Islamic Ethics and Islam's Economic Doctrine

This paper tries to explicate the effect of Islamic ethics, which is of normative ethics type, on the economic doctrine of Islam. The hypothesis here is that some of the ethical principles, which are the substructure of the ethical and jurisprudential decrees of economic deeds, constitute the principles of Islam’s economic doctrine, as well. This hypothesis is contrary to the one that uses Martyr Sadr’s words and suggests that the emotions and sentiments, which arise from the ethical principles, are regarded as the foundation of the principles of doctrine, or in his words, as the “fundamentals”. The difference between these two hypotheses is that if the ethical principles constitute the principles of the doctrine, then they directly make the foundation of the economic system, but if they constitute the foundations and pillars of the principles of the doctrine, then via the principles of the doctrine, they affect the economic system and have no direct effect on that. The method used for proving the hypothesis is the rational analysis method, and the scientific structure of the article is as follows: at first, the Islamic ethics is defined and its difference with and its relation with the Islamic jurisprudence and law are explicated. Then, the economic doctrine is defined, and rationally analyzing these two definitions, the hypothesis is proved. In the end, on the basis of the relation between Islamic ethics and the economic doctrine of Islam, the method for inferring the ethical principles of Islam’s economic doctrine is explained.