The greatest thinkers of the Islamic intellectual tradition invariably insist on the inadequacy of discursive reasoning or rational faculty to attain to transcendent truths. For that a higher faculty of intellect is needed to arrive at intuition (ilham), kashf (unveiling) or dhawq (tasting). But the question remains this - have we indeed exhausted all the possibilities of rational faculty, this "al-'aql al-juz'i" as some scholars have dubbed it, that we need to transcend it and go beyond rational consciousness? In fact the rational heritage of 'ilm al-kalam offers tremendous reservoir that has yet to be thoroughly appreciated and explored in the modern world. Let's start thinking about this first before we venture into the regions of the unknown, which in any case are reserved for the 'elect', a state which exceptionally few can attain.
When we say that the market should be restrained by ethical norms we don’t by default mean that the state should carry that responsibility. Critics typically take as axiomatic that the market is the root of all evil that any instance of irregularity, deficiency or oppressive practices that occur in commercial contexts is taken to warrant immediate outside intervention; and by that is often meant the state. Such an assumption about the market seriously underestimates the possibility of the market itself in restraining its own excesses. The misplaced emphasis on developing measures external to the market to rectify the latter’s shortcomings has only the result of treating the symptom rather than the real disease.
Comments