Fundamental Islamic Teachings

Abstract

Islam provides the roadmap for just and flourishing societies where free individuals pursue their development with governments that are answerable to the community. The Islamic system differs from the capitalist market-based system in a number of important dimensions: greater degree of justice, higher moral standard, honesty and trust in the marketplace and in economic transactions, poverty eradication, a more even distribution of wealth and income, no hoarding of wealth, less opulence in consumption, no exploitive speculation, risk sharing as opposed to debt contracts, better social infrastructure, better treatment of workers, higher educational expenditures relative to GDP, higher savings and investment rates, higher degree of environmental preservation, and vigilantly supervised markets. It would be expected that these differences would be reflected in higher quantitative and qualitative economic growth.