Work

Reimagining Work

Reimagining Work offers a profound and timely exploration of one of humanity’s most enduring questions: what is the true nature and purpose of work? In an age when automation, financialization, and global inequality challenge the moral foundations of economic life, this study returns to first principles—reconsidering how civilizations have understood work as both a material and ethical force. At its core, Reimagining Work situates the concept of labor within a comparative dialogue between Ibn Khaldun—the fourteenth-century North African historian, philosopher, and founder of the science of civilization (ʿilm al-ʿumrān)—and leading Western economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes. Through this dialogue, the study illuminates not only the intellectual lineage of economic thought but also the deep divergences that shape modern understandings of value, productivity, and human purpose. Drawing on the Systems Thinking Framework, the work challenges the reduction of labor to a mere factor of production. Instead, it presents work as a structuring principle—a force that organizes societies, sustains moral orders, and determines how wealth and meaning are distributed within civilizations. Ibn Khaldun’s pre-Enlightenment vision, which places work at the center of social and spiritual life, offers a striking contrast to the evolution of Western economic paradigms that increasingly separate capital from human labor. The study’s comparative approach reveals how, over time, Western thought progressively abstracted value from work—transforming it from a human act of creation and cooperation into an instrument of accumulation. In contrast, Ibn Khaldun’s conception of work as the original […]

Membayangkan Kembali Kontribusi Sosial melalui Pandangan Ibn Khaldun tentang Pekerjaan

Pertanyaan tentang apa yang membentuk nilai dan bagaimana masyarakat seharusnya mengukurnya telah lama menyibukkan para pemikir lintas peradaban. Bagi Ibn Khaldun, yang menulis pada abad keempat belas, pekerjaan adalah sumber fundamental nilai dalam seluruh kehidupan ekonomi dan sosial. Pemikirannya, yang dikaji kembali dalam The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought, mendahului perdebatan Barat tentang teori nilai tenaga kerja sekaligus menempatkan kerja dalam kerangka moral dan peradaban yang lebih luas. Tidak seperti pendekatan yang meninggikan modal, hak istimewa, atau kepemilikan sebagai sumber kekayaan yang berdiri sendiri, Ibn Khaldun menegaskan bahwa setiap bentuk penghasilan—baik pertanian, kerajinan, perdagangan, maupun administrasi—pada akhirnya bertumpu pada kerja manusia. Tindakan mengubah bahan mentah menjadi barang yang dapat digunakan, atau menyusun masyarakat ke dalam keteraturan yang fungsional, adalah fondasi tak tergantikan dari nilai itu sendiri. Wawasan ini tidak hanya terbatas pada urusan manusia tetapi juga dapat diperluas ke dunia alam. Pada tingkat paling dasar, kehidupan di bumi dipertahankan oleh kerja dalam bentuk transformasi energi. Tumbuhan melakukan fotosintesis, bekerja menangkap sinar matahari dan mengubahnya menjadi energi kimia. Proses ini menopang seluruh rantai makanan, memastikan bahwa energi tersedia bagi herbivora, karnivora, dan manusia. Tanpa kerja mendasar dari tumbuhan ini, materi bumi akan tetap tidak berguna, tidak layak menopang kehidupan. Demikian pula, kerja ekosistem yang tak kasat mata—lebah yang menyerbuki tanaman, lahan basah yang menyaring air, mikroba yang menguraikan materi organik—membentuk jaringan besar kerja yang menjaga keseimbangan dan kesinambungan biosfer. Bahkan proses geologis dan iklim, seperti siklus air atau pembentukan tanah secara perlahan, […]

Reimagining Social Contribution through Ibn Khaldun’s Views on Work

The question of what constitutes value and how societies should measure it has occupied thinkers across civilizations. For Ibn Khaldun, writing in the fourteenth century, work was the fundamental source of value in all economic and social life. His reflections, revisited in The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought, anticipate later Western debates over the labor theory of value while also embedding work within a broader moral and civilizational framework. Unlike approaches that elevate capital, privilege, or ownership as autonomous sources of wealth, Ibn Khaldun insisted that every form of earnings—whether agricultural, artisanal, commercial, or administrative—ultimately rested on the labor of human beings. The very act of transforming raw matter into usable goods, or of organizing society into functional order, is itself the indispensable foundation of value. This insight is not merely confined to human affairs but can be extended to the natural world. At its most elemental level, life on Earth is sustained by work in the form of energy transformations. Plants engage in photosynthesis, laboring to capture sunlight and convert it into chemical energy. This process underpins all food chains, ensuring that energy is made available to herbivores, carnivores, and humans alike. Without this foundational work of plants, the materials of the Earth would remain inert, unfit for sustaining life. Similarly, the unheralded labors of ecosystems—bees pollinating crops, wetlands filtering water, microbes decomposing organic matter—constitute vast networks of work that maintain balance and continuity in the biosphere. Even geological and […]

Overview: The Bridge of Becoming

Editorial Note: This essay serves as a concise overview of the longer article published in the In Comment section of Islam Today Journal. The full text can be accessed directly from the journal’s main website. For ease of engagement, a language translation feature is available in the sidebar menu, allowing readers to select their preferred language for consultation. In “The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought,” Ahmed E. Souaiaia sets out to reframe how we think about economics by placing the concept of work at the very center of social life. The essay does not merely revisit the classic question of labor’s role in value creation; it advances a far-reaching argument that work is more than a material act—it is a moral, civilizational, and existential foundation upon which societies stand. To make this case, the author places the fourteenth-century North African thinker Ibn Khaldun into conversation with major figures of Western economic thought, such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes. Through this comparison, Souaiaia demonstrates that modern economies, with their heavy emphasis on capital accumulation and financial instruments, have progressively distanced themselves from acknowledging work as the true basis of value and social order. The article begins by drawing out Ibn Khaldun’s vision of work (ʿamal) as the necessary starting point of all prosperity. In the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun emphasizes that human beings cannot survive without effort; civilization itself arises because people combine their labor to secure […]