THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of social justice in Islam. The concept of social justice in Islam is unitary, and we cannot simply reduce it to its distributive character nor can we consider it to be merely distributive social justice. Social justice in Islam is primarily general humanistic justice that embraces all aspects end segments of human life. In the first part of this article we presented some aspects of the problem of defining and understanding justice within the western school of thought. The concept of social justice in Islam has its foundation in two main sources of Islam: the Qur’an and the tradition of the messenger Muhamed s.w.s. it could be established, on the bases of these two sources, that the concept of social justice in Islam is founded upon three pillars, namely: an absolute freedom of conscience, equality of all the people and social solidarity. Moderate modernists in Islam interpret the Islamic society based on justice as a society that can eliminate discrimination and offer equal possibilities to all. Later, each individual would be rewarded in accordance to his own potentials and abilities. Radical modernists in Islam, however, in the concept of Islamic social justice recognise revolutionary changes in a sense of the establishment of a class free society based on absolute equality of income, wealth and even expenditures.