Is Islam Responsible for Under-Development of the Muslim World?
Abstract
Post World War II, with the emergence of nation states – the need for development of Islamic economics as an academic discipline, and thereby politico-economic institutionalization emerged. This can primarily be attributed to the socio-political will of the polity to form economic system both for public and private finances which are aligned with their religious aspirations. Notwithstanding, Islam has long been criticized of impeding growth and economic development by the advocates of modernist capitalism (most prominently Weber). Furthermore, the development of Islamic economics discipline has also been criticized for being a rushed measure to Islamize knowledge resulting in an incoherent co-optation of the capitalistic economic system. In this pretext, this paper seeks to present a comprehensive account of the scholarly criticism and subsequent rebuttal posited around the conceptualization of Islamic economics. We explore the ontological and epistemological foundations of Islamic economics, to explicate the role of ‘actors’ and the ‘mould’ as delineated by the ‘Maqasid-e-shariah’- to contextualize the Islamic world view of economic development and growth. The findings of this paper not only responds to the criticism levelled against Islam as anti-development, but also identifies the potential causes, rationale and context of such criticism. Gaps and future research directions are also identified to inform the stakeholders and scholarly research for coherent development of Islamic economics.
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