Skip to main content
Log in

Bringing Work Back in Islamic Ethics

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Religion and work are seldom discussed. The two have caused scholars to question the religion’s role with work. This paper reviews research on the integrate between religion and work by examining issues of concept, definition, measurement, and reviewing research that examines the relationship of work and religion with respect to: different times, types of people, organize human interactions and sources of knowledge. We then discuss the methodological requirement for reintegrating work studies into social institutional theory and indicate what the conceptual payoffs of such integration might be. These payoffs include breaking new conceptual ground, resolving theoretical puzzles and envisioning the nature of new social institutions

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See Nippert-Eng (1996), she discusses further the classification of home and work.

  2. The religion was initially combined with ethics and values, see for example Siedenburg (1922).

  3. Qur’an, 11:38.

  4. Qur’an, 18:77.

  5. Qur’an, 28:26–27.

  6. Qur’an, 34:10–11.

  7. Qur’an, 2:21–22.

  8. Qur’an, 51:56, see also 2:177, 16:97, 22:77, 33:71, 6:162–163, 98:5.

  9. Qur’an, 62:10.

  10. Qur’an, 67:15, see also 16:97, 28:77, 78:10–11, 73:20.

  11. Qur’an, 5:2.

  12. Ibnu Katsir, Tafsir al Qur’an al Adhim, Digital Version.

  13. Qur’an, 4:58.

  14. Qur’an, 8:27.

  15. Qur’an, 5:2, see also 4:29, 5:1, 8, 36, 103:3, 59:7, 70:24–25.

  16. Narrated Bukhori, www.Iqra.net/ index Hadits.

  17. Qur’an, 28:77.

  18. Qur’an, 53:31, see also 70:24–25.

  19. Qur’an, 65:2–3, see also 14:11.

  20. Narrated by Tirmidzi.

  21. Qur’an, 2:273, see also 70:24–25.

  22. Narrated by Ahmad from Ibn Mas’ud.

  23. Narrated by Ahmad.

  24. Schultz (1968).

  25. Olson (1965).

  26. Qur’an, 30:30.

  27. Qur’an, 9:34–35.

  28. Umer Chapra (1992, pp. 210–211).

  29. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. Economic Security In Islam (2010, p. 34).

  30. Id. at 39.

  31. Nasr (1975, p. 98).

  32. Id. One famous story recounts how a religious scholar was asked what he would say when he met God, and he responded that he would "die obeying God" because he earned a "living" for himself and his "dependents by the dint of [his] labor."

  33. Al Faruqi (1992, p. 175).

  34. Ziauddin Ahmad. (1991). Islam, poverty and income distribution, pp. 17–18.

  35. Khalil-ur-Rahman (2010, p. 71).

  36. Generally speaking, this labor context in Islamic law is often represented by jurists as a form of contracting between two parties. The two forms it can take are ijara (contract for hire) or ju 'ala (contract for beneficial use).

  37. Narrated Ibn Majah, http://www.iqra.net/Hadith/work-rights.php.

  38. Hodgson (1974, p. 206).

  39. Khalil-ur-Rahman (2010, p. 69).

  40. Id. at 81.

  41. Umer Chapra (1992, p. 253).

  42. There are two critical requirements for the employee-employer relationship. First, a wage must be fixed and, second, the action for which compensation is received must be defined.

  43. Op.cit, p. 253.

  44. Khalil-ur-Rahman (2010, p. 76).

  45. Id. p. 77.

  46. Kahf (1995, pp. 57, 66).

  47. Idem.

  48. idem.

  49. Dahlawy (2003, p. 116).

  50. Op.cit, p. 254.

  51. Zakat is considered one of the five pillars of Islam. The word zakat itself "derives from the verb zaka, which means to purify (also with the connotation of growth or increase)."

  52. Islam also further differentiates between Halal and Haram economic activities, so a Muslim worker can only participate in the process of Halal activities, see Toseef Azid, Appraisal of the Status on Research on Labor Economics in the Islamic Framework, http://www.kantakji.com/fiqh/files/research/op50.pdf.

  53. God's vicegerent on earth, al-Qur'an, 2:30.

  54. Narrated Bukhori.

  55. Nahj al-Balaghah, Cairo n.d., v. 3, p. 231.

  56. Abu 'Ubayd, Kitab al-Amwal, Cairo, 1353 A.D., pp. 595:1909. For slightly different wording, see Nahj al-Balaghah Cairo n.d.. v. 3, p. 231.

  57. The Prophet, while appointing Mu'adh as Governor of the Yemen, enumerated to him a list of duties,one of which was to educate people that God had made it obligatory upon them to pay the Zakaat which is to be collected from the rich and distributed to their poor' (Bukhari, v. 2, p. 124; Tirmidhi, v. 3, p. 21:625 and Nisa'i, v. 5, pp. 3 and 41).

  58. Qur’an, 59:7.

  59. See the comments on verse 34 of surah 9 of the Qur'an in the commentaries of Ibn Kathir, v. 2, p. 352, and Al Jassas, (1957, p. 130).

  60. See the commentary of Ibn Kathir, v 2, pp. 360–53.

  61. Qur’an, 5:2.

References

  • Al Jassas. (1957). Ahkam al-Qur’an. Cairo, v. 3, p. 130.

  • Ahmed, E. (1992). Resources develoment in Islamic perspective. Proceeding of the fourth international Islamic economic seminar. IIIT.

  • Al Faruqi, I. R. (1992). Al-Tawhid: Its implications for thought and life (2nd ed.). Virginia: IIIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alchian, A. A., & Demsetz, H. (1972). Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization. American Economic Review, 62, 777–795.

    Google Scholar 

  • Applebaum, H. A. (1992). The concept of work: Ancient, medieval and modern. New York: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azid, T. (undated). Appraisal of the status on research on labor economics in the Islamic framework, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. http://www.kantakji.com/fiqh/files/research/op50.pdf.

  • Buchholz, R. (1977). The belief structure of managers relative to work concepts measured by a factor analytic model. Personnel Psychology, 30, 567–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchholz, R. (1978). An empirical study of contemporary beliefs about work in American society. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 219–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapra, M. Umer. (1992). Islam and the economic challenge. Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation.

  • Chaudhry, M. S. (1999). Fundamentals of Islamic economic system, Burhan education and welfare trust, 198-N Samanabad. Pakistan: Lahore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlawy, S. W. (2003). Hujjatullah al-Balighah, Maulana Abdur Rahim, urdu translation, al-faisal nashran, Pakistan.

  • Demsetz, H. (1967). Toward a Theory of Property Rights. American Economic Review. Paper and Proceedings, 57(2), May 347–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenberg, R. G., Smith, R. S., & Robert, S. (2004). Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Practice. Boston: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furnham, A. (1982). The Protestant work ethic and attitudes towards unemployment. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 55, 277–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furnham, A. (1984). The Protestant work ethic, a review of the psychological literature. European Journal of Social Psychology, 14, 87–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furnham, A., & Bland, K. (1983). The Protestant work ethic and conservatism. Personality and Individual Differences, 4, 205–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furubotn, E. C., & Pejovich, S. (1972). Property rights and economic theory: A survey of recent literature. Journal of Economic Literature, 10, 1137–1162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamst, F. C. (1995). Meanings of work: Considerations for the twenty-first century. New York: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson, M. (1974). The venture of Islam: Conscience and history in world civilization, the classical age of Islam. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, L., & Harris, M. (1973). Conformity in Chinese and Americans: A field experiment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 4, 427–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, P., & Clay, K. (2000). The choice-within-constraints new institutionalism and implications for sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 525–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahf, M. (1995). The Islamic State And The Welfare State: Similarities And differences. In M. A. Gulaid & M. A. Abdullah (Eds.), Readings in public finance in Islam. IDB: Jeddah.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khalil-ur-Rahman, (2010). The concept of labor in Islam. Bloomington: IN 47403, Xlibris.

  • Khan, M. A. (1968). The theory of employment in Islam. Islamic Literature, 14(4), 5–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nasr, S. H. (1975). Ideals and realities of Islam (2nd ed.). London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nippert-Eng, C. (1996). Calendars and keys: The classification of “Home” and “Work”. Sociological Forum, 11(no. 3 Special Issue), 563–582.

  • Olsen, M. E. (1991). Societal dynamics: exploring macro-sociology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M., Jr. (1965). The logic of collective action: Public goods and the theory of groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parboteeah, K. P., & Cullen, J. B. (2003). Social institutions and work centrality: Explorations beyond national culture. Organization Science, 14(2), 137–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qadry, M. A. (1977). Wages and Islam. Al Ma’arif, 10(2–3), 36–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qureshi, A. M. (1959). Wages is an Islamic economy. Islamic Thought, 6(2), 24–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qureshi, A. M. (1960). Wages is an Islamic Economy. Islamic Thought, 7(2), 40–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Read, J. G. (2004). Family, religion, and work among Arab American women. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(November), 1042–1050.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabazwari, S. (1971). Sarmaya aur Minhat (Capital and Labour). Fikr-o-Nazar, 9(6), 421–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schooler, C. (1996). Cultural and social-structural explanations of cross-national psychological differences. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 323–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, T. W. (1968). Institutions and the rising economic value of man. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 50, 1113–1122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter, J. A. (1951). The theory of economic development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siedenburg, F. (1922). The religious value of social work. The American Journal of Sociology, 27(5), 637–645.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Super, D. E., & Sverko, B. (1995). Life roles, values, and careers: International findings of the work importance study. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabakoglu, A. (1983). Labour and Capital Concepts in Islamic Economics. Paper presented in the Second International Conference on Islamic Economics, Islamabad, Pakistan. Organized by International Islamic University, Islamabad.

  • Turner, J. H. (1997). The institutional order. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Umer Chapra, M. (1983). Islamic Work Ethics, Al-Nahdah: Muslim News and Views Vol. 3, Issue 4 (October–December).

  • Uzair, M. (1983). Comments on Labour and Capital Concepts In Islamic Economics. Paper presented at the second international conferences on Islamic economics. Islamabad: IIU.

  • Weber, M. (1905). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York: Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, Oliver E. (1975). Markets and hierarchies: Analysis and antitrust implications. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O. E. (1985). The economic institutions of capitalism: Firms, markets, relational contracting. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. (2010). Economic Security In Islam. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust.

  • Zulfiqar, A. A. (2007). Religious sanctification of labor law: Islamic labor principles and model provisions, U. Pa. Journal of Labor and Employment Law, vol. 9:2.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknwledgement

Abdul Ghafar Ismail is also AmBank Group Resident Fellowship, Perdana Leadership Foundation and head of Economics and Finance School of Economics (EKONIS) UKM. The author benefited from the research Grant No. UKM-11KH-05-FRGS0087-2009.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bayu Taufiq Possumah.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Possumah, B.T., Ismail, A.G. & Shahimi, S. Bringing Work Back in Islamic Ethics. J Bus Ethics 112, 257–270 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1246-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1246-1

Keywords

Navigation