1 Why Should Development be Based on Maqāsid al-Sharīʿah?
People like success and well-being. Socio-economic developments that bring us closer to this desire are valued in all societies. In this sense, the study and measurement of economic development are not only useful for the low-income poor countries in determining ways to bring them out of poverty but also important for higher income countries to improve their socio-economic situation. It is important for the industrialized and the non-industrialized, modernized and non-modernized economies alike. At the heart of economic development is building healthy economies and healthy communities. However, healthy communities are not simply the product of high income and modernization of a country. Human societies value development and they understand development as more than just a rise in income and wealth or standard of living. Yet, the discussions of development and its measurement in economics are focused on GDP growth, material progress, various measures of standard of living, and occasionally even some higher notions of well-being as freedom and increased capabilities, but with ill-defined purposes.
In reality, it is our understanding of the purpose of life that determines our goals and helps define the meaningful ‘development’, its measurement and targets for the individual as well as for the society collectively. It is true that humans are endowed with basic ingredients that keep them continuously motivated and restless. Want for more, impatience, and desire to possess all good and deflect all hardship and pain are part and parcel of human nature. These traits work to ensure continuity of life on earth. However, without a well-defined purpose of life, these endowed ingredients would shape the definition of progress, development and the development targets in very limited ways. Whereby, well-being and happiness become very transitory and directionless. With a well-defined purpose of life, there is an added element in moulding or shaping of the purpose of development and hence in defining and setting of the direction of progress and advancement.
The presently available measures of socio-economic development are mostly based on, and driven by, the impetus of human desire to live a better life in this world; these measures therefore focus on current and future level of income, production and wealth. To the extent, they focus on other aspects such as health and education it is also for attaining higher income, wealth and prosperity in the near future. Some measures go beyond this to encompass happiness, fulfilment, freedom and life satisfaction but still limited in purpose to doing so for the sake of this life only.
2 What Is Socio-Economic Progress and Development?
Quran clearly states that the creation of this world is not purposeless.1 It defines the purpose of creation of the human beings as (ibādah) worship and obedience to Allah.2 However, humankind’s sphere of ibādah transcends tasbeeh and taqdees forms of the worship to include in the worship the management of his affairs in this world in accordance with the will of Allah. Humankind has thus been appointed as vicegerent of Allah ( khālifah ) on this earth to manage the affairs in conformity to the will of Allah. This agency required bestowment to him a free will, provisions for his sustenance on earth, guidance about his assignment and ability to make decisions. Humans are given all these. They are free to become obedient and grateful or to reject the wilful obedience and remain unthankful and misuse the delegated authority with the respective consequences.3 The existence of death and life on earth is to provide an opportunity (of time, space and circumstances given to individuals in their life until their death) to perform and pass this test4 the reward of which will come in the hereafter.5 Thus, the socio-economic development of human society needs to be geared towards these goals. Any increase in wealth, health, living standards and culture should be to facilitate in our ibādah of Allah and increase the likelihood of passing the test. Obedience to Allah calls for carrying out the rights of Allah and the rights of human beings because Allah ordains both these duties.6 In this way, the purpose of life helps define the meaning and purpose of socio-economic development as an associated strategy to achieve the main goals. Any development that is not aligned with these higher objectives would not deserve to be called progress and improvement.
This worldview may be true for Muslims, who adhere to this purpose of life. Nevertheless, we know that not all the world population is Muslim nor we expect them to convert to Islam within a short time. Thus, it is not expected that all individuals would strive to understand and adopt this cognizance of the purpose of life and hence this purpose of socio-economic development. It should also be clear that Muslims are not tasked to forcefully change the beliefs of others.7 Their responsibility is to convey and disseminate the true information only.8 Moreover, the realization of the real purpose of life, if it comes, may be asynchronous in time among different individuals and societies. Some people accept the truth right away, some realize it later, some others linger undecided and some reject the above-defined purpose. Therefore, the objectives of socio-economic development have to be all-encompassing and inclusive for humanity, yet targeted for the key purpose of life on earth. This brings us to state that the objective of development is twofold:
- First, to strengthen the development needs to facilitate the achievement of ibādah as well as success in the life hereafter for those who accepted Islam and the purpose of life that it describes.
- Second, to gear the development towards providing opportunity to non-believers for making informed choices in attaining the correct belief and gaining the understanding of the purpose.9 In this way, the benefits of development are made universal without restriction to one’s belief.10 As Allah has created this world for the benefit of believers and non-believers alike.
Islam takes this broad and encompassing view of human development and asserts the centrality of achieving the above objectives in any public policy.
The purpose of law (Sharīʿah) and the purpose of socio-economic development thus complement each other in attaining the higher objectives of ibādah and passing the test. While progress and development are open-ended, unbounded from above, both in its quantity and variety of dimensions, the knowledge of the basic protections emphasized in the law sheds light on the key minimum dimensions of protections for socio-economic development. Islamic law emphasizes five key dimensions: (i) protection of faith, (ii) protection of life, (iii) protection of wealth, (iv) protection of mind or rationality, and (v) protection of progeny. Thus, a measurement of a comprehensive concept of development can be made along these five dimensions, though addition of more dimensions can also be possible.
In each of these dimensions, Islam’s position is to provide a minimum protection as well as to develop the society with a view as mentioned above to facilitate the achievement of ibādah for Muslims (specific protections) and providing opportunity for everyone else to survive, live and grow to be able to make informed choices without any compulsions (universal protections).
Going further, within each dimension three levels (or three shades) of protection are possible starting from the basic minimum, to a better need fulfilment, and then to perfection and embellishment of development. This is in line with the thinking of legal scholars who see the protections are available in each dimension in three categories: Necessities ( ḍarūriyāt ), Requirements ( ḥajiyāt ) and Embellishments ( taḥsiniyāt ) (Kamali, 2009).
Another important aspect in measuring development along these five dimensions is that a broad consensus already exists in the Muslim societies on the validity of these dimensions as objectives of Sharīʿah, so it is easy to communicate the outcome of the measurement and conceive development policies based on those findings. Ready understanding of the objectives of development policy by the masses is an essential aspect for the successes in implementation of any policy.
3 Approaches to Measurement of Socio-Economic Development
Within the objectives of Sharīʿah-based measurement, there can be two approaches to the measurement of socio-economic progress. One is a welfare achievement approach. The other is deprivations reduction approach.
In the welfare approach, the progress is measured in terms of how high an individual or a society (whichever is the unit of ana...