars of Islam To our mind, there is so much more

to Islam—in the Holy Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet—than the five Pillars It is these teachings, their indicated actions, and their impact

on a Muslim community that we have tried to capture in these indices

In between these two extremes, some Muslims have raised words

of caution While they agree that Muslim countries need foundational reforms, they feel that reforms will entail upheaval and instability as wit-nessed during the Arab Spring Although they want change, they do not want their country transformed into another Syria! They want the tur-moil phase circumvented We totally understand and sympathize with these concerns and can offer only limited words of comfort Yes, most oppressive rulers will not go away peacefully Yes, effective opposition forces have been so decimated in Muslim countries that even if rulers would peacefully step aside there would be a vacuum of governance Yes, foreign powers will continue to espouse human rights and democracy but meddle and support dictators who invariably make matters worse

Yes, the status of Muslim countries is a product of decades and centuries

of path-dependent abusive policies and practices that cannot be reversed quickly

There is hope If these indices, or some variant thereof, become widely debated and accepted by Muslims the world over, they would unite reform-minded Muslims across the world They would provide

an international benchmark and standard, supported by an tional community of Muslims who know no national boundaries Such

interna-a movement interna-and recognized benchminterna-ark would be difficult for interna-a tyrinterna-ant

in any Muslim country to dismiss and would provide the foundation for meaningful reforms At the same time, it would become much harder and risky for foreign powers to intervene and derail effective transforma-tion of Muslim countries because of the wider impact on their national interest A credible, peaceful, and recognized international movement for reform would be established with the goal of reformation and devel-opment of Muslim communities These indices could then provide a framework and benchmark for reform, with a transparent and realistic timetable for reforms that should be customized to each Muslim coun-try’s history, culture, and special circumstances In this way, it may be possible to avoid much of the turbulent upheavals that have been a by-product of the Arab Spring

But we must emphasize something that we will repeat many times

in this volume—all reforms begin with Muslims Muslims must take back their religion from self-interested rulers and clerics They have to study and debate the Qur’an and the practice of the Prophet to deter-mine their application to their time and circumstance To be successful

in understanding the Holy Qur’an, the practice of the Prophet and their implementation in their times, Muslims must enjoy Allah’s gift of free-dom that no man can take away They must develop the self as recom-mended in Islam Positive change can only come about when Muslims study their religion and accept its responsibilities

In the peaceful pursuit for reforms, this volume represents our improved and updated results with scores and ranking of countries dat-ing back to 2000 We hope that this work affords the useful bench-mark, approach, and policies for Muslims to begin peacefully reforming their countries We have a website that reports ongoing activities (http://islamicity-index.org/wp/) We plan to enhance our website to allow interactive access to all information (including the data used for

PREfACE xi

subcomponents), which are too extensive and voluminous to report in this book To insure the continuity of this endeavor, we are in the pro-cess of establishing a foundation to oversee this work for years to come.Washington DC, USA

McLean, USA

Mont Kiara, Malaysia

Hossein AskariHossein Mohammadkhan

Liza Mydin

We are indebted for the help and support of Mostafa Omidi for his standing contribution as the Webmaster for our website (http://isla-micity-index.org/wp/) He has been selfless and dedicated to this task

out-As always, we are all grateful for the support and understanding of our families Liza Mydin acknowledges the generous support of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, which made her participation in this project possible

6 Islamicity Indices as the Benchmark for Reforms

Appendix A: Islamicity Indices—the Elements,

Appendix B: Number of Data and Indicators Available

Table 1.1 Economic groupings of OIC countries 6 Table 1.2 GDP for OIC and other country groups (2011 and 2015) 7 Table 1.3 GDP per capita for OIC countries (1980 and 2015) 8 Table 1.4 Human, political, and social development indicators 10 Table 3.1 Islamicity indices and their elements 46 Table 4.1 Economic Islamicity index rank and score 58 Table 4.2 Legal and governance Islamicity index rank and score 62 Table 4.3 Human and political rights Islamicity index rank and score 66 Table 4.4 International relationship Islamicity index rank and score 70 Table 4.5 Overall Islamicity index rank and score 74 Table 5.1 Economic Islamicity index ranking and score

Table 5.2 Legal and governance Islamicity index ranking

Table 5.3 Human and political rights Islamicity index rank

Table 5.4 International Islamicity index rank and score

Table 5.5 Overall Islamicity index rank and score

Table 5.6 Average and median Islamicity indices scores

list of tables

The Golden Age of Islam was the time when the Muslim community produced great physicians, scientists, philosophers and poets, with momentous advances in medicine, science, arts and commerce that brought Europe out of the Dark Ages and changed the course of his-tory for the better While most historians bracket this period between the

632 and 1258, others suggest that the Golden Age of Muslim thinkers and inventors went well beyond this date and up to even the eighteenth century Regardless of the length of the period, the rich and fascinating history is today but a distant memory.1 Today, most humans around the world see little evidence of this rich history in their own day-to-day lives and much less so in the Muslim World from afar for us, Islam was at its peak during the life of the Prophet Mohammad (sawa); soon after his death, the helm of the religion, and in turn its practice, was hijacked by corrupt rulers and their courtiers; and what we see in the Muslim World today is the result of a long period of divergence between the teachings

of the Qur’an (and its interpretation by the Prophet) and its practice by Muslims in the Muslim World The character and state of the Muslim World of the twenty-first century has little resemblance to the vision of the Qur’an and its interpretation and implementation by the Prophet.Most recently, since 9/11, Islam has been viewed in an even more negative light, a negative light that grows exponentially with every ter-rorist attack in the West and with reports and pictures of Muslims kill-ing Muslims in terrorist warfare, civil conflicts, and wars Populist parties and politicians are gaining supporters and ground in Europe and North

Introduction

© The Author(s) 2017

H Askari et al., Reformation and Development in the Muslim World,

Political Economy of Islam, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56026-7_1

2 H ASKARI ET AL.

America by touting their Islamophobia and backing policies that prohibit Muslim immigration and refugees, and may go even further in the future

by requiring special registration of all Muslims

In the West, the words Islam and Muslim have become feared and

are invariably associated with terrorism, other horrific acts, and wardness News headlines portray Muslims as zealots bent on fighting Christians and the West Westerners show little understanding of what Islam preaches as the teachings of Islam have become distorted, resulting

back-in an ever-growback-ing divide between East and West All the while the damental Islamic principles derived from the Qur’an and their interpreta-tion and practice by the Prophet Mohammad (sawa) are rarely explained

fun-At their core, these teachings are the Unity of Allah’s Creation, the Divine gift of freedom to all humanity, love, peace, and social justice, as discussed in more detail in Chap 2 Yet the image of Muslims (and of Islamic teachings) in the non-Muslim World is that of terrorists, jihad, backwardness, dictatorships, corruption, and injustice frankly, we can-not blame some of these attributions when they are associated with some Muslims, as devout Muslims also see a failure of Muslim communities and their governments (rulers) to follow the rules that are foundational

to a flourishing Muslim community Instead, what we see in much of the Muslim World has little, if anything, to do with Islam and what Islam preaches

A quick glance across the Muslim World does not convey a pretty picture Most Muslim rulers are oppressive, corrupt, and unjust While Muslims must take the ultimate blame for not holding their rulers accountable and for the scaffolding and landscape of their communi-ties, the West should also recognize its complicity in backing some of the same rulers and propping up their oppressive rule Since 2011, we have witnessed the horrific fruit of decades and centuries of illegitimate rule Bashar al-Assad has been embroiled in a civil war in Syria, with fall-out that is our generation’s ultimate breakdown of humanity Since the conflict began in 2011, the death toll by the end of 2016 was approach-ing 500,000 and with more than a million injured and over 12 million Syrians displaced from their homes.2 Simultaneously we witnessed the uprisings of the “Arab Spring” against other leaders who had established decades of unjust and corrupt rule, including those against Tunisian Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Libyan Muammar Gadhafi, the Al-Khalifas of Bahrain, and the Egyptian Hosni Mubarak.3

The uprisings in Muslim countries show no clear path to a better future, but instead point to mounting damage to the image of Islam as a religion, a religion that preaches and emphasizes freedom, peace, unity, and justice, and to a growing deterioration of Christian–Muslim rela-tions, which could take centuries to reverse The uprisings in Muslim countries are taking an all too familiar pattern of oppressive governments mobilizing heavy military force to prevent peaceful protests and political reforms with foreign powers assisting their favorite dictator or opposition group in the name of “stability,” but in reality to preserve their selfish short-run interests Such settings provide an ideal breeding ground for more rampant terrorist activity; mass civilian casualties, in turn accelerat-ing the downward spiral of Muslim societies and pushing them to unim-aginable depths Simply look at today’s Iraq, Syria, and Libya to see how these countries have been devastated into countries of 50 or 100 years ago and what may be in store for other oppressive and unjust Muslim lands The catastrophic physical, political, social, and economic break-down of these societies will have a lasting impact that will transcend our generation and many generations to come.

Islam is at risk Selfish individuals and groups, Muslims and even Muslims, use the religion as a nexus to gain power The jihadists distort Islam into a violent and extreme form as the vehicle for the violent over-throw of corrupt and unjust rulers and the expulsion of their Western backers from Muslim lands Clerics, military leaders, family rulers, and illegitimate governments wrap themselves in a customized version of Islam to assert their oppressive rule and solicit the backing of the great powers Such rulers prohibit discussion and debate of the meaning of Islamic teachings in their quest to promulgate a subservient society—one that will not question state-sanctioned doctrines The teaching of Islam has become institutionalized to the mechanical, with great focus given

non-to the five pillars of Islam—testimony of faith (Shahadah), daily prayers,

Hajj pilgrimage, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and contribution to the needy to purify wealth—all of which are directed toward the Muslim

as an individual and not to Muslims as a community Of equal import,

but considerations that most Muslim governments neglect to take into account, are duties of a Muslim toward furthering the Unity of Creation and creating just societies The capstone rule in Islam assigns Muslims the duty to collectively enjoin the good and forbid what is evil, or any

wrongdoing as outlined in Surah Al-Imran, Verse 104 of the Qur’an:

4 H ASKARI ET AL.

And from among you there should be a party who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be suc- cessful

It thus becomes the primary interest of corrupt Muslim rulers to actively impede the emergence of effective Islamic institutions and opposition

parties for the continuation of their unjust, absolute and un-Islamic rule

Effective institutions, freedom that Allah (swt) gave as a gift to ity that no man should take away, rulers who are accountable to the community, and just distribution and redistribution of resources that are some of the hallmark teachings of the Prophet (sawa) during the Medinan period, are all but a mirage today

human-Most Muslim societies of the twenty-first century operate within a framework that could not be further from the teachings outlined in the Qur’an and practiced by the Prophet Muslim countries of today can-not be even compared to the Muslim World that brought peace, crea-tivity, and innovations over a thousand years ago, let alone compared

to the ideal society that the Prophet led in Medina We contend that

Muslim governments largely operate within the scaffolds of un-Islamic

practices despite promulgating Islam as their official state religion We can place corrupt Muslim rulers of today into two groups: the extreme and less extreme The extreme are Muslim rulers who promulgate dra-conian regimes and are unjust The less extreme are the corrupt and non-transparent rulers who squander their nation’s wealth through their opulent lifestyle No matter at which end of the spectrum a Muslim ruler operates, it is undeniable that social progress and rapid and sus-tainable economic growth cannot be achieved in the contours of illegiti-mate, weak, and unstable political regimes In saying so, we believe that Muslim societies are most vulnerable because their governments have the lowest rankings in political indicators; they show little respect for human rights; their legal system is unjust with little recognition for the rule of law; and resources and opportunities are highly skewed in favor of a few Muslim countries desperately need effective institutions that embody Islamic teachings and values Our continuing work in the field of

“Islamicity Indices” is centered on providing and demonstrating the evidence to support this argument We break down each Muslim country

by the tapestry of its political, social, human, and economic conditions, compare their success and failures to non-Muslim countries, and assess

their performance from 2000 to 2016 Our results confirm the famous words attributed to Mohammad Abduh:

I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.

In the conventional Western literature, from the writings of Adam Smith

to those of Douglass North, economic success is gained through dom, governments that are accountable and responsive to the people, fair and just economic systems, equality before the law, protection of pri-vate property, and institutions that are transparent Islam embraces these principles, and goes even further to demand social and economic justice through high moral behavior in all dimensions of an individual’s life and

free-in the conduct of all personal and busfree-iness dealfree-ings We assess the ence of Muslim (and non-Muslim) countries to fundamental and core Islamic principles in order to develop a benchmark for their performance and propose policies and measures for a turnaround and positive change This book represents a step in our quest to promote positive and peace-ful change in the Muslim World and to bridge the East–West divide

adher-In this chapter, we begin by defining the Muslim World and provide

a very brief and standard discussion of their current political, economic, and social landscape

muslim countries or the organization

of islamic conference (oic) Muslim countries are invariably defined as countries that have a signifi-cant Muslim population, or whose governments either profess Islam as the official and primarily practiced religion of the country, or declare that they are an Islamic republic.4 fifty-six countries and Palestine are included in this classification and they are collectively known as members

of the OIC group of countries.5 In his inaugural statement as Secretary General of the OIC in 2004, Ihsanoglu Ekmeleddin outlined the broad objectives of the OIC as consolidating cooperation between OIC coun-tries in political, economic, social, and cultural pursuits, and eradicating discrimination and colonialism In relation to safeguarding and preserv-ing the rights and struggles of Muslim people, the OIC hopes to become the focal point to coordinate efforts to safeguard the holy places of

6 H ASKARI ET AL.

Islam, support the struggle of Palestinians including helping them regain their rights, and in general create a suitable atmosphere to maintain the dignity and independent rights of Muslims

The member countries of the OIC are dispersed over a wide graphic region spanning four continents The total number of people living in OIC member countries and in Palestine exceeds 1.7 billion, representing 23 percent of the world population.6 The most populous member countries are Indonesia (258 million), Pakistan (189 million), Nigeria (182 million), Bangladesh (161 million), and Egypt (91 mil-lion).7 Muslim countries constitute a substantial part of the developing world and are at different levels of economic development with multifari-ous economic structure and performance In Table 1.1, we present the economic groupings of the countries The first group is comprised of 22 countries identified by the United Nations as the least developed coun-tries The second group consists of middle-income countries and the third contains oil-exporting countries

geo-A number of OIC countries are rich in natural and human ments In 2015, the OIC as a group had 58.5% of the world’s proven crude oil reserves and produced 41.5% of the world’s crude oil output.8

endow-Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates alone produced 17% of the world’s oil output.9 In Table 1.2, we can see that the GDP of OIC coun-tries expressed in current USD has increased over the period 2011–2015 along with other country groups A more rapid increase is seen for

Table 1.1 Economic groupings of OIC countries

Source www.sesric.org

Least developed Middle income Oil exporting

Afghanistan, Bangladesh,

Benin, Burkina faso, Chad,

Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia,

Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates

developing countries, as their GDP grew from USD 51.5 trillion in 2011

to USD 65.3 trillion in 2015 The GDP of developed countries grew from USD 42.7 trillion in 2011 to USD 48.2 trillion in 2015 The same increasing trend is seen for global GDP reaching USD 113.5 trillion in

2015 compared to USD 94.2 trillion in 2011 In 2015, OIC countries produced 15% of the total world GDP and 26.1% of the GDP of devel-oping countries.10

At first glance, the OIC countries appear to be on a trajectory of acceptable growth Although OIC growth may not be as rapid as those

of other country groups, still their economic performance appears acceptable However, upon further examination, we quickly see that the OIC has lagged in the growth of GDP per capita over the last three decades In Table 1.3, we compare the economic performance of OIC countries to the middle-income and high-income country groups We find that the growth rate for the OIC countries has been the weakest

In 1980, the average GDP per capita for OIC countries was USD 4,437 and increased to only USD 7,155 by 2015 In other words, over the past

35 years, their GDP per capita did not even double While during the same time, the average GDP per capita of the middle-income countries increased from USD 671 to USD 4,776 and that of the high-income country group increased from USD 9,540.2 in 1980 to USD 39,716 The gap in performance over the last 35 years has been vast and dra-matic

There is no escaping the fact that from the perspective of economic output, the long-term performance of OIC countries has been simply miserable When countries perform so badly, other economic indicators may have also fared badly—low productivity, high unemployment, and

(USD, trillion) GDP (USD, trillion)

low savings and investment rates But there is more to life than GDP Man needs bread but does not live by bread alone! Some of the other factors that invariably matter are the level of human, political, and social development indicators Have Muslim countries fared better on this dimension? We have compiled some of these indicators in Table 1.4.The United Nations Human Development Index assesses the devel-opment of a country not by its economic growth alone, but also by its achievement in health, education, and standard of living We found that 41% of OIC countries had low human development scores and only five countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) fell in the category of very high human development.11

It should be noted that these countries (with the exception of Bahrain that relies on Saudi assistance) are countries that enjoy high levels of oil/

Source WDI 2016

Table 1.3 (continued) OIC country 1980 2015

GDP per Capita GDP per Capita

10 H ASKARI ET AL.

Table 1.4 Human, political, and social development indicators

OIC country 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015

HDI Rank Literacy Political

stability Rule of law Voice and

account-ability

Corruption

Afghanistan 0.47 171 38.17 1.43 2.40 16.26 4.81 Albania 0.73 85 97.55 58.57 41.83 53.69 40.38 Algeria 0.74 83 79.61 13.33 20.67 24.63 28.37 Azerbaijan 0.75 78 99.81 22.38 31.25 7.39 20.19 Bahrain 0.82 45 95.72 11.90 67.79 12.32 62.50 Bangladesh 0.57 142 61.49 10.95 27.40 30.54 18.27

Burkina faso 0.40 183 37.75 23.33 34.13 40.89 47.12 Cameroon 0.51 153 74.99 14.29 15.87 21.67 12.98

Comoros 0.50 159 78.14 40.48 20.19 37.44 30.29 Cote’ d’Ivoire 0.46 172 43.27 20.48 30.29 32.51 42.31 Djibouti 0.47 168 n.a 30.95 18.27 9.36 33.65 Egypt, Arab

Mauritania 0.51 156 52.12 22.86 21.15 23.15 16.35 Morocco 0.63 126 71.71 34.76 54.81 28.08 50.48 Mozambique 0.42 180 58.84 26.19 19.71 37.93 20.67

Nigeria 0.51 152 59.57 5.71 12.98 33.00 11.06

(continued)

gas exports per capita, something that is akin to “manna from heaven” while the reserves last A significant number of OIC member countries had scores in the low and medium human development range We next examined the educational performance of OIC countries by the World Bank’s adult literacy rate (the percentage of population over 15 years old who were able to understand read and write short and simple state-ments in their everyday life) Six OIC member countries had a literacy rate of less than 40% and more than half of the OIC member countries belonged in the group with less than 75% literary rate Developed coun-tries reported an average literacy rate of close to 100%.

Source UNDP 2016 and WDI 2016

Table 1.4 (continued)

OIC country 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015

HDI Rank Literacy Political

stability Rule of law Voice and

account-ability

Corruption

Pakistan 0.54 147 56.44 0.95 23.56 27.09 23.56 State of

Palestine n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Saudi Arabia 0.84 39 94.84 27.62 64.90 3.94 59.62 Senegal 0.47 170 55.62 40.00 51.92 57.14 59.13 Sierra Leone 0.41 181 48.43 43.33 17.79 36.95 21.15

Suriname 0.71 103 95.54 55.24 47.60 63.05 34.13 Syrian, Arab

Emirates 0.84 41 92.99 71.43 75.00 19.70 82.69Uzbekistan 0.68 114 100 32.38 12.50 2.46 10.58 Yemen, Rep 0.50 160 69.96 0.48 7.21 7.88 2.88

12 H ASKARI ET AL.

Governance indicators consist of the World Bank scores for Political Stability, Rule of Law, Voice and Accountability, and Control of Corruption Scores are reported as percentile rank with a zero score cor-responding to the lowest rank and 100 to the highest Political stabil-ity measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability including politically motivated violence, such as terrorism Aside from Brunei and Qatar, all other member OIC countries had scores below 75% A clear majority of OIC countries are thus perceived most likely to experience conditions of political instability forty-five OIC countries have scores below 50% and 23 countries are below 20% Seventeen OIC countries have poor scores (below 15%) and are perceived as most likely to experi-ence politically motivated violence More than 10 Muslim countries are today in a state of turmoil

Indeed, the weight of evidence in literature also suggests that the number of conflicts in OIC countries has been increasing since the 1980s and in recent years has been generally constant because of unstable and oppressive governments

Most apparent is the increase in the number of conflicts in the Middle East.12 It is not by coincidence that during this same period, the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have been among the highest importers of arms in the world The wars involving major oil-exporting countries in the Persian Gulf have impeded rapid growth in income and general economic progress The three wars that stand out are the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), the first Gulf War or Operation Desert Shield (1990–1991), and the Second Gulf War or Operation Iraqi freedom (2003).13

In the Iran–Iraq War, almost two-thirds of the USD 1.4 trillion global cost of war was borne by the direct belligerents.14 Prior to the war, Iran’s oil revenues were roughly USD 30 billion in 1988 USD, while Iraq’s oil revenues were around USD 37 billion in 1988 USD The total cost

of the war to Iran was equivalent to almost 19 years of Iran’s oil export revenues for Iraq, its burden represented 13 years of its pre-war oil rev-enues Iran’s cumulative GDP between 1980 and 1988 was USD 739 billion in constant 1988 USD As a result, the total damage to Iran’s economy during the war was equal to about 77 percent of Iran’s cumu-lative economic output during the war years Iraq’s aggregate output between 1980 and 1988 was USD 363 billion in constant 1988 USD Thus, its total war-related cost was equal to about 136 percent of its cumulative economic output during the same period

In the first Gulf War, the Iraqi and Kuwaiti economies suffered the most damage Given that Iraq’s oil revenues before the invasion of Kuwait were USD 15 billion, Iraq would have needed almost 18 years of its pre-war oil revenues to pay for the total damage inflicted on its econ-omy On the other side of the conflict, Kuwait suffered at least USD 130 billion in budgetary and macroeconomic losses during the invasion and occupation by Iraq Kuwait needed 13 years of its pre-war oil revenues

to cover the budgetary and macroeconomic damage to its economy The invasion of Iraq in 2013 inflicted severe budgetary pain on the United States More than half of the total estimate for the global cost of the war was and will be incurred by the United States—a figure exceeding USD 1.7 trillion But the human cost of the war for Iraq from fatalities, inju-ries, and displaced population has already exceeded hundreds of billions

of dollars according to our very rough and conservative estimates

Not surprisingly, the rule of law scores for Muslim countries is again poor Rule of law captures confidence in contract enforcement, property rights, police behavior, and the impartiality of the courts, as well as likeli-hood of crime and violence Only two countries, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have scores that are 75% and higher All other countries were below the 75% mark, with 14 countries ranking the lowest with scores below 15%

We looked into the Voice and Accountability indicator in order to measure the perceived levels of freedom of expression, association, and media The indicator also includes the perception of a country’s citizens

in their ability to freely participate in the selection of their government

A staggering 46 OIC countries ranked below 40%, with a high number

of citizens feeling limited freedom of expression Seventeen countries were the poorest in the ranking with scores below 15%

finally, we examined Control of Corruption levels, the perception of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain Aside from Brunei, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, all other OIC countries fell below the 70% score There were 17 countries that ranked below 15% and were the poorest in performance The rest of the OIC countries scored mostly between the 20% and 30% level

We can clearly conclude that OIC countries have serious institutional deficiencies that limit their development and growth While economic indicators, such as GDP, may show positive, albeit sub-par trends, per-ceived levels of basic political and social attributes, such as freedom of expression and political stability, which underpin social and economic

14 H ASKARI ET AL.

progress, are alarmingly low To a large degree, there is ambiguity in relying on GDP as the sole indicator of a society’s progress and develop-ment as drawbacks faced in other facets of development such as inequal-ity of opportunities as a result of ineffective management of resources may not be captured As stated in Mirakhor and Askari (2010), diseases

of affluence can kill just as easily as can diseases of poverty

In spite of being well endowed with natural resources and many ing a rich history, why are Muslim countries unable to achieve rapid and sustained development and growth? Why is it that Muslim countries have become a breeding ground for terrorists, while as recently as three centu-ries earlier the Muslim World produced leading thinkers and innovations

hav-to benefit the world?

develoPment in islam

The Qur’an provides a comprehensive and complete guide to ing successful development It provides the framework, scaffolding, and rules that stress justice, coordination, cooperation, trust, and sharing to manage resources for the benefit of all members of society The interpre-tation and practice by the Prophet Mohammad (sawa) envisaged a thriv-ing society as much more than the accumulation of wealth According

achiev-to Mirakhor and Askari (2010), the concept of development in Islam is all-encompassing and has three dimensions The first dimension is self-

development (rushd), the second is the physical development of the earth (isti’mar), and the third dimension is the development of the human

collectivity covering both the self and the physical dimensions The first concept covers growth of the self toward achieving human perfection as outlined by the Almighty The second concept provides specification and codes on how natural resources should be utilized in order to develop the physical world and obtain material needs for the individual and for humanity The third refers to aligning the human collectivity toward achieving full integration and unity

Central to all of these dimensions is the belief that Allah (swt) vides the ways and means to facilitate the achievement of all three dimensions of development, and ultimate trust should be placed in the Supreme Creator and His rules In relation to physical development, the Almighty has provided the needed resources as long as humans share and has created resources in equal and just measures for humans to perform the duties expected of them, again as long as they share Allah’s divine

pro-rules specify treating resources as agents and according to the teachings

of the Qur’an and not according to one’s own freewill and wants With regard to exhaustible resources, Islam encourages current generations

to preserve the right of future generations through effective and sound management that preserves the benefits of this form of capital entrusted

to humans of all generations

In relation to development of human collectivity, the Qur’an ognizes legitimate authorities in a Muslim society Muslim leaders are selected given positions of authority for as long as they promulgate and follow the rules of Allah (swt) and serve at the behest of their commu-nity A great emphasis is placed upon achieving social solidarity and unity Human progress should be geared toward the path of perfection toward the Almighty

rec-Indeed, compliance with the rules outlined in the Qur’an and preted by the Prophet would create just and thriving societies with superior economic performance We say this because the institutional structure that Islam recommends goes beyond that envisaged by Adam Smith and Douglass North to also incorporate trust, social solidarity, sharing, and justice at its foundation If Muslim countries are unable to achieve the favorable outcomes we envisage, Islam cannot be the prob-lem but instead it must be the failure of Muslims to adopt and follow Islamic rules Thus there is a pressing need to shed light on how Islamic are countries that profess Islam

inter-Our goal is to assess the Islamicity of Muslim countries, or in other

words to provide a benchmark for assessing how rule-compliant are

Muslim societies Do they follow the rules outlined in the Qur’an and practiced by the Prophet (sawa)? And if there are shortcomings, what are the areas of improvements so that Muslim societies may realign and reposition themselves according to the Islamic framework of develop-ment? In the process, we hope to provide a simple approach, or system, for Muslims and non-Muslims to understand what Islam preaches; and that a successful implementation of these rules would create thriving societies

16 H ASKARI ET AL.

been sub-par But even more disheartening is that there is little prospect for better performance in the future because they lack the institutional infrastructure to succeed There cannot be sustained development and growth unless there is freedom, respect for human rights, the rule of law and justice, but these require political and social reform that establishes representative governance that is answerable to the people

While everything in these countries most likely changes within a Muslim context, Islam is not the cause of their backwardness as they have not followed the rules and principles outlined in the Qur’an and practiced by the Prophet But instead Islam provides the framework for the path toward flourishing societies Our goal is the continued develop-ment, improvement, and updating of Islamicity indices that are a bench-mark to measure progress in Muslim countries We hope that Islamicity indices can be the vehicle for Muslims to peacefully demand change and chart a better future for their societies and restore better relations with the West; and in this process these indices could provide a simple frame-work for non-Muslims to become better familiarized with Islam and its teachings

4 Rehman and Askari ( 2010 ).

5 OIC is comprised of the Palestinian Authority and 56 countries The 56 OIC countries are: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei, Burkina-Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

6 Islamic Development Bank, 2016, www.isdb.org , retrieved on 2016-14-12.

7 Ibid.

8 SESRIC (2016) http://www.oic-oci.org/states/?lan=en

9 International Energy Agency, 2016, www.iea.org , retrieved on 2016-14-12.

10 SRIC (2016) http://www.oic-oci.org/states/?lan=en

11 The United Nations categorizes scores below 0.55 as countries with low human development, 0.55–0.69 medium human development, 0.70–0.79 high human development and above 0.80 as very high human development.

12 This paragraph is taken from an unpublished manuscript entitled Resource

Rich Countries and Institutional Reforms.

13 The next two paragraphs are from Askari ( 2012 ).

14 See Askari ( 2012 ), Chap 5

references

Askari, Hossein 2012 Conflicts and Wars: Their Fallout and Prevention,

foreword by George A Akerlof New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ihsanoglu, E 2004 First Statement, OIC Inaugural Summit, www.oic.org.com Jazeeera, A 2016 Syria’s Civil War Explained, http://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2016/05/syria-civil-war-explained-160505084119966.html

Mirakhor, Abbas, and Hossein Askari 2010 Islam and the Path to Human and

Economic Development, foreword by Ali Allawi New York, NY: Palgrave

Macmillan.

Morgan, M.H 2007 Lost History Washington DC: National Geographic

Society.

Rehman, Scheherazade ,and Hossein Askari 2010 An Economic Islamicity

Index, Global Economy Journal, 10 (3): 1–37.

Today, Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the world In the West, Islam is perceived as a perverted religion that abhors freedom and nurtures oppressive rulers, corruption, and an opulent lifestyle for

a privileged few; and a harsh, militant, and barbaric religion that was spread by the sword and through fear, resulting in backward political, social, and economic systems, with frustration and anger as the hallmarks

of present-day Muslim Westerners presume that Muslim anger, tion, and envy have led extremists among them to lash out with acts of terror against the West—countries that have flourished and who they believe have robbed them of their success As a result and in order to get back on top, Muslims are hell bent on rekindling their success of centu-ries past by repeating what they do best—violence, terror, conquest, and subjugation These presumptions have in turn buoyed the popularity of Islamophobic politicians around the world whose platforms contain poli-cies to ban Muslim immigrants and refugees and possibly require regis-tration of their Muslim citizens and residents

frustra-While some Muslim communities are underdeveloped, others are in turmoil, and where extremists murder innocent Muslims and non-Mus-lims, these are not the teachings of Islam If even a small fraction of what

we see were indeed the message of Islam, then the world would have a good reason to shun Islam and prepare for an epic struggle that some Western political leaders seem to be preaching So, if the dire state of many Muslim countries and the behavior of Muslim extremists is not a reflection of Islam, then what explains the landscape of Muslim countries

CHAPTER 2

Islamic Teachings and Institutional

Structure

© The Author(s) 2017

H Askari et al., Reformation and Development in the Muslim World,

Political Economy of Islam, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56026-7_2

and of Muslim behavior, and how can it be reversed? We hope to address these questions in the course of this book, but for now, we turn our attention to the foundational teachings of Islam.

What is the source of Islamic teachings and where should we turn to discover the pure and true teachings of Islam? Clerics, rulers, and much less extremists are not the source of Islam These self-appointed purvey-ors of Islam invariably package and spew what serves their own personal interest and agenda As a result and because of the publicity rulers, cler-ics, extremists, and terrorists receive, this distorted and packaged deliv-ery of Islam has become the face of Islam in much of the non-Muslim and even Muslim World Unfortunately, whether because of oppression from rulers or laziness that excludes personal study and learning, many Muslims follow one or more of these false ‘prophets’ and their neatly packaged doctrines Muslims must discuss and debate the teachings of Islam without the fear of persecution from self-appointed rulers and clerics Allah (swt) has endowed humanity with the gift of freedom to choose in all dimensions of life—to study, to learn, and to perfect the self

on this temporary plane of existence in preparation for the Hereafter—and even to follow or reject Him, the Almighty If the Almighty had wanted to, He could have created humans as perfect beings who auto-matically followed his dictated path But in such a ‘perfect’ world, human dignity and morality would have little meaning

The source of Islam has been the same for about 1400 years—The

Holy Qur’an and the Hadith (the teachings and practices) of the Prophet

(sawa) The two go hand in hand and are inseparable The Qur’an is the immutable, abstract, and theoretical presentation of Islam, and the life of the Prophet is its interpretation at his time on this earth, which may be changed and adapted to prevailing conditions Thus, first and foremost, the foundation, or the fountainhead, of Islam is the Qur’an Second, the Prophet Mohammad’s (sawa) interpretation and practice afford its applica-tion in the real world The Qur’an and the practice of the Prophet provide humankind with the foundation and the rules to build a just and flour-ishing Muslim society In this chapter, we begin with Islam’s foundational teachings, deduce the rules that follow, and then go on to discuss the important institutions that these teachings and rules indicate and necessi-tate.1 In the following chapter, we apply the rules and institutions to con-struct what we consider to be indicative indices for measuring the degree

of Islamicity—the reflection and manifestation of these teachings in a munity or a country

com-2 ISLAMIC TEACHINGS AND INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE com-21

PrinciPle teachings, the rules of behavior

and institutions in islam

The Unity of Creation and Freedom of Choice

There are four fundamental concepts in the Islamic system The first is

walayahh, the unconditional, dynamic, active, ever-present Love of the

Supreme Creator for His Creation manifested through the act of tion and the provision of sufficient resources to sustain life Humans reciprocate this Love by extending their love to other humans and

crea-to the rest of creation The pursuit of walayahh is love manifested through knowledge and the upholding of justice The second is kara-

mah, human dignity The Qur’an considers humans to be the crowning

achievement of the creation for whose individual and collective opment everything else has been created Humans are endowed with intelligence to know their Creator, to recognize and appreciate the universe and everything in it, and to understand the reasons for their own existence An important facet of which is the freedom that has been gifted to humans—to think, to decide, and to choose their path

devel-in life, while supportdevel-ing the good and opposdevel-ing evil The third is the

meethaq, the primordial covenant in which all humans are called before

their Supreme Creator and asked to testify that they recognize Him as the One and Only Creator and Sustainer of the entire Creation and all other implications flowing from this testimony The fourth concept is

khilafah: agency-trusteeship Jointly, walayahh and karamah provide

the basis for khilafah The Love of the Creator endows humans with dignity and intelligence so as to manifest walayahh through the instru- mentality of khilafah Khilafah is the empowerment of humans by their Creator as agent-trustees to extend walayahh to one another, materi-

ally through the resources provided to them by the Creator, and materially through unconditional love for their own kind as well as for the rest of creation, which can be best displayed by the pursuit of unity and justice

non-A number of verses in the Qur’an affirm the unity of mankind [1: 4; 13: 49; 28: 31].2 These verses plus those dealing with the avail-ability of resources as well as human endowments are the foundations of the legislative framework of rules (institutions) for the socio-economic-political behavior of humans Resources are created for all humans The diversity of humans does not and should not mean their disunity

The most important dimension of the adoration of Allah is removing barriers on the path of other humans for example, poverty and destitution are barriers for the poor on their path to reach perfection Removing these barriers from the path of the poor is a demonstration of

the walayahh, as in politics by ensuring that no human is deprived of the

freedom of choice by standing up for justice, which includes supporting just rulers and opposing unjust rulers Actions taken to ensure the ability

of other humans to activate the gifts granted to them by their Creator is

an act of adoration of the Creator

Human and Economic Development in Islam

The concept of development in Islam has three dimensions: individual

self-development called rushd, the physical development of the earth called

isti’mar, and the development of the human collectivity, which includes

both The first specifies a dynamic process in the growth of the individual toward perfection The second specifies the utilization of natural resources

to develop the earth to provide for the material needs of the individual and humanity The third concept refers to the progress of the human collectiv-ity toward full integration and unity fundamental to all three is the belief that the Supreme Creator has provided the ways and means to facilitate the achievement of all three dimensions of development

With regard to the physical development of the earth, the Islamic view suggests that the Almighty would not leave humans without sufficient resources to perform the duties expected of them Indeed, the Qur’an

makes it clear that Allah has created sufficient resources to meet the needs

of all humans at any time and He has done so dynamically, meaning that this sufficiency holds regardless of timeframe and population [49: 54; 8: 13; 3: 65; 21: 15] Consequently, the assumption that at a general level human-ity (macro) faces scarcity would be untenable This, however, may not be the case at the micro level.3 As one of the important tests of human experi-ence on this plane of existence, individuals and groups of humanity expe-rience conditions of plenty as well as conditions of scarcity [15–18: 89; 37–42: 30; 34–36: 34] Allah’s rules specify the appropriate response to these tests The wealthy and the opulent are those who are most suscep-tible to responding inappropriately The Islamic view of scarcity is thus in contrast to conventional economics, where there is never enough to go around According to Islam, there are sufficient resources if individu-

als share The notion of sharing is central to Islam, as it demonstrates the

2 ISLAMIC TEACHINGS AND INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE 23

unity of mankind and the unconditional love of the Almighty’s creation With regard to exhaustible resources, Islam teaches that these are the her-itage of all generations and current generations must preserve the right

of future generations—for every individual in each generation to reap the same benefit Robert Solow reached a similar conclusion in his writings on conventional natural resource economics when he said: “The finite pool

of resources (I have excluded full recycling) should be used up optimally according to the general rules that govern the optimal use of reproducible assets In particular, earlier generations are entitled to draw down the pool (optimally, of course!) so long as they add (optimally, of course!) to the stock of reproducible capital.”4

With respect to the development of human collectivity, the Qur’an recognizes legitimate authorities, namely selected rulers and govern-ments, in a Muslim society The important point here is that those in positions of authority must be rule-compliant if they are to oversee the implementation of the prescribed rules Believers are the first to recog-nize the strength of the belief in such people and then by the exercise of their free choice to follow and obey them Islam places great emphasis on the need to focus human energy on the achievement of social solidarity and unity The fundamental objective of creation is to create a society in which individuals become cognizant of all their capabilities, including the spiritual The final objective of such a society is to ensure the actualiza-tion of the capabilities of humans to progress along the path to perfec-tion toward their Creator

Economic Structure and the Rules of Behavior in Islam

Corresponding to the objectives of the messengers and prophets, humans are to listen to the revelation with the aim of internalizing the rules of behavior (institutions) prescribed in the message, cleanse themselves of character traits unworthy of the human state, develop the earth (Qur’an, 11:61), establish social justice (57:25), and finally, move from darkness into light (2:257; 5:16) and help others of their kind to do the same Humans can achieve all these outcomes by being fully rule-compliant

We now turn to important Islamic tenets and ideals in economic behavior, such as abstinence from hoarding of wealth and sharing, and summarize some of the rules for property rights, market behavior, exchange and trade, contracts and trust, and rules regarding distribution and redistribution

The Prophet, during his 10 years in Medina, developed numerous rules

to guide economic and social behavior: rules of governance, ity and transparency; rules regarding property ownership and protection; rules regarding the formation and the structure of the market; rules con-cerning the role of the state in overseeing the market; rules of behavior

accountabil-by market participants; rules regarding distribution and redistribution; rules related to education, technological progress and society’s infrastruc-ture; and rules regarding sources of government income and its expendi-tures The central axis of design and operation of these rules is justice The Prophet taught the responsibility of the individual and the collectivity He particularly emphasized the equality of individuals before the law, or what today we call the rule of law The social contract with the inhabitants of Medina constituted agreed-upon procedures for administering society as well as procedures for mutual support and defense

The Prophet (sawa) clarified rules of property rights over natural resources, and these rules shape the boundaries of distributive justice in Islam Property relations are governed by a set of rules regarding rights and obligations The first rule governing property relations is that every-thing in creation, including humans, is the property of the Creator He has created natural resources for the benefit of all of mankind The sec-ond rule asserts the rights of the human collectivity to these resources:

He it is who created for you all that is in the earth [29: 2]; and: Do not give your resources that Allah has made you (responsible as) its preserver

on to the foolish [5:4] These two verses, and a number of others,

estab-lish the right of access to these resources by all humans The third rule establishes that once the property is accessed and combined with work

by individuals, a full right of possession of the resulting product is lished for the individual without either the Creator losing His original property right or the collectivity losing its initial right of possession to these resources The fourth rule recognizes only two ways in which indi-viduals gain legitimate property rights: (i) through their own creative labor and/or (ii) through transfers—via exchange, contracts, grants, or inheritance—from others who have gained the property rights title to an asset through their own labor

estab-fundamentally, therefore, work is the basis of the acquisition of erty right Work, however, is not only performed for the purpose of satisfying one’s desires; it is considered a duty and an obligation The importance of work has been emphasized in over 300 Qur’anic verses

prop-2 ISLAMIC TEACHINGS AND INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE prop-25

and reflected in the Sunnah An important corollary of the importance

of work is a fifth rule that forbids gaining instantaneous property rights without having worked to earn them, with the exception of lawful trans-fer This rule prohibits property rights gained through gambling, theft, earning interest on money, bribery, or, generally, from sources consid-ered unlawful [188: 2; 29: 4] Although Islam prohibits debt-based con-tracts, it embraces a contract of exchange that allows risk sharing and consumption smoothing [275: 2; 29: 4]

Just as work is a right and obligation of all humans, so is access to and use of natural-physical resources provided by the Creator for producing goods and services If an individual, for whatever reason, lacks the ability to work, it does not deprive him of his original right to resources granted to every human Therefore, the rule of the “immutability of property rights” constitutes the sixth rule of property relations Before any work is per-formed on natural-physical resources, all humans have an equal right and opportunity to access these resources When individuals apply their crea-tive labor to resources, they gain a right to priority in the possession, use and exchange of the resulting product without nullifying the original prop-erty rights of the Creator or the rights He granted to all humans in the final product or the proceeds from its sale: This is the justification for the rule of sharing [33: 4; 180: 3; 36–37: 4; 5–11: 92] The duty of sharing the product or the income and wealth proceeding from its sale constitutes the seventh rule of property relations, which relates to property ownership rights as a trust This rule is operationalized through the ordained duties imposed on income and wealth, which must be paid to cleanse income and wealth from the rights of others This is perhaps the reason why the Qur’an

refers to these duties as zakat, from the root word meaning cleansing and

purification, akin to tree pruning that simultaneously rids the tree of its undesirable parts and allows its further growth The eighth rule of property relations imposes limitations on the right of disposing of property—a right that is presumably absolute in the Western concept of property rights In Islam, individuals have an obligation not to waste, squander, or destroy, or

to use property for opulence or unlawful (haram) purposes, such as bribery.

Once the specified property obligations are appropriately discharged, including that of sharing in the prescribed amount and manner, property rights on the remaining part of income, wealth, and assets are held sacred and inviolate and no one can force their appropriation or expropriation While these eight rules strongly affirm mankind’s natural tendency to

possess—particularly products resulting from individual labor—the comitant property obligations promote interdependence and cohesion among the members of society Believers are persons in a relationship

con-of reciprocity Private initiative, choice, and reward are recognized and acknowledged, as legitimate and protected but are not allowed to subvert the obligation of sharing

The Qur’an fully acknowledges the important contribution of kets and places great emphasis on contracts of exchange and trade The Prophet implemented a number of policies to enhance the market mech-anism and to encourage the expansion of trade While Medina had its own existing market, the Prophet, with the advice of the leading mer-chants, selected a location for a new market for Muslims Unlike in the existing market in Medina, the Prophet prohibited the imposition of taxes on transactions and individual merchants He also implemented policies to encourage trade among Muslims and non-Muslims by creat-ing incentives for non-Muslim merchants in and outside of Medina The rules included, inter alia, and in addition to those mentioned above, no restrictions on international or interregional trade (including no taxation

mar-of imports and exports); the free spatial movement mar-of resources, goods, and services from one market to another; no barriers to market entry and exit; free and transparent information regarding the price, quality, and quantity of goods, particularly in the case of spot trade; the specifi-cation of the exact date for the completion of trade where trade was to take place over time; the specification of the property and other rights

of all participants in every contract; guaranteed contract enforcement by the state and its legal apparatus; the prohibition of the hoarding of com-modities and of productive resources for the purpose of pushing up their price; the prohibition of price controls; a ban on sellers or buyers harm-ing the interests of other market participants, for example, by allowing

a third party to interrupt negotiations between two parties in order to influence the negotiations to the benefit of one of the parties; and a ban

on the shortchanging of buyers, for example, by not giving full weight and measure

The moral-ethical foundation of market behavior prescribed in the Qur’an and implemented by the Prophet was designed to minimize the risk for participants and increase the efficiency of exchange Moreover, rules specified in the Qur’an regarding faithfulness and upholding the terms of contracts and the knowledge of their enforcement increased certainty and reduced the cost of contracts The Prophet would