Public Browsing in Islamic Perspective

Abstract

The records of public borrowing examined in this brief study present an interesting contrast. On the one hand we have the most responsible of rulers borrowing for need fulfillment and jihad/defense even when no future revenues were immediately in sight. On the other hand, the records show irresponsible regimes in an age of affluence forced to borrow for bridge-financing, even if they had to violate the prohibition of interest. The strongly worded indictment of public borrowing by jurists like Imam al Haramain al Juwaini (419-478 A.H.) is largely in response to the sorry state of affairs that Abbasids had reached in the fourth century A.H. Given fiscal responsibility and adherence to the maqasid al sharian a different view is more convincing. Much further research is needed to trace the history of public borrowing in the thousand years that separate us from the period studied in this paper. Any guidelines for contemporary policy making will be better drawn after such a research, even though the decisive factors should be the contemporary situation and the example of the Prophet (saw) and his companions.