Islamic Philanthropy, Social Justice, and Development : Modern Challenges and Responses

One of the three responsibilities of a modern government, according to Adam Smith, is to protect every citizen from the injustice and oppression of every other citizen through the establishment of an efficient and effective administration of justice. Justice, a set of moral rules that concern the essentials of human well being, is of more absolute obligation than any other rules for the guidance of life. These guiding principles then become the determining factors in social justice. Social justice refers to relational (human relationships), distributive, and retributive justice. Justice, in general, however, means fairness and equity in the distribution of a wide range of attributes- not confined only to material things (Smith, 1994:26).The major objectives of this paper are to look at only the distributional aspects of social justice and philanthropy as propounded in Islam, and analyse the development and reforms that have taken place in philanthropic activities, operations, and service delivery in different Muslim countries and underlying reasons for such actions in ensuring distributive social justice. It also discusses the issues and factors that need to be addressed and the ways there of in replicating and/or advancing the practices of distributive justice related functions of Islamic philanthropy, especially in low income Muslim countries.The work is based on the study of the Qur'an, Hadith, and many secondary sources of information. Reports and documents from different regulatory bodies from south Asia (Bangladesh and India) and southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia) have been sources of information and data. Some information and data are collected through interviews of government officials related to the management of Islamic philanthropy in Bangladesh and Malaysia