Abu Al-Hasan Al-Mawardi?s Views on Economic Policies

Abstract

Al-Mawardi is a medieval Islamic philosopher. He has expressed that the basic factor ensuring economic life to be held in a healthy environment is justice and the environment of safety occurring because of it. He added, the state must collect its taxes in accordance with the financial situations of the tax payers and in a manner that it would not negatively affect their life standards. He said, the state should spend its income on productive and employment generating fields and on social security services. He defended that, within the free market mechanism, economic life should be operated in accordance with the supply and demand principles and that the state should under no circumstances intervene to the prices. He stated that the state should overtake the role of a regulator and an inspector in issues such as employer-employee conflicts and protecting the rights of woman and child workers. On the basic level, there are some similarities between Al-Mawardi’s views on economy and the views put forward by Classical Liberal School, Keynesian Economics Thought and Monetarist School of Economics, which all emerged in the later years.