Muslim Scholars Of Jurisprudence And Adam Smith: A Comparative Study 

Another muslim scholar of jurisprudence, is Taqi al-DIn Abu al- Abbas Ahmad Ibn Abdu al-Halim Ibn Abdu al-Salam widely known among the Muslims as Ibn Taymiyyah. Born in Syria, he lived almost in the same era of Ibn Khaldun and dealt with similar political and socio economic problems and situations (Nedjah, 2000).

Although Adam Smith is known as the Father of economics, concepts like perfect price were introduced by Ibn Taymiyyah centuries before Adam Smith was even born (A. Islahi, 2014). He introduced and addressed several economic concepts in his books such as the property rights, supply, demand, the price fixation, the wages, the nature and function of money etc. ,Gresham's law , a phenomenon which refers to 'bad money driving out the good' was initially expressed by Ibn Taymiyyah where he stated that the low-quality money such as fulus would get rid of good quality money like the dinars and dirhams (Martono, 2019).

The concept of demand and supply.

Ibn taymiyyah argued that the rise or fall of the prices of commodities in the market was not always a result of injustice or malpractices. It might be due to an unexpected decrease in production or an increase in demand of the commodity by the people. In his book, he justifies this by saying that it is Allah who puts in desire in people.

“If people are selling their goods in a commonly accepted manner without any injustice on their part and the price rises in consequence of a decrease in commodity or an increase in population leading to a rise in demand then this is due to Allah. ”

The statement indicates that there might be a belief during his time that the fluctuation in prices was due to the injustice in the market system. Ibn Taymiyyah also advocated for pricing by the government especially during natural calamities like famine. So that people can afford the commodities during such emergency situations. According to Pancarini (2018), Ibn taymiyyah seemed to be the first person to give particular attention to the matter of demand and supply in the market.

The concept of fair price.

Economic transactions in a market takes place based on the price mechanism. The principle of just wage and price is a matter of both economics and ethics. To ensure justice for all, Islam ensures that the every transactions are based on mutual benefit for both parties. The concept of fair price was introduced about 1400 years ago by the Messenger of Allah (s. a. w) which later became a subject of discussion among Islamic scholars to obtain a deeper understanding. The first Islamic scholar to give particular attention to this matter was Ibn Taymiyyah which was later known to be his one of the biggest contributions in the field of economics (Kusuma,2019).

In his book, ‘Hisbah’ he used two terms to ‘iawd al mitsal’ referring to equal compensation and ‘Kamal Tsaman al Mitsl’ referring to equal price. The former one is used to measure and assess equal things while the latter is defined as a transaction which is on the basis of just and equitability. In this the transactions are generally affiliated with a base value ( Duriana 2015).

Comparison between islamic scholars of jurisprudence and adam smith.

Both Islamic scholars and Adam Smith had made contributions in the area of division of labor, where Ibn Khaldun has stressed on the importance that there should be conditions for survival, and that there is essential needs required for human survival and that individual power is not only enough to obtain these essentials (Bartkus, Hassan), adding to this in Ibn Khaldun's theory of production, he stated that individuals must work together in order to stabilize and balance their production, even in agriculture, and that a man cannot survive alone and that he needs the help of others, which would be through cooperation, the more the number of individuals working together, the more achievements they will reach (Mccaffrey).

Ibn Khaldun also has stated that there should be subdivision of jobs, and that tasks should be divided among individuals in order to reach efficient results.

Adam Smith's contribution in regard to division of labor goes also in the same flow as Ibn Khaldun but with more details and sophistication due to the time difference between the two Scientists, where Smith has provided accounting of detailed steps of the benefits of division of labor, and that he stated that not only one person can carry out the business, and that it should be divided among workers, and he has illustrated an example about this division of labor when producing pins that ' one man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third one cuts it, a forth one points it, and so on …… and that the operation could be divided into eighteen operations ( Bartkus , Hassan as cited from Smith) .

Smith added that an individual could produce no more than twenty pins per day in the absence of division of labor, while if ten employees worked together they could reach 48,000 pins a day ( Bartkus, Hassan as cited from Smith).

Both Ibn Khaldun and Adam Smith has stated in their books the importance of production, income and the surplus of it, and most importantly the role of governments and the wealth of nations.

Ibn Khaldun is able to explain the causal relationship between the development of a civilization in a community society to the price of goods which in the process can not be separated from the phenomenon of rising and falling demand or supply of the goods. In that argument,Ibn Khaldun also explains that if a community develops, then it will cause an increase in the level of prosperity of the community. On the other hand, Ibn Khaldun has explained how to demand and supply process can affect the equilibrium price.

As for Adam Smith, Smith proposed a price theory that he calls natural price theory. In the sense that in a society there is a free hand, where everyone is free to produce what he wants, and exchange what he likes.

The West forgetting history

Without going into details and comparison between both scientists and their contribution to the development in economics, it is worth saying that the West totally forgot the role and the contribution of Ibn Khaldun as an Arab/Islamic scientist and that relating religion to social science development, and it is not only the fault of West in forgetting the history of the contribution of Ibn Khaldun and other Arab scientist, but it is also the fault of East that may be could not believe that they could have contributed to the development of economics and creating theories that most of scholars and people are developed based on them.

The Idea is that Ibn Khaldun has made an incredible contribution in the development of economics and that he focused on different areas as the role of government, taxation, value, money ,public finance and even population in an era that its only goal was to achieve basic needs for living such as food, drink, shelter.

Invisible hand’s in the Perspective Islamy Economy

Seeing the reality of the economic crisis that occurred in various countries, which has not yet ended, has devastated the foundations of social life. This shows the ability of the 'market economy' or capitalism inspired by Adam Smith's invisible hand theory to overcome economic problems (purchases, changes, uneven income distribution, poverty). Various ways have been agreed, both with monetary and fiscal policies, but still the economy still emerges and haunts many countries everywhere. Where lies the error of the market or capitalist economy which is largely shared by many countries, including Indonesia, is not the recipe for economic development Adam Smith has implemented. The world is buying a divine economy, an economy whose concept is based on the Qur'an and Hadith, an economy developed with noble morals. Maybe this is what humanity is waiting for, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, apparently God is providing all humans with prolonged economic suffering so that they return to His righteous path, God willing.