The Concept of Fairness in Islamic Business Morality

In the discussions on business morality, fairness is considered to have a more specific sense than that of justice and it is the cause for granting trade benefits to poor countries. Raising the question about the relationship between the two concepts of justice and fairness in Islam, this paper differentiates between the three meanings of fairness in the sense of justice, equality and tolerance. The research hypothesis suggests that according to the criteria derived from the narrations, fair trade requires showing permissiveness and granting discounts in transaction. The results of this analytical study show that, in Islam, tolerative fairness has a more specific sense than that of justice and requires a kind of benevolence. Fairness needs benevolence because the criteria referred to in the traditions (doing things which we like others to do for us), has a lower rank than that of generous help and self-sacrifice. Accordingly, fairness in commercial transactions which requires permissiveness in transaction and granting discount in the profit is prefrential. This conception of fairness can influence some economic policies including determining commercial tariffs, product pricing, and market regulation.