Abstract
Purpose
– In the Islamic system, the activity and the performance of all the economic, social, political and religious agents are under the guidance of knowledge given by Allah (SWT). There are some established principles related to the human behavior which are valid in each and every aspect of the universal set of Islamic system and thus valid for all the economic markets, such as labor, goods and money markets. This paper discussed the labor market in the periphery of Tawhidi methodology. The concept of labor in Islam emanates from a concept of intrinsic value as the real worth of a produced thing as well as factor of production. The authors have taken the Quranic precept that says Allah has put fitra in all things during creation and this assumes the primordial value of being in cognitive forms. Hence, if a good is discovered, produced and labor is expended in its production and transaction, there is always that primordial intrinsic value that has in the first place made all the subsequent processes possible. This primordial value must always be discounted from the price of factors and goods as it cannot be claimed. That is why, the Quran says that Allah has created the universe in the midst of plenty, not scarcity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
– Literature survey approach was applied in this paper.
Findings
– The input of fitra is like a value variable (imponderable) linked with two stages of knowledge production – intrinsic knowledge that is innate in exchangeable knowledge flows that are evolved by interactions, say among cooperating agents of the markets and between agents and the observation of variables trends (empiricism). Market exchange is of the classical nature but with this value element in the process of exchange describing not steady-state equilibrium point but evolutionary equilibrium as a result of the knowledge caused and regenerated by interactions, thus affecting the demand and supply schedules through the inhering process of interactions among participants (cooperative ones). The authors can draw an evolutionary form of moving cobweb equilibria that are simply expectational in nature; they are not static except for the very instantaneous case of non-learning.
Research limitations/implications
– This is the first attempt. There is a need to conduct more research in this topic.
Practical implications
– This paper has practical implication for the policy makers in the environment of moral and ethical economy.
Originality/value
– This is an original contribution and is a first attempt in this area.