一件事物的效用（"马斯莱哈"，منفعة）体现在该事物能否满足人的某种需要。效用包含两个要素。其一是人对该特定事物的需求程度。其二是该事物所具有的优点，以及它满足人类需要（而非某个特定个人需要）的适用性。这种效用来源于人的努力、商品，或二者兼而有之。人的努力包括他为创造财产（Maal）或从财产中获取效用而付出的智力和体力劳动。"商品"一词涵盖一切通过购买、租赁或借用而拥有、用于使用的东西，无论是通过消耗（如一个苹果），还是通过使用（如一辆汽车）；也包括通过利用来获益的东西，如借用机器或租赁房屋。财产（Maal）包括金银等货币、衣物和食品等商品，以及房屋、工厂等不动产，以及所有其他被拥有的事物。由于财产本身满足人的需要，而人的努力是获得财产或其效用的手段，因此财产是效用的基础，人的努力则只是使人能够获得财产的手段。因此，人出于本性会努力获取此类财富以作占有。所以，人的努力和财产是人用来满足需要的工具，是人所努力占有的东西。因此，财富就是财产（Maal）与努力的结合。

The benefit in a thing represents the suitability of that thing to satisfy a need of man. Benefit comprises two elements. One is the extent of desire for that particular thing felt by a human. The second is the merits existent in the thing and its suitability to satisfy human needs, as opposed to the need of a particular person. This benefit results from either human effort, the commodity, or from both of them. The form of human effort includes the intellectual and the physical effort which He expends to initiate a property (Maal) or a benefit from a property. The term commodity includes everything possessed for utilisation through buying, leasing or borrowing, whether by consumption, such as an apple or by usage such as a car; or through utilising it like borrowing machinery or leasing a house. Property (Maal) includes money such as gold and silver, commodities such as clothes and foodstuffs, and immovable properties such as houses and factories and all other things which are possessed. Since property itself satisfies human needs, and human effort is a means to obtain the property or its benefit, then the property is the basis of the benefit, whilst man’s effort is only a means that enables Him to obtain the property. Hence, man by his nature strives to obtain such wealth for possession. Therefore man’s effort and property are the tools which are used to satisfy his needs, they are the property which man strives to possess. Therefore wealth is the property (Maal) and the effort together.

个人获取财富的方式，要么来自其他个人，例如通过赠与而取得财产的占有；要么直接获取，例如占有原材料。获取一件商品的方式则有以下几种：

The individuals’ acquisition of wealth occurs either from other individuals, such as the possession of property in the form of a gift, or directly, such as the possession of raw materials. Acquisition of a commodity is for either:

1. 消费，例如拥有一个苹果，

1. consumption, like possessing an apple,

2. 使用，例如拥有一所房子，

2. utilisation, like owning a house,

3. 对财产利益的占有，例如租赁房屋；

3. possession of the benefit of the property, like leasing a house,

4. 或对人类劳动所产生之利益的占有，例如建筑师的设计图纸。

4. or possession of the benefit resultant from human effort, like an architect’s blueprints.

财富的占有,无论以何种形式,要么通过等价补偿取得,例如出售和出租财产、支付雇员工资;要么通过非补偿方式取得,例如捐赠、拨款、礼物、遗产或贷款。然而,经济问题在于财富的占有,而不在于财富的创造。经济问题源于人们对所有权的看法、对这种所有权的不当处置,以及财富在人们之间的分配不公。问题并不源于其他任何方面,因此解决这一方面是经济制度的基础。经济制度所建立的基础包括三项原则:

Possession of wealth in all of its forms, is either through compensation such as selling and leasing property, and wages of the employee; or it is not compensation such as donations, grants, presents, inheritance or loans. However, the economic problem lies in the possession of wealth and not in the creation of wealth. The economic problem results from the viewpoint towards ownership, from the ill disposition of this ownership, and from the maldistribution of the wealth amongst people. The problem doesn’t stem from any other matter, and therefore addressing this aspect is the basis of the economic system. The basis upon which the economic system is built constitutes three principles:

1. 所有权,

1. Ownership,

2. 所有权的处置，以及 3. 财富在民众之间的分配。

2. Disposal of the ownership, and 3. The distribution of wealth amongst the people.