The author presents as a model for Islamic economies the city of Madinah--one in which there was much expansion both during and after the life of the Prophet. In an Islamic economy, growth is not the ultimate goal--rather it is the means by which a total improvement in the people's lives may be achieved. A central hypothesis behind the paper is that economic growth in an Islamic economy depends on both physical factors and spiritual factors.
While the most commonly mentioned recipients of zaka funds are the poor and needy, the individuals who collect and distribute the zaka also get revenue from the fund. The payment of these people with zaka money is sanctioned in al-Qur'an.
Whereas development can be understood in many ways, economists consider development to be a rise in per capita income. A developed economy differs from an underdeveloped one typically in economic factors and in non-economic factors as well.
Pakistan's Federal Shari`a Court has issued an extensive 564 page judgment on the issues associated with interest. The new judgment strikes all the previous regulations that deal with interest-associated clauses. As such a deep change, the judgment is unprecedented in Pakistani history. It is a direct work and it does not skirt the contentious issues at hand.
The Islamic banking and finance sector is a field that has to be seen in the broader framework of an Islamic economy. In the Islamic banking and finance world, the benefits of tangible economic efforts are shared, as are the risks associated with these efforts. Interest is forbidden, as are dealings in un-Islamic practices such as weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, one cannot sell that which one does not own. Thus, short selling is prohibited. There are an estimated $60 to $80 billion dollars in the Islamic banking sector. The ranks of Islamic firms are growing.
At the core of Islamic economics is the idea that the material values of the world are to be treated as secondary to the moral values of human beings. By making the laws of economics less important than spiritual and moral laws, the life of this world and the life of the hereafter are jointly dealt with. Wealth, as seen in al-
When an economy is based on interest, holders of money are disproportionately influential. The role of human activity is lessened. The Islamic outlook to economic life, contrastingly, is one in which both the role of human efforts and the role of financing are equally significant. Sadly, the Ulama of the world have not been able to demonstrate why interest is forbidden in al-