Scarcity In Islamic Economics

SCARCITY & EFFICIENCY

ECONOMICS: SECULAR VIEW Economics is the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people. Behind this definition are two key ideas in economics: that goods are scarce and that society must use its resources efficiently. Indeed, economics is an important subject because of the fact of scarcity and the desire for efficiency.

It has generally been recognized and acknowledged by the secular economists that scarcity is the very fundamental economic problem. Scarcity happens when all human wants are always greater than the availability of resources i.e.; goods, services, and time. With limited/fixed resources, everybody simply just cannot have everything.

First of all, in Islam, there is no relative concept of scarcity in the economy as acknowledged by the secular economists. This means that scarcity is not a central concept in Islamic Economics. According to scholars, Islamic economics is much bigger than scarcity itself. The entire economy is a means to achieve success in this world and in the hereafter. The focus is more on study of man's behaviour in relation to his economic activities, such as about our aim in life, and our position as a khalifah/vicegerent of Allah SWT on earth with the goals of toward achieving success in this world and in

The focus is more on how to make the best choice in order to attain falah in this world and also in the hereafter. Despite that, alhamdulillah Quran offers us humans the right solution for the so-called major economic problem “Scarcity”. The reality is that Islam teaches and promotes Wasatiyyah (moderation), never extremism. This means that Quran teaches us to curb our desires rather than focusing on accumulating wealth. In order to be content, we must be thankful for what we already have and try to lead a very simple and humble way of life. Moreover, we must get rid of any jealousy towards people who have more wealth, but we have to sympathy for others who is less fortunate than us. Vice versa, even if we have more wealth and afford to do more consumption, we cannot make people who is less fortunate feel envy with us. Not to forget, we must also try our best to avoid excess and wastage such as spending more than necessary. To sum up, Islam is a religion of moderation, and asks us to be neither stingy nor recklessly wasteful