The role of ethics on the scientification or Islamic economics

Abstract

Some important questions emerge with regard to the development: of Islamic economics. Firstly, whether or not Islamic economics exits and whether it can be compared to main stream economics. Secondly, what is the real contribution of Islamic econornics to modern economic society, or at least to Muslim society? The first question could be explained by answering such questions as: how to incorporate Islamic values into economic theory; what methodology is used for deriving Islamic economic theory; whether or not Islamic economics differ from main stream economics; what is the position of Islamic economics an alternative to, a complement to, or independent-, from conventional economics; and from what the Islamic economic framework builds its economic system and constructs its components. The second question may be expanded to questions of feasibility of Islamic economic practices, such as Islamic banks, being implemented in the modern society, and the deficiency between Islamic economic theory and its practices. This paper tries largely to answer the first question. In the first part, the development of Islamic economic thought and its critiques will be discussed. The second part will briefly describe the critiques that have emerged toward Islamic and conventional economics. The third part compares Islamic economics and main stream economics included in this comparison of their framework, methodology and result. Lastly, the concluding remarks will try to summarise the possible outcome of Islamic economic thought and its challenges.