An Examination of Islamic Perspectives on the Structure and Substance of Markets

The field of Islamic Economics has traditionally focused on three main areas of inquiry: money and banking, public finance and socio-economic justice. However, there is inadequate research into the Islamic position(s) on the structure and substance of markets. This paper attempts to examine Islamic views on trade, commerce and markets. The paper seeks to study Islamic rulings with respect to competitive and monopoly practices within markets. Some of the topics examined from several Islamic perspectives include: property rights in markets, spatial arrangement of markets, market transactions, contracts, worker-employer relationships, price and quality controls, information problems, lawful (halal) and unlawful earnings (haram), ‘just’ price and profit, speculation, hoarding, excessive (israf and itraf) and moderate consumption (iqtisad), taxes on Muslims (zakat and khums) and non-Muslims (kharaj). In addition to examining Islamic scripture, the paper will analyze these issues from the perspective of several prominent Islamic scholars and theologians, such as Imam Ali, Ibn Khaldun and Al-Gazzali.