Economic Sanctions as Tools of Exploitation: Western Coercion vs. the Qur'anic Jurisprudence of Muqāṭaʿah

معاشی پابندیاں بطور آلہِ استحصال: مغربی جبر بمقابلہ قرآنی فقہِ مقاطعہ

Abstract

Economic sanctions have increasingly evolved into primary instruments of statecraft in modern international conflicts, with Western powers employing coercive economic measures to enforce political submission upon weaker nations. Rather than fostering global peace, these unilateral sanctions frequently precipitate severe humanitarian crises by systematically restricting access to essential goods, food, and medicine, thereby inflicting disproportionate harm on non-combatants.

This study critically examines modern economic sanctions as mechanisms of geopolitical exploitation, contrasting them with the ethical framework of economic boycotts (Muqāṭaʿah) within Qur'anic jurisprudence. Utilizing a qualitative research design rooted in classical Islamic legal texts, historical precedents, and contemporary international legal standards, this paper analyzes the structural and ethical divergences between Western economic coercion and Islamic international law (Siyar).

While the Qur'an validates economic measures to resist aggression, it imposes rigorous ethical constraints that strictly prohibit collective punishment and the targeting of vulnerable populations. Islamic jurisprudence mandates that economic pressure must remain strictly targeted at active aggressors, ensuring that non-combatants, women, children, and vulnerable groups are never deprived of fundamental human necessities.

The findings indicate that whereas modern sanctions regimes frequently violate fundamental human rights under the guise of international law, the Qur'anic doctrine of Muqāṭaʿah offers a principled, proportioned, and highly ethical paradigm for resisting oppression while preserving human dignity. The paper concludes with recommendations for integrating Islamic ethical frameworks into global dispute resolution mechanisms.