THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE NOTION OF ECONOMIC MAN: SECULAR AND ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE By HAFAS FURQANI & ZAKARIYA BIN MAN

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THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE NOTION OF
ECONOMIC MAN: SECULAR AND ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
By
HAFAS FURQANI & ZAKARIYA BIN MAN


By: Masyhudi Muqorobin


Introduction
Islamic economics as a newly-developed discipline has obtained significant look for the last four decades, after the first conference in Makkah in 1976. Among the themes Islamic ecconomics caters is economic development. Little or no much is found discussion in the specific study of how an issue of human devepoment is discussed, as compared to the issues of Islamic banking and finance (Muqorobin, 2008), though it is believed that the human devepoment issue is considered very important in Islamic economics. This discussion note provides comments on the issue, in particular the one under the notion of economic man written by Bro Hafas Furqani and Bro. Assoc. Prof. Zakariya Man. Before further going through the discussion, let me define my remarks here as “discussion note”, to avoid confusion from the paper (as I call it) by the authors to which this note is addressed.

I share many basic philosophical ideas with the authors, especially in my paper for this particular conference namely “Comprehensive approach of Islam to the theory of human resource development” with the authors’ paper. Therefore, this strong relationship in the basic ideas forces this note to extend further my ideas in that paper briefly, while giving comments to the authors’ paper. I also suggest, to catch a better understanding about this note, my paper just mentioned can be taken as one of the references. In addition, this note also serves as extending brief analysis of the authors’ paper, especially in elaborating the paper into more details and accomplishing it with a number of pictorial exposition, as the paper looks unsuccessful to move from its philosophical basis, going down to the ‘earth’.

The authors attempt to compare the notion of human development between secular perspective and that of Islam, with a methodologically well-expressed stream of ideas, beginning from comparison of economics definition and that of economic man, and coming up with the comparative notion of Islam versus secular on human development progress. However, as far as the concept of human development is concerned, becoming the main topic shown in the title, it does not obtain substantial explication. Instead, the authors in many places elaborate economic behavior of human being under the two perspectives: Islam and secular.

Difficulties with Definition
Following the criticism to Robbins’s definition on revolutionary changes of the concerns of economics from wealth to human behavior, the authors, and many Islamic economists, affirm the sovereignity of the latter over the former, especially which is percieved as found in conventional economics as material wealth. Robbin provides a place for substantial position of human being over the wealth, and posits man as the center of the subject matter of economics. Consequently, Islamic economists also perceive human being as the main point of discussion in any sub discipline including human and economic development. They differ from those of conventional in their treatment on ethical values being endogenous variables, in contrast to their countrpart, conventional economists consider such values as exogenous.

In relation to the means-ends relationship, the authors and all Islamic economists, as a consequence of their belief, also assert the means and ends which are not only in materials sense as tought in conventional economics as Robbins had propounded, but the spiritual means and ends are of importance. In fact, the spiritual height to be attained in the Hereafter is the ultimate ends of the Muslim’s life (a-Qasas: 77). The means-ends relationship in Islamic economics can be depicted in Figure 1, indicating the achievement of falah (wealth and victory) in the world as well as in the hereafter.
























A question then arises in the discussion. Is this difference sufficient for Islamic economics to diverege from secular one? From the methodological side, the answer is “NO”.

The values for which the Divine Revelation is derived and becomes an integrated part, interact with other variables in the economy. The Divine Value, as the authors also consider, ranks above all variables including human (can either be defined as labor or human capital) and capital or other resources. Two issues are covered in the discussion on this problem: (a) issue of definition of Islamic economics, and (b) issue of the interaction among variables. Let us discuss in this section the first issue, while the second will follow immediately.

There has been a debate among Islamic economists concerning definition(s) of economics. Many of them tend to classify this subject under the main discipline of economics, or even under neoclassical economics, instead of under Islamic subjects (Muqorobin, 2008). Consequently, Islamic economics is seen as a reacting subdiscipline in the modern time, in response to the backwards of conventional capitalist economics and its implemented system. Therefore, any effort to relate Islamic economics with the Islamic heritage in the past seems to be meaningless. It is because of the methodological barriers that emerge from unsuccesfull implementation of its superordinate of conventional economics to create socio-economic justice. Further consequence of this delicate is that development of Islamic economics to a large extent is not independent from conventioanl economics. Consistence with this logic, being “scientific”, Islamic economics must develop in line with the conventional empirical procedures (Naqvi, 1994).

Another problem arises in that the strong insistence on such procedures may result dubious theoretical statements, which leads to questioning the verifiability for the Divine confirmation. The economic behaviour of the present Muslim society is little reflective of the Islamic teaching, since the gap between the facts of the Muslim society and the Islamic ideals remains significant. If this procedure is firmly held by Islamic economists, the economic system devloped form it is hard to attain the objectives of the shari’ah (maqasid shari’ah), since the influence of conventional economics and thus economic behavior of conventional stance are enormously dominant (Kuran, 1995).

This is among the evidence of the practice of the present Islamic banking and finance, which percieved as an extension form of capitalism with a new mode of substituting the interest with various schemes Islamic banking and finance have offered. I am not in the position of condemning such a practice, as it is an integrated part of a long perido process of civilization, but to suggest that Islamic economists and Islamic economic practitioners (agents) should be aware of the process that is still moving from time to time towards achieving the maqasid shariah, or preventing public interest from any harm affected by any economic activities. For that reason, it is a must Islamic banking and finance to take some immediate measures, among which is to move quickly from the murabahah schemes in financing for productive purposes being the bulk of the current products, to those of mudharabah and musharakah which provide more equitable means of wealth distribution.

We may come across the second issue, the interactions among variables, where ethical values play a pivotal role.

The Role of the (Divine) Values
I do agree with the authors to take a broader definition with an insistence on Islamic ethics, as also maintained, among others by Kahf (1990), Naqvi (1994), and Haneef (1995). The Divine Value or Revelation assumes the highest position over any other and governs all variables in an Islamic economic system. Figure 2 exhibits the interaction among variables as an interpretation to the notion propounded by the authors.





























Hence, the Divine Value, which is the Revelation itself, influences the formation of values in the societies. The values are composed of those of the their interpretation about the Revelation and the reality. Accordingly, the societies create their own worldview, which may vary from one another. In addition, (more scientifc) interpretation of the interaction generate theories, which further shape epistemology, whatever the meaning is, being the theory of knowlegde or the philosophy of science. Epistemology eventually posits the center of another interaction with worldview and reality, as I percieved and expressed in Figure 1 of my paper for this conference.

Then, economists can interpret Figure 2, following Bro Hafas and Bro Zakariya too, to define the interaction by defining various economic models such as Cobb-Doufglass production function to represent an economic growth as follows:
Y = f (K, L, V) (1)

where Y represents wealth or product, K and L indicate other typical variables, capital and labor, or more general definition: resources and human efforts, respectively. The difference here from conventional theory is the presence of V or value(s), representing either tangible or intangible variables such as activities derived from religious commitment or various numerical and qualitative factors, according to the requiremenst in a study. Luckily, econometrics as a tool of analyses provides a way to define any previouly-undefined varibales being ‘dummy’ for the last choice in the face of difficulty in quantifying the variables.

The most substantial difference of Islamic economics and sicences in genneral from those of the West is the Divine confirmation based on the Revelation. Conventional economics, as any other social science, applies natural sciences in the use of positivism or empiricism as the main tools of verification, which necessitate empirical facts to assume superiority than any other source of knowledge and information. The facts then lead economists to quantify everything in the world, without which an economic analysis is meaningless. Mathematics, statistics and econometrics become a necessary tools to cater the tasks. Consequently, any economic analysis without mathematics or econometrics is out of the economists’ desk. Eventually a ‘silly’ math that places ‘x” can repalce thousands or even millions of poeple in an economic model. I do not say that it is not possible in Islamic economics. Reduction of human dignity in capitalistic models is of concern, and here under challenge, Islamic economics and Islamic economists are to answer.

On the other hand, Islamic economics suggests the Divine Revelation being more than a tool of scientific verification. It is the Supreme tool revealed by Allah, the Creator of the universe and facts, to His messenger (pbuh) and the most impostant tool in the Islamic intellectual tradition in the past, which is supposed to be followed by the present generation. The position of Islamic scientific verification I define from Figure 2 in a schematic diagram as exhibited in Figure 3. By this, I close my written comments for further elaboration by the floor, Wallahu a’lam.






















Reading Materials
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