A few days ago, there was a debate between two famous Iranian economic scholars namely, Mr. Masoud Derakhshan, a professor of the University of Allameh Tabatabaei and Mr. Mousa Ghani Nezhad, a professor of the Sharif University of Technology. The event was organized by Ofogh TV Channel. The debate and some of the issues raised […]

A few days ago, there was a debate between two famous Iranian economic scholars namely, Mr. Masoud Derakhshan, a professor of the University of Allameh Tabatabaei and Mr. Mousa Ghani Nezhad, a professor of the Sharif University of Technology. The event was organized by Ofogh TV Channel.

The debate and some of the issues raised about Islamic Economy, provoked me to write this article to elaborate up on economic jurisprudence. I take this opportunity to refer readers to an article[1] written by myself in Persian language with regard to this subject. The article is entitled “International political economy from the Jurisprudential Viewpoint of the Supreme Leader of Iran”. The article has been published in the journal of RahbordSiasi on 2018.

That article discusses first the international political economy and its background and then the general views of Islam regarding economy. It then elaborates up on the jurisprudential view of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards international political economy in the form of two categories, the basis and the principles of international political economy jurisprudence. When we talk about the basis, we mean those basic values which are fundamental, general and relate to all domains and they are not devoted to the field of economic jurisprudence only. But when we talk about principles, we mean those values which are the foundation for economic jurisprudence and relates to this field only.

Basis in the field of international political economic jurisprudence, are those elements which are ultra-sectors, inter-disciplinary and should be observed in any discussion about economic jurisprudence and other filed of studies. These are elements such ad being divine-oriented, justice-oriented, Islam and religious –oriented and spiritual and moral –oriented. When a jurisprudent tries to find the divine verdict towards an issue including an economic issue, he should consider these basic rules.

There are other sets of principles which a jurisprudent needs to take into consideration when he wants to explore an issue in order to find the verdict towards that issue. These are elements such as adopting a resistant economy towards hegemon economies, economic liberty, donation, severe monitoring to combat corruption, economy’s vital role in superiority in international relations, economic justice, public welfare, combat corruption, economic cooperation between Islamic Ummah, self-reliance and rejecting economic hegemony of non-Muslim powers over Muslims, and the independence of the Islamic Government.

These rules and principles are related to the international political economy jurisprudence but some of them relate to the jurisprudence of the domestic economy as well.

The important point to be noticed, is that economic jurisprudence is different from economics. They are not the same. Many make this mistake and mix these two different fields of study.

These are 2 separate sciences. The subjects are not the same. They have some issues in common as both are discussing economy, but economics is a branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, distribution and transfer of wealth. But economic jurisprudence is to define the divine verdict towards economic subjects. So they are two different issues. Economic jurisprudence only defines the general rules to make it clear which issues are correct and which issues are not correct base on Islamic rules and divine virtues.

I would say that in an Islamic society and Islamic system, because of its particularity and the Islamic nature, economics should be based on economic jurisprudence. It is not like a secular society. The rules, privileges, principles and goals are not the same.

These two branch of science are complementary and supportive to each other and cannot be separated or neglected. Both fields have impacts on each other. For a jurisprudent, it is necessary to be familiar with economics and for a Muslim economist, it is also vital to be familiar with economic jurisprudence. It is in this line, that after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, in the process of preparing and finalizing the Constitution, more than 50 Jurisprudents were involved in the process of adopting the Constitution which includes a chapter (Chapter 4) and 13 articles (from 43 to 55) on the Economy[2].

The relationship between international relations and international jurisprudence, follows the same rule. You can see my three[3] volume book[4] about international relations jurisprudence[5] and also the summary of the discussion in a meeting held in 2016 about this subject in IPIS[6].

Seyed Mohammad Sadati Nejad

sadatinejad@yahoo.com

[۱] http://www.rahbordsyasi.ir/article_110270_0ddc298587e7a470b40d52c9407af90f.pdf

[۲] https://serajonline.com/News/OnlineNewsItem/16163

[۳] Please see https://www.gisoom.com/book/11541142/%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%81%D9%82%D9%87-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B7-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%82%D9%87%DB%8C-6-%D9%81%D9%82%DB%8C%D9%87-%D8%B4%DB%8C%D8%B9%D9%87-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%AD%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%87-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B7-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%84-%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%AF-1/

[۴] Please see https://www.gisoom.com/book/11555494/%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%81%D9%82%D9%87-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B7-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%84-%D9%86%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%87-%D9%81%D9%82%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%AF-2/

[۵] https://serajonline.com/News/OnlineNewsItem/16166

[۶] https://iqna.ir/fa/news/3572591/برگزاری-نشست-فهم-روابط-بین-الملل-از-منظر-فقه-شیعی