This study is an endeavour to propose an Islamic paradigm of the economics of benevolence. It attempts to elicit the behavioural significance of the ubiquity of benevolence as an essential, jure divino, motive force, and the relaxation of the utilitarian assumption of egoistic human motivation. Benevolence has been epitomized in the development of a benevolent homo Islamicus as an alternative to the conventional solipsist homo economicus. The behavioural norms underlying these assumptions constitute the nucleus for a new economic paradigm - an ethico-Islamic economics. The introduction puts the study in an ethico-economic context. The first chapter is a necessary investigation of the pros and cons of non-selfish behaviour in western thought. The second chapter is an exposition on the Islamic ethico-philosophic foundations of benevolence both as an innate trait of character and a divine imperative. The third chapter is an attempt to propose a 'benevolence market' as a unique third market in the Islamic Economy. The forth chapter is an elucidation on the homo Islamicus' consumption and production behaviour under the all-pervasive norm of benevolence. The fifth chapter is an an endeavour to infer the Islamic philosophy of factor compensation - the fair and congenial capital-labour and employer-employee relation under the assumption of benevolence. The conclusion recapitulates the main issues raised in the preceding chapters.
BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc.; HB Economic Theory; HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare