Social Protection in Islamic Law

Abbreviations

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that all religions¹ and political-economic systems, regardless of whether they have divine origins within their historical processes, have given importance to social protection and developed policies directed at social protection.

In this context, social protection throughout the world is a piece of social policy on the national and global scale.² Social policy today, as a phenomenon of the 20th century and a systematic concept that developed economies use, possesses an identity of struggling with every issue that negatively affects societal life or that threatens the integrity of society.³ Social policy expressed with the concept of social politics are preventive measures that aim to eliminate various social problems that generally occur in different social segments of society and to ensure and popularize the tranquility of the individual and society.⁴ In addition to this, they are the entirety of the social practices arranged based on the disposition of humans and adopted moral values. Social policy aims to attain a health, peaceful, and just level of welfare in terms of the material and immaterial, for the individual and society, by taking measures that allow humans to live humanely, and by working to eliminate the problem of poverty.⁵ In line with this objective, the provision of the social protection of individuals and society and the fair distribution of national income in society with a system of social protection, by considering the needs of individuals, are the basis of social policies.⁶ ←15 | 16→

In terms of social policy, social protection expresses a structure that won’t make an individual dependent on somebody else within an understanding of mutual cooperation and solidarity in society for the purpose of protecting the weak and vulnerable in society.⁷ In this context, the state tasked with ensuring a minimum level of living for its citizens, without exception, is a social state; and the state that ensures social justice, social welfare, and social protection in society and that respects the law is a social law state.⁸ In this framework, the social state must take measures that ensure social justice, social solidarity, and social justice in society by regulating the network between individuals and employment so that they may harmonize with each other.

Adopting and supporting policies that ensure the protection of disadvantaged segments of society with individuals within the societal structure and in economic poverty who have a need for there to be a social state carry great importance. The necessity to protect those in society who are weak, vulnerable, and dependent on care has been codified and is the responsibility of the state for the continuity of the sociopolitical structures that the understanding of being a social state brings.⁹

It is the duty of the social state to produce concrete policies to both positively affect the levels of life of weak and low-income groups in socioeconomic terms and to protect and raise the levels of life that these individuals have reached through the regulations and institutions identified in the field of social protection. Because the socioeconomic conditions of individuals and societies needs to be directly proportional to social policies, and social just in society needs to be ensured by reflecting development, especially on needy individuals and families. Social justice, however, is possible with institutions and regulations of social protection that will actualize social protection services so that all individuals in society are equal and free both before the law and in political, economic, and social life.

In this framework, the understanding of the social state requires the realization of actions to ensure the happiness of society in many areas like health, educational, and vital needs, primarily the security of the society. This promotional understanding of the social state and the actions it materializes have evolved ←16 | 17→into the understanding of a state that checks itself with time and that protects society.¹⁰

As a result of social protection a basic function of the social state, it will be possible to ensure the unity, cooperation, and solidarity of society, to increase the economic freedoms of all individuals in society, and to realize equality and justice in society. In a social law state, it is essential that citizens are able to live without falling below a certain level of living and are supported with social and economic rights. Because in a social law state, the right to benefit from programs implemented to increase the welfare of individuals is accepted as the basic right of citizenship.¹¹ Therefore, considering the economic, social, and political processes of today, the social law state is not a vehicle but is functional in terms of the results it produces. The development of the functions of the social law state in providing socioeconomic social protection will enable faster economic growth as well as greater social integrity and social justice.¹²

On the other hand, religions are not only systems of belief but also include social, political, economic, and legal fields that these systems specify.¹³

The religion of Islam, along with including beliefs and moral values, wholly assesses all aspects of life holistically, including the material, immaterial, intellectual, individual, and communal. Therefore, the religion of Islam calls for individuals and societies to be balanced and straightforward in all kinds of affairs.¹⁴