Islamski pristup ekonomskom razvoju
The Islamic approach to economic development

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary theoreticians of Islamic economics are focusing on the identification of an appropriate strategy or strategies of economic development for Islamic countries. Although the major works in this field were published in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Fifth International Conference on Islamic Economics, to be held in January 2003 in Bahrein, will in fact have as its theme the issue of sustainable development – ‘Sustainable development and Islamic finances in Muslim countries’. Consideration of the issue of economic development will thereby once again acquire importance. Without extensive elaboration, this paper seeks to draw attention to the basic precepts of the Islamic approach to economic development, presented through the works of contemporary theoreticians of Islamic economics. Beginning with a brief presentation of the developmental levels attained by Islamic countries that have no oil resources and an overview of the causes of their poverty and under-development, it attempts to set out the basic Islamic approach to economic development. Economic development is viewed three-dimensionally as the harmonious and balanced development of the material, moral and spiritual values of the individual and society in a temporal context. Four fundamental elements form the philosophical basis (tawhid, rububiyya, khalifa and tazkiya). Fair distribution forms the basic prerequisite for development, to ensure that development is accompanied by social justice for every member of society. The basic purpose of economic development in Islam is defi ned with exactitude, which avoids conflictual situations and efforts aimed at the definition or optimalization of lowerlevel goals. The individual is a strategic factor of economic development, and must be accorded sufficient attention. The paper continues with a presentation of the basic aims of development policy and the steps to be taken to initiate and accelerate development, and concludes with the basis for a critique of the Western approach to development, drawing attention to the inadequacy of the simple implementation of the Western concept of development in environments with an abundant supply of labour and specific value systems.

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