The Problem of Poverty in the Islamic Thought through AlDulaji's "Al- Filakah and Maflokoun"

Abstract

Muslim thinkers had important contributions to economic thought, including the contribution of Al-Dulaji through his book “Al-Filakah and Maflokoun”. Al-Dulaji wrote his book during the fifteenth century AD and its main topic was about poverty and poor people. This study aims at presenting the personality of Al-Dulaji and his book, as well as presenting the definition of fate and destiny, trust and asceticism, and if it is permissible for the poor to protest against them. It also explains the causes of poverty and its effects, and mentions some of the bad qualities that characterize some poor people, such as hatred, envy, suspicion of people’s honor, and it presents the forms of natural pension and its effects on poverty. In the conclusion of Al-Dulaji’s book, he set some recommendations for the poor people to guide them in the poverty darkness. The findings of this study revealed that Al-Dulaji’s book has two dimensions: the first dimension is poverty which is the materialistic dimension for poverty problem. The second dimension is the human dimension of poverty problem. Also, the findings showed that Al-Dulaji did not study the poverty problem as an independent phenomenon from other factors, However, he linked poverty with doctrinal, social, and political factors. Furthermore, his book consists of two parts: the first for theorization and the other for applied study. Eventually, this study recommends the need to pay attention to study the contributions of Muslim thinkers in economy as well as different fields.