A Comparative Study of the Concept of Basic Needs in the West and Islam

In spite of the initial definition of the development, institutional, planned and conscious effort to achieve progress in all fields such as the social and economic fields, but in practice, the main theme of development studies focused on the issue of economic growth with the aim of increasing the growth rate of GDP. In the mid-twentieth century, the experiences gained from practice Growth based theories indicate that national income has raised, but nearly all of poor communities did not have any interest of its benefits. Because of predicaments arising to poor communities, and the flood of criticism to the previous theories, many scholars of development economic forced to redefine development. In redefining the concept of development emphasized on economic growth, but economic growth was attached to slogans such as reducing inequality, redistribution and basic needs. Although, the issue of basic needs has been raised in development economic and effort of western thinkers, it seems this issue from the perspective of Islamic teachings and religious experts is essential. Studding these topics from the perspective of Muslim scholars and experts can be a step in understanding and analyzing this issue compared with the development economic theories. Because the concept of basic needs and its comparative study from the perspective of western and Islamic thinkers requires introduction of the concept of development and its evolution, So in this paper, at first, an overview of the concept of development and its evolution over the time is take placed And then the attitudes and views on the provision of basic needs that have been proposed in the literature of development economic be recognized. In the second section the definition of the development in Islamic viewpoints is briefly investigated and finally the concept of basic needs through concepts such as Faghr, Mahroum and Estezaf is investigated.