Methodology of Islamic economics

There is a need for the development of a methodology of Islamic economics. Islam differs in its attitude regarding widely accepted principles on the selfishness and rationality of man, the valuing of material goods as the highest goal in life, and the belief that each person naturally does what is materially best for him and is aware of what that is and how he might choose it. What Islam holds is that altruism can be a motive for human action, that material goods are not the highest goal to be striven for, and that humans lack God's perfect knowledge and thus are not possibly aware of what is most beneficial for them. The center of Islamic economics is drawn from al-Qur'an and from ahadith of the Prophet Muhammad. Questioning why things are as they are in an economy is a valid act in Islamic economics. Observational thinking has a role in Islamic economics. In the Islamic model, assumptions are of two classes--the unquestionable, divinely rooted ones, and the questionable, human