Islamic Economics System and its Managerial Principles

Abstract

The desire of Muslim economists to have a distinct discipline by establishing this all-encompassing term ‘Islamic economics’ and a system based on the injunctions of Islam to be rightly called Islamic Economic System started off almost five decades ago. This generic qualitative study is an effort to investigate into topical development and the current state of Islamic economic system as an alternate paradigm. The contention of this thesis is to seek answers as to why this viable third alternative of Islamic economics had been ineffective to leave a long-lasting mark in the scholastic circles and most importantly why the paradigmatic shift has not happened for this nascent discipline? For this reason, semi-structured face-to-face and email interviews from a panel of experts both in Islamic and mainstream economics, Islamic theologians, Islamic scholars and banking practitioners, as well as direct references from the two major sources that are Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were taken. Based on the findings of Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) of this study, this alternate paradigm is a frontrunner in the attempts toward establishing a moral and social economy. Although a lot of efforts are being made towards its application, yet it still fails to attract a large audience and claimed gaps between theoretical construct and real activities seem to suggest otherwise and support this claim made by its opponents that it is no more than a utopian state that tends to challenge the viability of the Islamic economy idea. The study reveals that the stagnation in Islamic economics as a distinct discipline is caused by the scholarly world focusing on peripheral issues rather than shifting their focus on making some serious attempts to address the core aspects of modern economics. This alternative paradigm needs to re-adjust its focus and the Islamic scholars, Islamic and mainstream economists and academicians need to reintroduce Ijtihad, the study reveals the call for attention and strong emphasis on usul-al-ilm (to seek knowledge) primarily usul-al-iqtisad (to seek economics) that could provide solutions to our economic problems.