Contemporary Vision of Poverty and Islamic Strategy for Poverty Alleviation

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 62 - 73, 31.07.2018

Ömer Keskin

https://doi.org/10.25272/ijisef.452611

Öz

Currently, irrespective of one’s religious, ideological, and political inclination, poverty is seen as a destructive force in all aspects. Subsequently, various strategies have been formulated to alleviate poverty. But what are actually the components of the destructive force of poverty in the vision of contemporary Muslim scholars? What kind of Islamic strategies have they formulated out of this vision? This article seeks to answer these two main questions by first investigating into the contemporary vision of poverty that has been adopted by Muslim scholars, followed second by an investigation into the strategies for poverty alleviation they proposed, and third, by critically analyzing their vision of poverty and strategies from an Islamic perspective. Based on a textual analysis of references, this article displays an inadequacy of the vision and strategies of the contemporary Muslim scholars for ignoring material-spiritual definition of poverty, as well as for formulating strategies for poverty alleviation using an exogenous, top-down approach. In a nutshell, this article attempts to provide a justification for rescrutinization of the vision of poverty from an Islamic perspective, and for a reconstruction of the poverty alleviation strategies based on the faith of the Muslim communities themselves.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Poverty, Islamic Vision of Poverty, Poverty Alleviation Strategy

Çağdaş Yoksulluk Görüşü ve Yoksulluğu Azaltmaya Yönelik İslami Strateji

Öz

Günümüzde bir kişinin dinine, ideolojik ve siyasi eğilimine bakmaksızın yoksulluk, her yönüyle yıkıcı bir güç olarak görülmektedir. Bu sebeple yoksulluğun azaltılmasına yönelik çeşitli stratejiler oluşturulmuştur. Fakat çağdaş Müslüman düşünürlerin görüşlerinde yoksulluğun yıkıcı gücünün unsurları gerçekte nelerdir? Bu görüşlerden ne tür stratejiler geliştirmişlerdir? Bu makale, ilk olarak Müslüman düşünürler tarafından benimsenen çağdaş yoksulluk görüşlerini araştırarak, daha sonra düşünürlerin önerdikleri yoksulluğu azaltmaya yönelik stratejileri sorgulayarak ve son olarak da İslami bir bakış açısıyla düşünürlerin yoksulluk görüşlerini ve stratejilerini eleştirel bir şekilde analiz ederek yukarıdaki iki temel soruyu cevaplamayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu makale, metin çözümlemesi analizine dayalı olarak, çağdaş Müslüman düşünürlerin yoksulluğun maddi manevi tanımını görmezden gelmelerinin yanı sıra, dışsal, tepeden inmeci bir yaklaşım kullanarak yoksulluğun azaltılması için stratejiler oluşturmaya yönelik görüşlerinin ve stratejilerinin yetersiz olduğunu göstermektedir. Kısaca bu makalede, İslami bir bakış açısıyla yoksulluk sorununun yeniden irdelenmesine ve Müslüman toplumların kendi inançlarına dayanan yoksullukla mücadele stratejilerinin yeniden inşasına yönelik bir gerekçe sağlanmaya çalışılmaktadır.

Kaynakça

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