“Utopia is on the horizon. When I draw nearer by two steps, it retreats two steps. If I proceed ten steps forward, it swiftly slips ten steps ahead. No matter how far I go, I can never reach it. What, then, is the purpose of utopia? It is to cause us to advance.”
– Eduardo Galeano
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Sometimes, turning to radical ideas can be helpful. These ideas challenge what is familiar, encourage new ways of thinking, and offer solutions we might not have considered. Even if they seem impractical, bold ideas can still make a positive difference.
To complete the topic of productive cities, I thought it necessary to present the ideas of the urban thinker Dr. Jamil Akbar, who has made significant contributions to urbanism and seeks to offer a new vision derived from Islamic culture that challenges the prevailing situation. It deals beyond the urban form to the methods of politics and the general administration of the state and the people. Dr. Jamil Abdulqader Akbar is one of those who put forward big ideas, and he works honestly and diligently to spread and defend them. He was a professor of architecture and planning at King Faisal University and the author of the book “Architecture of the Earth in Islam” and the great book “Cutting the Truth”.
Dr. Jameel Akbar sees productivity and work as more than just employment and earning a salary. He connects them closely to property, freedom, and urban development. In his view, work is the only valid way to gain rights, and it is the main force behind the urban energy that is missing in many modern cities.
Dr. Jameel highlights the old legal principle: “Whoever revives a dead land, it is his.” Here, labor becomes the true way a person earns the right to own property, not just through money or government support. In the past, people gained ownership by doing real work like building fences, digging wells, or farming. This was direct and productive. Today, this has changed to borrowing from family, waiting for housing, or speculating, so the connection between people and land is now temporary and based on benefit, not hard work and creation.
Akbar believes that real action is shown by a person’s ability to change their surroundings. When someone opens a window, adds a room, or cleans a shared yard with neighbors, they are working. Modern planning has replaced this kind of work with bureaucracy. Instead of using their energy to build and improve, people now spend it on getting permits and dealing with paperwork, which Akbar sees as unproductive and wasteful.
In his book “Cutting the Truth,” Dr. Jameel goes further in his criticism of how labor is seen in modern states, especially welfare or rentier states. He argues that much government work has become fake work. He points out that government offices are filled with employees, like supervisors and planners, whose main job is to stop people from working or using their property. He believes this wastes national resources and blocks real production.
Dr. Jameel says that society becomes productive when people remove barriers and too many rules, allowing them to work and run small businesses freely and responsibly. He suggests using a “No harm, no foul” rule instead of a system where everything is banned unless you have a permit.
Dr. Akbar calls for responsible freedom. He believes people should be free to manage their surroundings, land, and businesses, as long as they do not harm others. When strict laws stop people from doing this, they stop being producers and become consumers who rely on the state to act for them.
Dr. Jameel thinks that modern planning systems, which come from the West, have taken away people’s ability to shape their own environments. In the past, residents helped decide how their buildings looked, often working with neighbors, so they were active in creating their cities. Now, people mostly buy ready-made homes like villas and apartments, designed by the state or developers, with strict rules about things like building heights and distances. This change has led to people feeling disconnected and less involved.
One of Dr. Jameel’s key ideas is that the more control people have, the more responsibility they take. When the state or city takes away residents’ control over public spaces like streets and parks, it also takes away their sense of responsibility. People stop caring about keeping these areas clean or maintained because they see them as the state’s job. This means the state has to spend more on maintenance and security, while in the past, residents handled these tasks themselves at little cost.
Dr. Jameel connects the loss of personal responsibility to the rise of consumerism. When central authorities control everything, people start to compete over things like fancy homes and cars instead of working to improve their communities. Cities then become collections of isolated consumers who depend on air conditioning and cars, rather than using natural or community-based solutions.
Dr. Jameel points out that urban problems are not just about economics, but also about human rights and regulations. He says we cannot improve productivity, use resources wisely, or even keep cities running unless people regain control over their local environments. This way, people can once again become caretakers of the land, not just consumers.
Some people think Dr. Jameel’s ideas are unrealistic or too idealistic, and others may see them as fitting only a certain traditional or scientific view. However, their real value lies in their inspiration from Islamic culture and in offering smart, thought-provoking examples. These ideas challenge the usual ways of thinking, encourage reflection, and might help bring about change, even if only in small ways.
