In search of Islamic theory of production

Abstract

The Meaning Of Production; Before discussing production issue within Islamic values, first: it needs a definition and the meaning of production from Islamic perspective. The meaning of production varies across the Islamic economic literature. Several Islamic economics provide different definition about this. Kahf (1992: h. 114) defines the production activity in Islamic perspective as a human effort to improve not only the physical and material situation, but also the morality to the vehicle to reach the life goal as it is dictated in Islam: falah. Mannan (1992), emphasizes the importance of altruism for Islamic producer so that they could act carefully toward Pareto Optimality and Given Demand Hypothesis, which is used for basic concept of production in conventional economics. Siddiqi (1992) focuses on the importance of producer action to rely on the values of ustice, bennevolence and maslahah creation for society. In his opinion, as long as the producers have act fairly and bring benevolence for the society they can be considered as an Islamic act. Although every definition presented above is trying to describe the meaning of production from different angle, but we can observe something in common: they converge into an understanding that production is about the existence and dignity of human. From several definitions stated above, it can be concluded that human interest, that meets Islamic morality, should be the focus or target of production activity. It mplies that every production activity endangering human welfare should put apart.