The king once summoned Nasruddin to court.
"Tell me," said the king, "You are a mystic, a philosopher, a man of great understanding. I have become interested in the issue of value. It is an interesting philosophical question. How does one establish the true value of an object, or a person? Take me, for example. If I were to ask you to estimate my value, what would you say?"
"Oh", Nasruddin replied, "I'd say around 200 dollars."
The King was stunned. "What! But this belt I am wearing is worth 200 dollars!"
"I know." replied Nasruddin. "Actually, I was taking the value of the belt into consideration."
In previous ages, Middle Eastern civilizations had been dominated by an alliance between the government (administrators) and merchants, both of whom kept the rest of the people either in debt peonage or in constant peril of falling into it. During the middle ages, the merchants changed sides, and became leaders of the society against the evils of the state.
The merchant was a venerated man, a hero. We also see the world's first popular free-market ideology. Adam Smith seems to have borrowed heavily from it.
But we must be mindful of the huge cultural gap betweeen this region and time, and Adam Smith's. Smith saw the market as pursuit of individual advantage. The Islamics saw it as extending mutual aid.
When men render aid to each other, each one performing one of these important tasks that are beyond the measure of his own capacity, and observing the law of justice in transactions by giving greatly and receiving in exchange of the labor of others, then the means of livelihood are realized, and the succession of the individual and the survival of the species are assured.
-- quoting Tusi's Nasirean Ethics
If all men were equal, all would perish -- specialization of labor is needed and good
Markets are about cooperation, not competition.
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