Sezai Karakoc; İslam Toplumunun Ekonomik Strüktürü (The Economic Structure of the Islamic Society)

Abstract

The main tenet of the Karakoc’s treatise is that Islam has a unique economic philo- sophy. He attempts to expose this uniqueness by way of comparison with economic liberalism and socialism. Karakoc is careful not to use the expression “Islamic economics” in the trea- tise. As in the title of the treatise, he uses the expression “economic structure of the Islamic society” when he needs to point to the practical aspects. That indicates his understanding that the practical economic structures will emanate from the society and the internal and external conditions that the society faces, while Islam will provide the basic principles around which this structure will evolve. It can be inferred that he believes that different versions of “Islamic” econo- mic structures may emerge at different times or in different societies based on the surrounding conditions, and they will all be “Islamic” so long as they are centred around these Islamic economic-cum-social principles. Karakoc is one of the earlier Muslim scholars to employ the two main criticis- ms of liberalism and socialism: for taking economics as the main and almost only social area and for giving a distorted description of the nature and character of the human being. Thus, he indirectly points to the fundamental deficiency in modern microeconomic theory, which is based on a utilitarianism and which, in turn, has the well-known uni-dimensional, narrow and ultimately misleading description of the “true” human character. He argues that Islamic principles applied to the sphere of economics provide built-in behavioural guides/constraints that prevent both the self-feeding mechanism between consumption and production and the complete de-coupling of them, thus keeping the economy on a middle track. Property rights, together with the right of enterprise and inheritance, are well established in Islam, but the human being does not have an “absolute” power over his possessions. In addition to formal legal arrangements, behavioural and moral limits or guidelines will regulate, formally and informally, the way the property rights are exercised individually in practice. Karakoc develops a convenient interpretation and formulation regarding the prohibition of riba. Building on the idea that capital is, in fact, accumulated labour (over past time and possibly by various individuals), he explains how liberalism dis- respects “fresh” labour by letting accumulated past labour (which has assumed, by now, gigantic proportions compared to “fresh” and fragmented individual labour) dominate the latter. Similarly, on the other extreme, he explains how socialism disrespects past labour—which is still a form of labour—by declaring it illegal. He maintains that the balance between these two types of labour is preserved by the Islamic principle of prohibition of riba.