The Islamic Concept of Labour: A Research Study in the Light of the Qur'ān and Ḥadīth

اسلام کا نظریہ محنت:قرآن و حدیث کی روشنی میں ایک تحقیقی مطالعہ

Abstract

Labour (maḥnat/ʿamal) occupies a foundational position in the Islamic worldview, being simultaneously a means of economic sustenance and an act of worship (ʿibādah). This article, extracted and substantially expanded from a doctoral thesis on the Islamic philosophy of labour, examines the Qur'anic and Prophetic conception of work through four interlocking dimensions: (i) the linguistic and juristic meaning of maḥnat and its status as a religious obligation subordinate to, yet inseparable from, formal worship; (ii) the ethical framework governing trade (tijārah), agriculture (zirāʿat) and industry (ṣanʿat) as legitimate and praiseworthy avenues of earning; (iii) the Qur'an and Sunnah's emphatic condemnation of begging (gadāgarī) and dependence in the absence of genuine need; and (iv) the historical record of Muslim scholars, jurists and traditionists who combined scholarship with manual trades, demonstrating the compatibility of ʿilm and kasb. The study further situates these classical teachings within contemporary concerns like unemployment, the dignity of labour, Islamic banking and waqf-based development models, arguing that the Islamic theory of labour offers a coherent, ethically grounded alternative to both purely capitalist and collectivist paradigms of economic life. The article concludes that a renewed appreciation of maḥnat, anchored in taqwā and iḥsān, is indispensable for the moral and material rehabilitation of contemporary Muslim societies.