Ijtihad Network Being Wise and Faithful Muslim in the Contemporary World
This book examines the conceptions of justice from Zarathustra to Islam. The text explores the conceptions of justice by Zarathustra, Ancient Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, Noah, Abraham, and Moses.
During the Axial Age (800-200BCE), the focus of justice is in India, China, and Greece. In the post-Axial age, the focus is on Christianity. The authors then turn to Islam, where justice is conceived as a system, which emerges if the Qur’anic rules are followed. This work concludes with the views of early Muslim thinkers and on how these societies deteriorated after the death of the Prophet. The monograph is ideal for those interested in the conception of justice through the ages, Islamic studies, political Islam, and issues of peace and justice.
While some attribute the first theory of justice to Zarathustra and the Golden Rule, others cite the Code of Hammurabi, containing a long list of grievous acts and appropriate punishment with punishment among equals different than between those unequal. From the Babylonian system of justice to the time of the Greek philosophers, the preoccupation of justice was with revenge and balanced versus unbalanced reciprocity as conveyed in the Homeric epic The Iliad. For Plato, and in ancient times, the objective of justice was to protect the weak and the vulnerable, not to bring about social equality. Unlike philosophers, prophets were given the divine law containing the scriptures with the rules and the criteria to achieve balance.
About the Author
Abbas Mirakhor is former Executive Director and Dean of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund. Previously, he taught at universities in Iran and in the US and was the First Holder of the INCEIF Chair in Islamic Finance at INCEIF in Malaysia.
Hossein Askari is former Assistant Professor at Tufts University, Professor of Business and Middle East Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and was the Iran Professor of Business and International Affairs at The George Washington University, becoming Emeritus in 2019.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Conception of Justice: Pre-Axial Age
Chapter 3. Conception of Justice: Pre-Axial India
Chapter 4. Conception of Justice: Pre-Axial Mesopotamia
Chapter 5. Conception of Justice: Pre-Axial—Noah, Abraham and Moses
Chapter 6. Conception of Justice: Axial Age—India, China and Greece
Chapter 7. Conception of Justice: Post-Axial Age Christianity
Chapter 8. Islam and the Conception of Justice
Chapter 9. Earlier Muslim Scholars and Philosophers on Justice
Chapter 10. Conclusion
Bibliographic Information
Title: Conceptions of Justice from Earliest History to Islam
Author(s): Hossein Askari and Abbas Mirakhor
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Language: English
Length: 316 pages
ISBN: 978-1-137-54567-1
Pub. Date: April 17, 2019
