The Model of Social Security in Early Islam and Its Implications for New Models

Nowadays, common models of capitalist social security encounter many challenges including grave financial crisis. These challenges have made the formulation of an Islamic model of social security absolutely necessary. The present paper discusses the proposition that the model of social security in early Islam can be identified by a historical method and this model can be used as a model of social security for modern societies after its time-related features are eliminated. A historical method has been used in this research, and the findings show that there was a distinctive and successful model of social security in early Islam. This model includes such prominent features like society-centeredness (instead of state-centeredness), merit-orientation (instead of universalism), neighborhood-orientation (instead of centralism) and avoiding duality in tax deductions and social security. Observing to these features in designing new models of social security can contribute to solving existing problems.