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Announcing a New Resource for Professionals and Scholars

Researchers, experts, and scholars in engineering, healthcare, law, business, and beyond—discover a timely and thought-provoking contribution that places work, wealth, and professional ethics at the forefront of contemporary discourse. This insightful open-access article from Islam Today Journal offers valuable perspectives for your research, classroom discussions, or professional practice:Read the Article Islam Today Journal is a multidisciplinary, double-blind peer-reviewed publication dedicated to advancing rigorous, ethical scholarship on Islam in all its dimensions. Have work of your own to share?Join the growing community of scholars contributing to public understanding and academic dialogue. Submit your research through the ITJ Public Scholarship Outreach platform:Submit Your Work Engage, contribute, and help shape the future of ethical professional practice grounded in scholarly insight.

The Other Capital

Ibn Khaldun and the Enduring Power of Jaah as Social Capital This essay revisits Ibn Khaldun’s 14th-century concept of jaah—a form of social capital rooted in prestige, reputation, and moral authority—as a powerful counterpoint to conventional understandings of capital as purely financial. Drawing on his Muqaddima, the essay argues that jaah constitutes a resilient, intergenerational, and often more enduring form of power than material wealth, as it cannot be seized by the state, purchased with money, or easily eroded by time. By highlighting the asymmetrical relationship between financial resources and social influence, the article underscores Ibn Khaldun’s enduring relevance to contemporary debates on power, legitimacy, and the multifaceted nature of capital. When the term capital is invoked in contemporary discourse, it is most commonly associated with financial assets—money, gold, real estate, or even digital currencies such as Bitcoin. In this conventional understanding, capital functions as the engine of markets, the foundation of empires, and the medium through which influence is purchased and exercised. Yet such a narrow conception obscures a more expansive and historically grounded understanding of capital as a multifaceted form of power. Indeed, capital, in its broadest theoretical sense, encompasses not only economic resources but also the social, cultural, and symbolic assets that enable individuals and groups to exert influence, secure loyalty, and shape collective outcomes. Centuries before the advent of modern sociology or economic theory, the 14th-century North African historian, philosopher, and statesman, Ibn Khaldun, articulated a sophisticated understanding of non-material capital in his seminal work, al-Muqaddima. […]

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 […]

Call for Papers: Constructing Historical Continuities

Submissions are now open for the 2025–26 issue themed “Constructing Historical Continuities.” Scholars, researchers, and writers are invited to contribute to this volume, which examines how narratives of continuity are formed, challenged, and reimagined within Islamic thought, history, and society. Other topics are welcome as well. We also welcome scholars to volunteer for the Board of Editors and Reviewers for this issue. Full details, including submission guidelines and thematic focus, are available here:https://islamtodayjournal.org For updates, inquiries, and engagement with RSSPE members, visit the Community Page:https://community.islamtodayjournal.org/ Regards, ITJ Editorial Team

Work and Wealth–A Khaldunian Perspective

The article discussed here explores contrasting perspectives on work and capital, primarily through a comparative analysis of Ibn Khaldun’s pre-Enlightenment thought and key Western economic thinkers like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes. It argues that while Western economic theories increasingly prioritize capital accumulation and view labor as a commodity, Ibn Khaldun emphasizes work as the fundamental source of value, production, and moral order. The author asserts that the State plays a determinant role in shaping economic worldviews and argues for a re-evaluation of systems towards a more human-centered model based on Ibn Khaldun’s insights. The discussion also critiques the linear progression of Western economic thought, highlighting its underlying assumptions and historical context. Listen the Podcast: Work and Wealth–A Khaldunian Perspective _______ Source: The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought | (Dr. Ahmed E. Souaiaia (Author) URL: https://islamtodayjournal.org/index.php/itj/article/view/22

Call for Submissions: “Constructing Historical Continuities”

Submissions are now open for the upcoming academic year (2025-26) issue themed “Constructing Historical Continuities.” Scholars, researchers, and writers are invited to contribute to this volume, which explores how narratives of continuity are formed, challenged, and reimagined within Islamic thought, history, and society. Full details about the issue, including submission guidelines and thematic focus, can be found here: https://islamtodayjournal.org For ongoing updates, questions, and to engage with RSSPE members, please visit the Community Page: https://community.islamtodayjournal.org/

Deep-Referencing Ibn Khaldun for a Richer Economics

Arif Abuhayja Abstract: This essay examines the enduring relevance of Ibn Khaldun’s fourteenth-century insights on taxation, statecraft, and the cycles of civilization, tracing their unexpected echo in Arthur Laffer’s modern “Laffer Curve” and in the rhetoric of U.S. policymakers, including President Ronald Reagan. Drawing on recent scholarship that reimagines work and capital through Ibn Khaldun’s civilizational lens, it argues for the value of deep-referencing in economic thought—anchoring contemporary debates in the wider, cross-cultural history of ideas. Far from being an antiquarian exercise, this approach expands the intellectual toolkit of policymakers and economists, offering historically tested frameworks for balancing prosperity, justice, and state stability. Economic ideas rarely spring from nothing. They are usually rediscoveries, reformulations, or refinements of much older insights. The famous “Laffer Curve,” sketched on a napkin in 1974 to explain the limits of taxation to senior U.S. officials, was presented as an elegant revelation of supply-side logic: tax rates that are too high erode the very revenues they are meant to raise. Yet Arthur Laffer himself admitted he had not invented it. He had drawn it, in spirit and substance, from a fourteenth-century North African scholar—Ibn Khaldun, whose name means “son of Khaldun,” and whose work is best understood as part of a long tradition of Islamic economic thought. In the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun argued that a just government should, in accordance with Islamic law, impose low taxes. Low taxes stimulate commerce and industry, expand wealth, and thereby enlarge the tax base; high taxes, by contrast, dampen activity, […]

ابن خلدون کے نظریۂ محنت کی روشنی میں سماجی شراکت نوآفرینی

یہ سوال کہ حقیقی قدر کیا ہے اور معاشرے اسے کس طرح ناپتے ہیں، صدیوں سے مختلف تہذیبوں کے مفکرین کے غور و فکر کا موضوع رہا ہے۔ چودھویں صدی میں ابن خلدون کے نزدیک محنت تمام معاشی اور سماجی زندگی میں قدر کا بنیادی ماخذ تھی۔ ان کے افکار، جن پر The Bridge of Becoming: Reimagining Work and Capital through Ibn Khaldun and Western Economic Thought میں دوبارہ غور کیا گیا ہے، نہ صرف مغربی فکر میں بعد کے “نظریۂ محنت برائے قدر” پر ہونے والی مباحث کی پیشین گوئی کرتے ہیں بلکہ محنت کو اخلاقی اور تہذیبی ڈھانچے میں بھی پیوست کرتے ہیں۔ سرمایہ، مراعات یا ملکیت کو دولت کے خودمختار ذرائع کے طور پر پیش کرنے کے برعکس، ابن خلدون کا اصرار تھا کہ ہر قسم کی آمدنی—خواہ زرعی ہو، دستکاری، تجارتی یا انتظامی—بالآخر انسانی محنت ہی پر مبنی ہے۔ خام مواد کو استعمال کے قابل اشیاء میں ڈھالنے یا معاشرے کو بامقصد نظم میں منظم کرنے کا عمل ہی قدر کی ناگزیر بنیاد ہے۔ یہ بصیرت صرف انسانی معاملات تک محدود نہیں بلکہ اسے فطری دنیا تک بھی وسیع کیا جا سکتا ہے۔ زندگی کی بقا زمین پر توانائی کی تبدیلیوں کی صورت میں “محنت” کے ذریعے قائم ہے۔ پودے ضیائی تالیف (photosynthesis) میں مصروف رہتے ہیں، سورج کی روشنی کو جذب کر کے اسے کیمیائی توانائی میں بدلتے ہیں۔ یہ عمل تمام غذائی زنجیروں کی اساس ہے اور انسانوں سمیت چرندوں اور درندوں کے لیے توانائی کی دستیابی یقینی بناتا ہے۔ اگر پودوں کی یہ […]

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 […]

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