CHARACTERISTICS OF ISLAMIC ECONOMICS

1. Rabbaniyyah (Divine Origin)

The concept of rabbaniyyah means that Islamic economics has a divine origin and is built
upon the Islamic worldview confirming that God being the sole creator, owner and provider
of resources. When placed on earth, humankind began to seek necessities for satisfying
their needs for survival such as food, clothing and shelter and learned to produce them to
meet their needs. Allah SWT has endowed mankind with ample resurces at their disposal,
which they need to improve on by converting the available raw materials into usable objects
fit to be consumed by human beings.

2. Insaniyyah (Humanness)
In fact, Allah SWT created humans with a fitrah (natural innate) which recognises good and
evil, and with a conscience, but the same fitrah can become distorted by succumbing to
one’s short sighted bestial nature. Humankind is responsible for managing the economy
and any attempt made to understand human behaviour in the market place requires an
investigation of the concept of human being as an individual and as a member of the
community.

3. Akhlaqiyyah (Ethicality)
The role of humankind as Allah SWT vicegerent in establishing a moral and social order on
earth is difficult as they are being constantly attacked by Satanic forces that reel them back
to their bestial self. This requires an individual to exercise the power of intellect in dealing
with economic problems and choices where the likelihood of falling into error cannot be
overlooked.

4. Wasatiyyah (Moderation)
The need for balance and wasatiyyah is fundamental in any form of conduct as without it
extremism emerges and often leads to injuries, discontent and unhappiness. The fact that
Islam upholds moderation as a principles of good conduct implies that the benefits arising
from such behaviour are manifested in all aspects of livelihood including economics.

5. Waqi’yyah (Practicality)
The Shari'ah prevents man from indulging into wastage. In achieving this efficiency,
knowledge derived from non-divine or scientific sources cannot be lowered s ungodly.
Islamic economics uses reasons and facts to understand and explain the realities. For
example, to increase sales, it should first conduct marketing research. In a partnership, the
search for a credible partner would require due-diligence assessment and so on. This is to
say that the law of nature cannot be ignored even when business is run under an Islamic
label. Muslims and non-Muslims alike are expected to obey the natural law. Working against
this law is only inviting disaster and chaos as it will go against the working nature. Business
in doomed to fail when the law of demand and supply is ignored for example.

6. ‘Alamiyyah (Universality)
Islamic economics is not only for Muslims. It is for the entire humanity. One implication of
this universality is the need to study economic life of Musims and non Muslims in their
economic behaviour, institutions, policies and thought. It should also study and critically
review all accumulated human economic knowledge. Another important implication is that
Islamic economics rhetoric should always be universal.