THE VIRTUE OF WORKING FOR A LIVING The Legal Rules of Earning and the Ethics of Livelihood

• Main Author: al-Lubudi, 'Ala' al-Din Ali (Author)
• Other Authors: Adi Setia (Translator), Lock, Nicholas Mahdi (Translator)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Kuala Lumpur IBFIM 2012; ©2012
• Subjects: Wages > Religious aspects > Islam; Economics > Islam > Religious aspects
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Physical Description: xi, 224 pages 23 cm
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index
• ISBN: 9789670149226 (hardback)

This book is the first complete translation into English of Imam 'Ala' al-Din 'Ali ibn al-Lubudi's Fadl al-Iktisab wa Ahkan al-Kasb wa Adab al-Ma'ishah (translated as The Virtue of Working for a Living: The Legal Rulings of Earning and the Ethics of Livelihood). It is a significant late Mamluk ethico-juristic treatise (circa 900/1500) in classical Islamic economic thought, providing valuable insights into the underlying axiological vision of commercial transactions in Islam The translators have also introduced and lightly annotated the text, and pointed out the deep relevance of this work for our current rethinking and redefining of the science of economics in terms of its ends (viz., provisioning for livelihood = infaq) rather than its means (viz., allocation of resources), and thereby reviving a true economy of sustainable livelihoods for the common good (al-maslhah al-'Ammah). An appendix at the end of the translation briefly elaborates on this revival of a common-good economics.