10.1 Right of Disposal

Ownership has been defined as a divine rule concerning an object itself or a benefit, a matter which requires that its owner is entitled to use the thing and receive a recompense for it. Thus, the ownership is the divine rule estimated in terms of object or benefit; in other words it is the permission of the Lawgiver. The disposal (of the owned objects) is a matter, which therefore results from this divine rule, namely from the permission of the Lawgiver that entitled the owner to use the object and be compensated for it. The disposal of the owned thing is thus restricted by the permission of the Lawgiver because the ownership itself is the permission of the Lawgiver to use the object, and disposal is equivalent to using the object. Since property belongs to Allah (swt), and He (swt) appointed man to use this property with permission from Him (swt), then the individual’s ownership of a property is similar to a job He performs to use the property and to invest it, rather than owning it. This is because when the person owns a property He does so to benefit from it, and He is restricted in that by the limits of the Shar’a and not left free in his methods of utilisation. He is also not free in his disposal of the object itself even if He owned it. The evidence for this is that if He disposed of it by using it illegally such as using it foolishly or wastefully, the State has to deny Him access to the property and prevent Him from disposing of it, thus denying Him the responsibility for disposal which had been granted to him. Therefore, the disposal of the object and its usage is a matter which is implied by its ownership, or it is the effect of this ownership. The disposal of the owned thing includes the right of increasing (investing) the property and the right to spend it for living expenses and for giving gifts.

Superior Economic Model : Islamic System

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