On Thursday, November 18 (2027) at 6:00 pm in Aliber 101 (2847 University Ave), Dr. Waleed El-Ansary, Helal, Hisham and Laila Edris El-Swedey University Chair in Islamic Studies at Xavier University, will lecture on “Holistic Work and Islamic Economics.”
The title of this talk suggests three questions: 1) What is holistic work? 2) How is it related to Islamic economics? and 3) Why does it matter and why is a new paradigm needed? Turning to the first question, holistic work is work that is spiritually, psychologically, and materially efficacious. It fulfills a hierarchy of spiritual and other human needs, including the need for meaning, self-realization, and participation in the community, and stands in contrast to what I shall term “deformed work,” that is, work that fulfills only materials needs, at least in the short to medium terms. In the long term, deformed work has arguably sown the seeds of dissatisfaction underlying many socio-economic and environmental crises at both national and international levels, as we shall see. Turning to the second question concerning how this subject relates to Islamic economics: a traditional Islamic economy is based on holistic rather than deformed work. This distinction has significant implications for the critique of both industrial capitalism and communism, economic systems structured largely on deformed work as viewed from an Islamic perspective. This distinction, in turn, calls into question some of the foundational assumptions of modern economic theory. Although I discuss the need for a new economic paradigm in the context of Islamic economics, the principles offered in this presentation resonate with the ethical and spiritual concerns of other major world religions. As such, they point toward the need for a broader, interreligious framework to confront shared global crises on the social, economic, and environmental levels. In this way, the significance of holistic work in Islamic economics speaks directly to the third question of why it matters today.
Dr. Waleed El-Ansary is the Helal, Hisham and Laila Edris El-Swedey University Chair in Islamic Studies at Xavier University, where he teaches courses on Islamic studies, Islamic economics, and religion and science. He holds a Ph.D. in Islamic and Religious Studies from George Washington University and M.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland. His research focuses on the intersection of religion, science, and economics. He has authored numerous publications, including “Islamic Environmental Economics and the Three Dimensions of Islam” in his co-edited volume Muslim and Christian Understanding: Theory and Application of A Common Word. His most recent book with Alexis Blum, Grand Rabbi Emeritus of Neuilly, and Bishop Claude Dagens, Bishop of Angouleme, is Know the Religion of Thy Neighbor, which was arranged through the UNESCO-based Aladdin project to help train young rabbis, priests/preachers, and imams (as well as any other interested parties) about the Abrahamic traditions for greater mutual understandi