1. Vision

The Islamic Gift Economy (IGE) is a systemic, integrative endeavour towards a comprehensive revivification in vision and action of the moral economy of classical adab and fiqh of mu’amalah as encapsulated in Imam al-Ghazālī’s Kitāb Ādāb al-Kasb wal-Maʿāsh (The Book of the Proprieties of Earning & Living) within a context of rigorous, critical engagement with both conventional western economics & Islamic banking and finance (IBF).

Succinctly defined, the Islamic Gift Economy is “the organization of right livelihood (kasb ṭayyib) for the common good (maṣlaḥah ‘āmmah),” in which (i) the pursuit of private interest serves rather than subverts public interest, and (ii) the accumulation of personal wealth leads to its circulation into enhancing communal wellbeing, thereby realising in actual practice the Qur’anic precept to “help one another unto goodness and mindfulness,” and the Prophetic precept of believers being as “a building, parts of which strengthen the other.”

As an economic system, the Islamic Gift Economy is based on and directed by the foundational operative precepts of cooperation (muʿāwanah), mutual consent (murāḍātin) and partnership (mushārakah), which are in turn founded on the principal ethical precepts of justice (ʿadl), magnanimity (iḥsān), gratitude (shukr), and integrity (amānah), thereby realising in practice the religious dictum of the worldly life being the seedbed of the Afterlife (al-dunyā mazraʿat al-ākhirah).

In the light of the above exposition, Islamic Gift Economy can also be called by various other names that express its vision and action, such as the (i) earning economy, (ii) compassion economy, (iii) community economy, (iv) cooperative economy, (v) provisioning economy, (vi) circulative economy, (vii) market-welfare economy, and so on and so forth.

2. Purpose of Vision

The purpose of the Islamic Gift Economy is to provide an effective discursive framework (or narrative/kalam) for systemically reviving in the current context the classical Islamic ethical and legal norms of community-rooted economic exchange known in the standard fiqh manuals as muʿāmalah (iḥyāʾʿulūm al-muʿāmalāt), such as shirkah/mushārakah (business partnership), qirāḍ/muḍārabah (venture capital), ijārah (renting/hiring), jaʿālah (job wages), salam (buying in advance), waqf (charitable trusts), wakālah (agency), waḍīʿah (depository), and so on. Through this revival, Muslims will be able refamiliarise themselves with the transactional and commercial tools required for them to work productively together in a climate of mutual trust and best practices in order to regain control of their economy for the wellbeing of themselves and their communities, and by extension, for the wellbeing too of the larger society in which they may be embedded. Along the way they will recover for themselves the correct understanding in their vision and action of such concepts as livelihood, wealth, investment, money, commerce, economy, profit, loss, employment, work, etc., and in the process be able thereby to critically evaluate both conventional economics and Islamic banking and finance (IBF).

3. Strategy

It is envisioned that this revival is to be achieved primarily through (i) well thought out educational initiatives, (ii) the implementation of carefully chosen pilot projects to provide proofs of concept for the practical viability of the Islamic Gift Economy, (iii) strategic intellectual and institutional alliance, partnership and networking with shuyukhs, muftis, fuqaha, ulama, imams, scholars, researchers, thinkers, academicians, activists, business people, policy makers and professionals who find the IGE to be an effective and authentic alternative to both conventional economics and Islamic banking anf finance, and (iv) forging alliance with non-Muslim secular and religious groups who subscribe to the basic ethos of the gift economy.

Educational initiatives include talks, lectures, seminars, certificate courses, training programs, workshops, and publication of research articles, books, translations and monographs.. Pilot projects include advisory and consultancy service to entrepreneurs wanting to implement IGE precepts in structuring their enterprises, and even direct investment in some of these enterprises. Intellectual and institutional alliances with scholars and other relevant parties include formal and informal face-to-face meetings, signing of MOUs, convening of special intellectual retreats and commissioning some of them as translators, researchers, and muʿamalah advisors.

4) Milestones

(a) Over the short term (1—2 years)

(i) Translations of selected classical texts on kasb and related topics, (ii) official IGE website and content, (iii) publication of research articles in journals, (iv) talks, discussions, networking, (v) business structure for IGE to fund itself, e.g., as a for-profit consultancy called, say, IGE Advisory (vi) special retreat for founding partners of IGE website to enhance intellectual and operational collaboration among them.

(b) Over the medium term (2—5 years)

(i) more and better structured pilot projects, (ii) serious advisory and consulting work with like minded communities, policy makers and business entities, (iii) formal certificate and diploma courses in IGE, (iv) IGE research institute and academy, or IGE Academy, (v) core management staff for IGE Advisory, (vi) identifying and appointing selected associates for IGE Advisory.

(c) Over the long term (5—10 years)

International network of IGE communities at the local, regional and global levels of economic exchange utilising investment, depository and financing structures independent of both ribawi banks and IBF.

5. Concluding Note

Depending on the discourse context and the audience, we may use the term ‘Islamic Gift Economy’ and/or any other appropriate, alternate terms to refer to what we are advocating, like ‘common-good economics’, ‘community economics’, or even just plain old ‘muʿamalah’. Critical inputs to this action plan outline may eventually transform it into a formal prospectus and business plan for the IGE.