Effects of Public Interests on State Expropriation from the Viewpoint of Islamic Law and Jurisprudence

There is no doubt that all religious rulings revolve around some rational analysis of interests and losses, and each halal rule (i.e. allowed) has some sort of evident or hidden wisdom while each haram rule (i.e. forbidden) is due to some sort of corruption. On the other hand, when personal and social interests meet, for various reasons the social interests is given higher priority and personal interests rank only second to that. Thus all legal experts and jurists believe that an Islamic government may in cases of necessity and in order to protect social interests override personal proprietorship and expropriate properties when needed. Of course there are other religious permissions for such an act by an Islamic government, including the rule of “critical necessity” or “prevention of loss”, that may be discussed separately. However, justice requires an Islamic government to compensate the losses inflicted to owners of expropriate properties by paying them a fair price for the expropriated properties. That is because legal experts and jurists hold the same opinion that the social interests have priority over personal interests for some reasons, while at the same time the social expenses must paid by all people and it is not fair to let certain individuals bear such social burdens at grave personal losses.