A REVIEW OF INDICATORS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF WEALTH (HIFZ AL-MAL) BASED ON MAQASID AL-SHARIAH

Abstract

Islam has established several rules for the maslahah of human beings in this world and hereafter. As a result of their religious convictions, Muslims need to redefine and reconfigure their own needs and aspirations based on Islamic teachings. Islam adopts a wide approach to human development, stressing the need to reach the Maqasid al-Shariah in the discussion of public policy. This emphasizes the need for an index that includes dimensions that are in accordance with Maqasid al-Shariah that emphasize five important dimensions to be preserved namely faith (din), intellect (aql), life (nafs), posterity (nasl) and wealth (mal). Nevertheless, the selection of indicators used to measure the economic development based on Maqasid al-Shariah are philosophically and operationally challenging. Thus, this paper reviews the indicators proposed for the preservation of wealth, which is one of the elements of Maqasid al-Shariah. The study found that many indicators proposed are not being defined according to Islamic teachings, which diverted away from Islamic philosophy. In addition, there is a need to establish indicators that are able to capture the development at micro level. The study recommended several indicators encompassing both macro and micro levels that could be a better proxy for the preservation of wealth based on Maqasid al-Shariah.