A critical evaluation of the modern health sector: Islamic political economy approach

The concept of health has become a biopolitics tool of the nation-state in the modern period and has turned into a sector within the capitalist system by commodifying. In this case, the aim of this study is to make a critical analysis of the concept of health in terms of the Islamic Political Economy. In order to realize this aim, we will try to reveal the appearance of the contemporary health sector by making use of Michel Foucault's concepts of biopolitics and Karl Polanyi's commodification term while analyzing the modern health sector. Then, using the theoretical framework of Islamic Political Economy, a critical evaluation of the modern health sector will be made at the ontological level, and how the concept of health should be in the context of Islamic economics will be revealed. As a result of the transformations in society, the field of medicine, which was directly concerned with health until the 18th century, began to deal with the normal situation and the treatment of the abnormal in the 19th century. In the course of time, medicalization emerged as many conditions not related to medicine such as old age, birth, menopause, depression, and hyperactivity were shown as medical problems and were condemned to be treated. In this way, the power of the medical field spread to many areas of society. As an outcome of this situation, medicalization and the commercialization of the medical field occurred. In time, even daily life has been medicalized and medicine has become a dominant authority in society. As a result of this situation, for biopower, health has become one of the institutions which aim to control society and turned into a tool for producing productive individuals. On the other side, for capitalism, health has become a commodity used to make a profit for many sectors, especially pharmaceutical manufacturers. As it can be seen, this process, in which biopower aims to dominate society, has also led to the expansion of the capitalist market understanding in society. When the subject is considered from the point of view of Muslim scholars in the pre-modern period, the state of being unhealthy is considered as a test in terms of expiation for sins rather than being considered a bad thing. According to Islamic Political Economy, the essential thing for Islam is that the basic purpose of every human being is to prioritize the worship of Allah in all situations. Therefore, health did not exist with an understanding aimed at making a profit in the pre-modern period and was only used as a tool depending on the understanding of tawakkul in order to realize the purpose of people to be better servants towards Allah. This study wants to emphasize that what Muslim individuals mean by being healthy should be different from the generally accepted definitions. Firstly, this study focuses on the fact that the concept of health, which first emerged as a sector, is seen as a commodity for the capitalist market system. Secondly, this study examines the use of health as a biopolitics tool for biopower. At the end of the study, an ontological criticism is brought to these two fields within the scope of the theoretical framework of Islamic Political Economy. Finally, a normative suggestion is offered in the context of the transformations caused by the modern world in which we live.