About the Book: Islamic Vision of Consumer Behavior

About the Book:

Islamic Vision of Consumer Behavior

♦ Book Name: Islamic Vision of Consumer Behavior

♦ Author name: Dr. Zeid bin Mohammed Al-Rommany.

As Banfield says, consumption theory is the scientific basis for economics, so studying consumer behavior and understanding the reality of the function performed by the consumer were the main entry point. Many experts and economists have been the subject of attention from many studies, researches and literature, and have also occupied the minds of many Islamic jurists and writers, including the author of this book. That's in our hands.

The book "Islamic Vision of Consumer Behavior", aims to study consumer behavior in of Islamic law, and tries to formulate a theory that explains this behavior, as well as trying to determine the function of consumption as Fit with authentic Islamic values and principles.

The book is located in four chapters (154 pages), and is published by the "Toiq" publishing and distribution house in Riyadh in 2004 by Dr. Zeid bin Mohammed Al-Rommany, professor at Imam Bin Saud Islamic University. His research on the analytical approach where he based on the drafting of texts Qur'an and Sunna and on the words and opinions of jurists and researchers in the Islamic economy, and analyzed these texts, ideas and opinions in an attempt To determine the elements of consumer behavior and its position in the Islamic economy and the impact on supply, demand and others.

Postural economy:

In the first chapter of his book, the author deals with the Postural economic systems (such as socialism and capitalism) and the principles governing each other, and then exposes them to the Islamic economy, outlining its rules governing it. And the elements and factors that influence it.

The capitalist economy of many international systems around the world is based on four basic principles or pillars, abolitionism, rationality, individualism and freedom, as developed by consumerism theory Capitalism has several definitions from which we can deduce consumer behavior that goes to "individual shavings directly related to the acquisition and consumption of economic goods and services, including operations Decisions that precede and determine these actions."

Interest in examining consumer behavior began in the early 1950s, when businessmen realized that they had to make an effort to determine what their current and prospective customers wanted for goods, services and as a result. This interest has begun at both the practical and theoretical levels, using behavioral sciences to look at consumer behavior as a behavioral rather than a purely economic one.

( A) Economic rationality: It is known that the capitalist economy paints rationality on consumer behavior if it can maximize its limited spending - in a rational manner - to the maximum possible benefit regardless of the content of this benefit, its fields, its effects, its economic, social and moral dimensions, the means and the ways that the individual can reach this benefit.

(b) Consumer sovereignty: which has the purchasing power, and the freedom to buy what it wants whenever it wants, and the idea of consumer sovereignty has become a historical saying after the prices do not represent the desires of consumers to influence Great advertising and especially in global consumer societies.

(C) Maximizing utility: an analysis of consumer preferences assumes - in accordance with the concepts of the capitalist economy - that the larger mix of consumer goods is better than the least, i.e. there are no upper limits to consumption.

In the socialist economy, the consumer has little impact on the size and composition of production, even in the consumer goods sector itself, where the state is developing a general economic plan that identifies needs. They must be satisfied with the goods and services needed for them, which restricts the consumer's freedom to choose what he wants and deprives him of his role in the supply of goods and services.

Hence, we can define the principles governing consumer behavior in the Islamic economy:

1) Worldly spending: where good things are permitted without fading.

2) Spending for Allah’s sake.

3) There is a maximum amount of what a Muslim demands for any commodity.

4) To achieve the benefits of others in the vicinity of the benefit of the individual without dissipation or carelessness.

Thus, the levels of consumer ism and the individual expenditure of the Muslim consumer are:

1) Spend it on himself.

2) Spending for Allah’s sake.

3) Spending on his servant.

4) Spending on his parents and relatives.

And the degrees of consumer peace in Islam we can draw when interpreting many Qur'anic and prophetic texts such as The Almighty saying: "They ask you what to spend, say forgiveness" Abu Hurra said- Allah be pleased with him- The Messenger of Allah with charity one day, a man said: O Messenger of Allah, I have a dinar, and he said, "Believe him on yourself?" He said: I have another, he said: Believe him on your son, he said: I have another who said: Believe him on a servant, he said: I have another: He said: You inform of or about...."From this, we can draw a consumption map of the Muslim individual according to the Prophetic approach: food, drink, clothing, housing, decorations, camels, means of transportation, marriage costs, wages and expenses of workers and servants.

We can also identify the four components of Muslim consumer behavior:

First: Economic rationality: The Muslim consumer Rashid, living according to the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Prophet's Sunnah, and there are degrees of economic rationality, and the reality of adulthood - among Muslim scholars - is limited to Three opinions:

• Rationality means good money and keeping it from waste.

• It means good money and belief together.

• It means goodness in religion only (which is the most likely opinion).

Secondly, the temporal dimension of consumer behavior: the Islamic economy mixes the peasant son of the world with the hereafter (God has given you the afterlife, “But seek , with the “wealth” which allah has bestowed on thee , the home of the portion in his world : but do thou good , as allsh has been good to thee) Al-qasas 77.

Third: Guided freedom: Islam does not recognize absolute freedom and does not tend to control consumerism, but rather supports guided freedom, which is informed by the teachings of religion and harmony between the interests of the individual and society.

Fourth: The material and spiritual benefit: the function of benefit to the Muslim consumer contains an additional variable besides the material benefit which is reward and punishment in the hereafter, so it is not surprising that we find faces of spending that seem Economic, but it does not generate benefit in the capitalist concept, while it generates great benefit in the Islamic concept, such as the strive (jihad) for the sake of Allah, assistance to the needy and other forms of charity.

Consumer Behavior Analysis:

The second chapter of the book deals with consumer analysis, which the author believes is that there are two main types of analysis contained in the consumption theory or consumer demand theory.

The first is analysis using the utility method.

Second: analysis using ‎Indifference curves.

The method of utility means: "The ability of a commodity or service to satisfy the needs felt by a person at a given moment and in certain circumstances".

Analysis using ‎Indifference curves is a representation of the consumer's tastes and preferences over a specified period, and is characterized by its exclusion of numerical measurement of benefit, as well as in explaining how a person chooses Limited income between two commodities is also useful in identifying the best consumer alternatives available to an individual.

The author adds a third method of revealed preference:

It is one that builds on the actual behavior of the consumer as we actually see it in the market and not on the basis of asking consumers about their preferences for different groups as they were using ‎Indifference curves, which in fact does not amount to It's a third method.

The position of the Islamic economy on the assumptions of analytical methods:

There are two first observations:

• Islam does not stand against any method of analysis, unless it violates a legitimate provision or a well-considered rule.

• Consumption priorities and the distinction between good and malicious goods and purchasing power, all of which go to the subject of analysis and not its method, and to make it clear that:

1) Assumptions of these methods do not take into account the division of priorities based on the urgency of need (necessities, needs, improvements).

2) Do not distinguish - these assumptions - between good and malicious goods, Allah says( it solves good things for them and forbids them to be sinners).

3) Do not care about those who do not have the financial capacity to buy what meets their needs.

Consumer behaviour:

The author divides it into two parts:

The first is to discuss previous studies and models: the author opens this part by reviewing the writings that addressed the subject of Muslim consumer behavior and interpreted it, such as the writings of Dr. Munther Qahif, who identified three factors. A president who influences Muslim consumer behavior:

1) The believer is the one who believes in the day of reckoning and life after death.

2) Success for a Muslim is to obey Allah.

3) Only Allah almighty determines the distribution and expenditure of the Muslim's money.

The author reviewed the attempts of many writers who addressed the topic of consumer behavior such as studies of Dr. Hussein Ghoneim, Dr. Mohamed Abdel Moneim, D. Abdelhamid Mahboub, D. Mohamed Mokhtar Metwally.

The author then discusses some of these visions, which are very similar in providing an alternative to the theory of Muslim consumer behavior, but they are , as the author sees it , despite the efforts made in them, they need to combine efforts in One direction to build a well-defined theory in terms of assumptions and research and analysis tools.

The second is to try to formulate the theory: through which the author has been exposed to concepts such as the role of values in economic theory, and Islamic economics between standard and objectivity.

The third and finally is the discovery of Islamic economic theory, which was the reason for its discovery:

• Demonstration the true face of the Islamic economy, defining its general structure, and discovering its intellectual bases.

• The shortcomings of other theories eastern and western.

The challenge facing the Muslim world is to recognize that Muslims must take the Western social and economic approach to the pace of progress.

The author then goes on to clarify the elements of Islamic economic theory and the importance of having a theory of consumer behavior in the Islamic economy, with the clarification of the assumptions and analysis of the theory and its analysis of the objective analysis.

We can summarize the most important components of the proposed theory of Muslim consumer behavior as follows:

First, with regard to the foundations: in the proposed theory, the consumer is based on a set of Islamic rules and values governing the relationship between consumption and savings.

Secondly, with regard to the approach: it is based on the concept of moderation.

Thirdly, in terms of objectives: the benefit to the Muslim consumer consists of several elements, including: the worldly benefit that is influenced by the consumer's consumption of goods, services and religious benefits that are affected by:

♦ The extent of moderation in consumption.

♦ The extent of commitment to zakat performance.

♦ Spending on others in the face of goodness.