The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought

This study reimagines the foundational role of work in economic life through a comparative analysis of Ibn Khaldun and key Western economic thinkers, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes.

Drawing on the Systems Thinking Framework, the research positions work not merely as an economic activity but as a structuring principle that shapes civilizations, value systems, and social organization. Unlike modern paradigms that prioritize capital accumulation, this study explores how Ibn Khaldun’s pre-Enlightenment perspective centers work as the original and enduring source of value, production, and moral order. By contrasting this with Western theories that progressively decouple wealth from labor, the paper proposes a re-evaluation of economic systems toward a more equitable, sustainable, and human-centered model. The study also underscores the determinant role of the State in shaping dominant worldviews, offering a critical perspective on the institutional forces that legitimize or marginalize work within political economies.

In this introduction, I aim to situate the readers so that they frame some controversial claims they might encounter throughout this study. First, this study is focused on “work.” In it, I explore the origins, meanings, and functions of related concepts such as money, wealth, trade, and debt, but such explorations are limited to the relationship of work to these other concepts and systems. Second, work, as discussed here, should not be interpreted within the modern-day dichotomy that frames work in the socialism-capitalism binary. When this study appears to prioritize work and workers, such a perception should not be interpreted as an en- dorsement of socialism or communism, nor as a critique of capitalism or the result of socialist influence. That would be a narrow reading—limited by modern conceptualizations of work and capital. This research cannot be the product of modern Western influence because the central figure, through whom I am examining the place of “work” in society and the world, is Ibn Khaldun—a thinker who lived not only before the Enlightenment era, which produced the socialism-capitalism dichotomy, but even before the Renaissance, which informed the Western Enlightenment….

Bibliographic Information

Title: The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought

Author(s): Ahmed E. Souaiaia; University of Iowa, USA

Published in: Islam Today Journal, 2025

 Language: English

Length: 39 Pages

The Bridge of Becoming Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought