Set against a background of collapsing state-managed economies, Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi argues against an exclusive reliance on the market and for Islam's moderate alternative. Islam orients economic agents toward ethical conduct and socially responsible behavior. Within a framework of essential freedoms, the potential of state intervention to ameliorate moral and market failure is explored. The internalization of moral values and social concern, however, minimizes the need for state intervention, which retains a place within the Islamic system.

Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi was a professor of Islamic Economics at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, and was winner of the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies in 1982.