Lecture 3: Islamic and Western Conceptions of Scarcity

“Scarcity: East and West,” Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 6, No. 1, January - March 2010.

Scarcity is considered to be the basis of economics. Yet the Quran states that Allah T’aala provides enough for us, and in abundant quantities. Islamic views on the sources and solutions to the problem of scarcity are dramatically different from western views. This paper seeks to explain the differences between Islamic and Western Views.