KEY ISSUES IN ESTABLISHING ISLAMIC ECONOMIC
SYSTEM IN CONTEMPORARY MUSLIMS SETTING - 3
Published in Frontiers and Mechanics of Islamic Economics,
pages 77-82 which was First printed 1988/ 1409 A.H.
Edited by: Rafiqul Islam Molla, Abdul Rashid Moten,
Sule Ahmed Gusau and Abubakar Allyu Gwandu.
University of Sokoto 1988/1409 AH).
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[Introduction] [The Standard] [The Issues Involved] The issues involved The challenge of developing an Islamic economic system is great and the job is far from being easy. The complexities are still unfolding. More issues are being raised. Indeed much more remains to be done, to establish a just social order in which the material and the spiritual aspects are welded together. If the objective is to implement the Islamic economic system in our contemporary Muslim setting then issues relating to its implementation are equally important, and might as well begin to gain equal attention. Failure to pay attention to the issues that relate to implementation may lead to a situation where we produce a clean copy of a blue‑print of the Islamic which can only find a place on the shelves of libraries rather than the Muslim society for which it was meant. These issues could be many but they seem to be very important and crucial to the practical application of the Islamic economic order. There is the issue of the social consciousness of the Muslims that has for long been eroded by alien materialistic nature, and the little that remains has become blunt by the decay and degeneration of the quality of the Ummah over centuries. In other words the operations of the Islamic economic system infact any Islamic system requires a certain level of oral and social consciousness. In the period of the Kulafa Rasheedun this social consciousness was fresh from the messages of the Prophet (S.A.W) and was nurtured and sustained the presence of the Sahabas (companions of the Prophet). In the Sokoto Caliphate however, this had to be developed and happened through a gradual but steady process of Tajdeed (rebuilding). Hence the system we are trying to see up and working may not after all function properly until this consciousness is developed and sharpened, and the state can reasonably rely on the words of its Citizens. Thus whoever saw the need for, and cares to work out an Islamic economic system must also care to develop for it a place to operate. It is needless perhaps to state that leadership is very crucial to the development of any human society, especially a Muslim society to which the upholding and establishment of fairness equity, justice (adl), is central. This is even more so in a situation where we wish to move the Ummah out of the present corrupt western materialistic setting to that conducive for the application of the just socio‑economic order of Islam. In other words, for the fruits of our present efforts to gain application, we need to secure the selfless, courageous and muttaqi leadership who alone could implement it. We must seek to produce people who will see Umar, Bello,
and other Islamic leaders as their model and not Churchill, Kenedy, Marx or
Lenin. This will necessarily mean that the educational institutions in the Ummah must cease to produce misfits who
cannot see beyond bread and butter (Marxism or capitalism). Only then can the Ummah produce its own leaders
who will lead it to the achievement of, its mission on earth - the
establishment of justice (adl). Political Will is yet another issue which is central to the establishment of Islamic economic system. We must cultivate the political will to free ourselves from the domination of imperialist values. Then only can the Ummah be free to lead an Islamic life. Finally, the simple fact, and perhaps obvious one, is that
the endeavour to work out the details of the Islamic economic system has to
take cognizance of and be fitted into a programme of tahdid (action) to make this endeavour meaningful and the fruits of
the labour enjoyed by the Ummah. By Usman M Bugaje ( Published in Frontiers and Mechanics of Islamic Economics, pages 77-82 which was First printed 1988/ 1409 A.H. Edited by: Rafiqul Islam Molla, Abdul Rashid Moten, Sule Ahmed Gusau and Abubakar Allyu Gwandu. University of Sokoto 1988/1409 AH). References:
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