The Book of The Proprieties of Earning and Living (Kitab Adab al-Kasb wa-al-Ma’ash) - Hard Cover

Author: Al-Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Tusi al-Shafi’i al-Ghazali

Translator: Adi Setia

Publisher: Islamic Banking & Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM)

ISBN: 9789670149288

Weight:

Year: 2013

Page: 187pp

Price : RM48

This book is the first complete translation into English of Imam al-Ghazali’s important Kitab Adab al-Kasb wa al-Ma’ash (here translated as The Book of Proprieties of Earning and Living), which constitutes Book Three of the Quarter on the Norms of Daily Life from his celebrated magnum opus Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (The Revivification of the Science of Religion).

It is significant work in what we may call the kasb ethico-juristic genre in classical Islamic economic thought, providing valuable insights into the socio-axiological vision underpinning commercial transactions and economic activities in Islam.

The translator has also introduced and lightly annotated the text, and pointed out the deep relevance of this work for our current rethinking and redefining of the science of economics in terms of its ends (viz., provisioning for livelihood = infaq) rather than its means (viz., allocation of resources), and thereby reviving a true economy of sustainable livelihoods (ma’ayish) for the common good (al-maslahah al-‘ammah). An appendix at the end of the translation briefly elucidates in a reflective manner this revival of a common-good or gift economics, leading to a succinct redefinition of economics as “the science of earning and provisioning” (‘ilm al-iktsab wa al-infaq).