Dr. Imad ad-Dean Ahmad on Antiwar Radio
Writing by abuhatem on Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 7:53 pm
Dr. Imad ad-Dean Ahmad discusses Islam and economic freedom, the virtues of capitalism, natural law, John Locke and his connection to Muslim Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan which ushered in his belief in natural rights theory, and Ibn Khaldun and the subjective theory of value’s influence on the Salamanca Thomists and thus the Austrian school on Antiwar Radio.
Some notes. I don’t agree with everything Dr. Ahmad says always, but he is a very intelligent person in Physics (his Ph.D.), economic history, and its relation to Islamic thought. What he says about Ibn Khaldun on the subjective theory of value is correct, and it is well known that many of the early Thomists such as the great Fransisco Suarez, had this conception of value as subjective (instead of the debunked notion of Just Price).
A few more notes: Hayy ibn Yaqzan is highly noted in Western thought, but the more authentic expositor of traditional Islamic theology is Ibn al-Nafis’ masterpiece Theodactis Autodidactis which I believe is still not translated into English. Khaldun also noted the importance of gold based currency, like the Austrian school, the idiocy (and Islamic prohibition) on price controls, and the importance of economic freedom and property rights. This was all in the 1300s, and it is well known that Islamic jurisprudence accepted the market since the origins of Islam. Fernand Braudel notes this in his works on the history of capitalism which he traces back to the Egyptian stock market in Cairo, and the markets which existed in early Islamic civilization.
The importance of conserving (a) natural order, (b) natural law, (c) tradition, (d) liberty - most especially economic, (e) spontaneous order, (f) the maintenance of social order, is something ecumenic. There have been such thinkers in every time and place. Whether in the depths of China with the Confucians, the Catholic Thomists, the British Burke, the anti-Enlightenment De’Maistre, the American Russell Kirk, etc. The natural order is known through reason in every time and place.
These general principles taken together form the core of true rationalism. By whichever name it is truly called, such conservative principles are self-evident. Time and place again have we understood the importance of the natural order and tradition for happiness. Economically, liberty is the only natural way to trade. We must eschew conquest and central planning. Capitalism is justice and built civilization and sustains it. This historical law has been observed once and again, whether by Ibn Khaldun in the Muqaddimah, or Aristotle in the Politics. Economic freedom is in itself an aspect of justice, natural law, and the natural order, and ecumenically we “conservatives” realize this. Good job Imad ad-Dean Ahmad.
Category: Islam, Political philosophy
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