The Future of Economics. M. Umer Chapra
Dar, Research Fellow, Loughborough University, UK. Consequently, the final version reflects in many places their valuable insights. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Hofmann and Professors Alejandro Corrons, Nejatullah Siddiqi and Rafiq al-Misri for their detailed and penetrating comments on some of the crucial questions raised in this book. I am, however, myself responsible for any errors that may still remain.
I have benefited significantly from the translation of the Qur’ān by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, and Muhammad Asad, and of Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddimah by Rosenthal (1967) and Issawi (1950), even though I have not reproduced their translations. Translations of aḥādīth and other Arabic literature are my own. However, my daughter Sumayyah, now a surgeon by profession, has helped me generously in solving some of the difficult problems of translation. Prof. Mustafa al-ʿAzami and his son, ʿAqil, have helped me trace, with the help of their computerized ḥadīth database, the sources of some aḥādīth which have been quoted in this book. My brother Abdul Rahman Chapra and his son, Muhammad Salim, Dr. Zafar Ishaq Ansari (Director General, Institute of Islamic Research, Islamabad), Dr. Manazir Ahsan and Mr. Azmatullah Khan (Director General and Librarian respectively of the Islamic Foundation, Leicester, UK) have provided me with photocopies of a number of old and out-of-print publications which I could not find in Riyadh. My colleague, Dr. Ibrahim al-Ghelaiqah, has helped me retrieve data from the IFS CD-ROM, and Mr. Abdul Rahman al-Muhanna, Librarian of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), and Mr. M. Hayyan al-Hafiz of the King Faysal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, have helped me derive optimum benefit from these two libraries. I extend my grateful thanks to all of them for the valuable help that they have given. I cannot fail to express my gratitude also to Mrs. Susanne Thackray and Mr. E.R. Fox for their excellent editorial input and to Mr. Mobin Ahmad for the valuable secretarial assistance he has provided in the preparation of this book from beginning to end.
Wherever two years are shown separated by an oblique sign after a classical Muslim personality or dynasty, the first year refers to the Hijrī calendar and the second to the Gregorian. A Hijrī year usually overlaps two Gregorian years. Nevertheless, I have shown only one Hijrī year for ease of writing. Moreover, there are differences of opinion about the year of death. However, since my objective is only to give an approximate idea of when the person lived, I have not concerned myself with these differences.
My intention initially was to provide a relatively comprehensive bibliography. However, the interdisciplinary nature of Islamic Economics along with a discussion of conventional economics and its sister disciplines tended to make such a bibliography too long. Hence a large number of entries, primarily those that had not been referred to in the text, were dropped. Consequently, the reader may not find in it the names of several scholars which perhaps should otherwise have been there. This does not in any way mitigate the value of their contributions.
| Riyadh | M. Umer Chapra |
| 12 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1420 | |
| 26 June 1999 |
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1. This translation is based on the explanation of the verse in the commentary (Tafsīr al-Kabīr) of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209), Vol. 4, pp. 131–3. See also footnote 123 in Asad’s translation of the Qur’ān.
2. Hodgson, 1977, Vol. 3, p. 441.
Is it Necessary to Have Economics with an Islamic Perspective?
Apart from the Islamic world where fundamentalist political tendencies are quite marked, the global political scene is dominated by rhetoric and values that are primarily consumption-oriented and that stress personal self-gratification as the primary purpose of political action.
(Zbigniew Brzezinsky)1
No science can be more secure than the unconscious metaphysics which it tacitly presupposes.
(Alfred North Whitehead)2
Conventional economics, which dominates modern economic thinking, is now a well-developed and sophisticated discipline having gone through a long and rigorous process of development lasting more than a century. The development continues uninterrupted, as reflected in the publication of innumerable journals, books, and research reports throughout the world. Individuals, universities, research organizations and governments are all actively participating in this development. Furthermore, substantial resources are available to scholars to pursue their research as a result of accelerated development in Western industrial countries. It is to the credit of the West that there is such a great quest for knowledge, that researchers are willing to work rigorously, and that creative work is richly rewarded in terms of both prestige and material benefit.
Economics with an Islamic perspective, which is now referred to as Islamic Economics, has, however, only enjoyed its resurgence over the last three to four decades and this after a deep slumber lasting several centuries. The number of individuals, universities, governments and research organizations participating in its development is, however, still relatively very small. Since most Muslim countries are poor and in the initial stages of development, the resources they have available at their disposal for financing research activities are also relatively meagre. Moreover, some of the governments in Muslim countries consider the resurgence of Islam, with its unmistakable call for political accountability and socio-economic justice, to be a threat to their survival. They are, therefore, reluctant to render any moral or material support for the development of the Islamic Social Sciences.
An unavoidable question, therefore, is whether it is really necessary to have Islamic Economics when conventional economics is already available in a highly developed form. This question acquires particular significance because the subject matter of both disciplines is nearly the same – the allocation and distribution of scarce resources among their infinite uses. The justification is there only if the effort to develop Islamic Economics is directed towards the realization of a purpose which cannot be achieved by the analysis developed by conventional economics. The need would be all the more acute if the set of variables employed for the analysis is broader, and the mechanisms and methods used for the allocation and distribution of resources are also different. An effort is made below to lay down a broad framework for analysis and to raise the questions that need to be answered in the following chapters.
Every activity of rational human beings generally has a purpose, and it is usually the purpose that determines its nature, differentiates it from other activities, and also helps evaluate its performance. The first question one may, therefore, wish to ask relates to the purpose behind any study of the allocation and distribution of resources. Such a study may not be necessary if resources were unlimited. However, resources are limited and are not sufficient to satisfy all the claims made on them by all individuals and groups in society. We are, therefore, posed with the perplexing question of which uses and whose claims to choose and how to make that choice. A simple answer, perhaps, may be to use them in such a way that helps society realize its vision. A vision essentially incorporates society’s dream about what it would like to be in the future. It may consist of a number of goals which the society aspires to achieve. All these goals together may serve as a guiding star and indicate the direction in which society wishes to proceed. This may help channel society’s efforts and energies in the desired direction and thereby minimize waste. The vision may, however, never be fully realized. It may, nevertheless, continue to inspire society to persist in the struggle for its realization by keeping the faith in the future perennially kindled.
Different societies may have different visions. Nevertheless, there is one dimension that seems to be common to most societies. This is the goal of realizing human well-being. However, the