Markets
Islam accepts markets as the basic coordinating mechanism of the economic system. Islamic teaching holds that the market, given perfect competition, allows consumers to obtain desired goods and producers to sell their goods at a mutually acceptable price.
Three necessary conditions for an operational market are said to be upheld in Islamic primary sources:
- Freedom of exchange: the Qur'an calls on believers to engage in trade, and rejects the contention that trade is forbidden.
- Private ownership (see above).
- Security of contract: the Qur'an calls for the fulfillment and observation of contracts. The longest verse of the Qur'an deals with commercial contracts involving immediate and future payments.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Economic Jurisprudence
Famous quotes containing the word markets:
“When the great markets by the sea shut fast
All that calm Sunday that goes on and on:
When even lovers find their peace at last,
And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1919)
“A free-enterprise economy depends only on markets, and according to the most advanced mathematical macroeconomic theory, markets depend only on moods: specifically, the mood of the men in the pinstripes, also known as the Boys on the Street. When the Boys are in a good mood, the market thrives; when they get scared or sullen, it is time for each one of us to look into the retail apple business.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)