Islam And The Economic Challenge

What kind of economic policy package do Islamic teachings imply? This book seeks to answer this and other related questions.

This profound book is a powerful yet balanced critique of mainstream economics that makes a forceful plea for taking economics out of its secular and occident-centred cocoon. It presents an innovative and formidable case to re-link economics with moral and egalitarian concerns so as to harness the discipline in the service of humanity. M. Umer Chapra is ranked amongst the Top 50 Global Leaders in Islamic economics (ISLAMICA 500, 2015) and has been awarded with two prestigious awards for his contributions to the field: Islamic Development Bank Award for Islamic Economics (1989) and the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies (1989).

New Issues in Islamic Finance & Economics: Progress and Challenges provides a review of the main issues and challenges facing Islamic finance. The application of Islamic finance is currently limited to banking. This book starts with an overview of the factors and motives behind the development of Islamic finance. A critical review of issues facing the industry is provided followed by a detailed analysis of areas where further attention is required. The book offers some original thinking on issues pertaining to governance, institutions, public finance and economic development within an Islamic financial system.

The doctrine of "Islamic economics" entered debates over the social role of Islam in the mid-twentieth century. Since then it has pursued the goal of restructuring economies according to perceived Islamic teachings. Beyond its most visible practical achievement--the establishment of Islamic banks meant to avoid interest--it has promoted Islamic norms of economic behavior and founded redistribution systems modeled after early Islamic fiscal practices. In this bold and timely critique, Timur Kuran argues that the doctrine of Islamic economics is simplistic, incoherent, and largely irrelevant to present economic challenges. Observing that few Muslims take it seriously, he also finds that its practical applications have had no discernible effects on efficiency, growth, or poverty reduction. Why, then, has Islamic economics enjoyed any appeal at all? Kuran's answer is that the real purpose of Islamic economics has not been economic improvement but cultivation of a distinct Islamic identity to resist cultural globalization. The Islamic subeconomies that have sprung up across the Islamic world are commonly viewed as manifestations of Islamic economics. In reality, Kuran demonstrates, they emerged to meet the economic aspirations of socially marginalized groups. The Islamic enterprises that form these subeconomies provide advancement opportunities to the disadvantaged. By enhancing interpersonal trust, they also facilitate intragroup transactions. These findings raise the question of whether there exist links between Islam and economic performance. Exploring these links in relation to the long-unsettled question of why the Islamic world became underdeveloped, Kuran identifies several pertinent social mechanisms, some beneficial to economic development, others harmful.

The Islamic perception of the socio-economic process is dynamic and its insistence on social justice is uncompromising. To produce the best social structure, according to this view, man’s economic endeavours should be motivated by a meaningful moral philosophy. In the face of the challenges presented by the modern world, the practice of Islamic economics raises many complex and profound issues. These are addressed in this highly important work, which must be considered essential reading for all those who live in the vision of the ‘right’. First published in 1994.

How do modern Muslims adapt their traditions to engage with today's world? Charles Tripp's erudite and incisive book considers one of the most significant challenges faced by Muslims over the last sixty years: the challenge of capitalism. By reference to the works of noted Muslim scholars, the author shows how, faced by this challenge, these intellectuals devised a range of strategies which have enabled Muslims to remain true to their faith, whilst engaging effectively with a world not of their own making. The work is framed around the development of their ideas on Islamic socialism, economics and the rationale for Islamic banking. While some Muslims have resorted to confrontation or insularity to cope with the challenges of modernity, most have aspired to innovation and ingenuity in the search for compromise and interaction with global capitalism in the twenty-first century.

This unique book brings together some of the finest minds in comparative economic / financial history and modern Islamic finance to discuss the rise, the decline and the contemporary efforts to regenerate Islamic capitalism. The collection features articles on the contribution of classical Muslim scholars to the history of economic thought, the institutions that translated these ideas into everyday life and whether these thoughts and institutions constitute a clash or a symbiosis of civilizations. The efforts of contemporary Muslim thinkers to design a modern Islamic economy are also carefully scrutinized.

In this book Dr. Irfan Ul Haq examines the primary sources of Islam to extract and formalize from them the Islamic economic doctrines as well as the sociopolitical framework which guides the development of society. In particular, emphasis is placed on the problems of poverty, unemployment and lack of human resource development. What the study suggests is that if Islam is properly studied through an idealistic-rational integrated methodology and understood in its spirit and purposes, it reveals a core set of permanent values and principles that form the fixed dimension of Islam which then are applicable to virtually all human situations of society, polity and economy in all space-and-time. It is this in-built dynamism of Islam, demonstrated here with historical examples, that is utilized in approaching and providing solutions to contemporary economic problems and issues. Written for students of social science and economics and students of Islam. Economic Doctrines of Islam nevertheless addresses itself to all such individuals who are interested in seeking divine guidance in the realm of ethical social and economic development of human societies at large.