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In the name of
Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
09 Jumada El-Awwal
1430 H.,
04 May 2009
A.D.
The Office of
His Eminence
The Religious
Authority
Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah
"Information
Department"
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The Economic System in
Islam
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Q: One of the bases of
establishing a state is its economic system. The common system nowadays
is capitalism, what about the economic system in terms of the "Islamic
state"?
A: The Islamic economic system is based
on justice and realism, for Islam disapproves usury. The Islamic theory
states that money does not produce money, for when I lend you money, the
money you borrowed does not produce money in return for me. Islam
depends on the system of speculation, i.e. the correlation between work
and money. A person owns the capital but lacks the work or experience;
another person possesses work and experience but lacks the capital, so
they enter into a partnership in which each one of them gains a share of
the profits, if achieved. If they do not achieve any profits, then the
capitalist is the one who shoulders the loss, since the worker would
have automatically lost his job. This system is the alternative of the
system of usury, because it grants the worker a certain right in the
capital in return for his work, knowing that this capital belongs to
someone else. At the same time, it grants the capitalist a right in
return for offering the worker the opportunity of gaining a profit.
Islam has forbidden cheating, deception,
misappropriation and the like. It has also forbidden anyone from
dominating over the country's wealth; for the minerals and
petroleum…etc. are the possessions of the nation. No one is entitled to
deal with them except the guardian or the ruler. In conclusion, we
believe that had the Islamic system been applied, it would have been a
just system at the level of the economy.
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