The paper analyzes the bearing of Islamic teachings on the conduct of fiscal policy. It is shown that Islamic teachings do not prescribe any rigid system of public finance. The major emphasis is on the state’s responsibility to assure at least a basic minimum standard of living for all citizens. The paper deals with issues related to evolution of fiscal policies best suited to achieve this and other Islamic socio-economic objectives in the specific framework of Islamic teachings. The implications of such a system for growth, monetary stability, resource allocation, and pattern of income distribution are also examined.

Although Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing segments of emerging global financial markets, its concepts are not fully exploited especially in the areas of economic development, inclusion, access to finance, and public policy. This volume is to improve understanding of the perspective of Islamic finance on economic development, social and economic justice, human welfare, and economic growth.

New Issues in Islamic Finance & Economics: Progress and Challenges provides a review of the main issues and challenges facing Islamic finance. The application of Islamic finance is currently limited to banking. This book starts with an overview of the factors and motives behind the development of Islamic finance. A critical review of issues facing the industry is provided followed by a detailed analysis of areas where further attention is required. The book offers some original thinking on issues pertaining to governance, institutions, public finance and economic development within an Islamic financial system.

This is the fourth in a series of four books on Notes on Islamic Economics. It deals with three important subjects: 1) the Money and development theory in Islamic economics, 2) Islamic public finance, and 3) sustainable development in the Muslim countries. In part one, we discuss the Islamic development theory, money as a central issue in development and inflation. This part consists of chapters one to seven. Chapter one deals with the Islamic theory of economic development, chapter two deals with the role of government in economic development, chapter three deals with money in Islamic economics, chapter four discusses inflation, chapter five discusses economic policy and its tools Islamic economics and chapters six and seven deal with issues of privatization in Islamic perspectives. Part two consists of five chapters; eight through twelve and deals with public finance and part three deals with sustainable development for the Muslim countries in chapters thirteen through sixteen. The conclusion of this book looks for the future of Islamic economics. The theme of my argument in all of them is that the Islamic system looks at economic development is a process determined by the institutional set up of a society which is changeable only by changing the value/cultural system of the society. The religion of Islam attempts to implant values conducive to development and prepares human beings to undertake necessary changes which bring about economic progressiveness. Besides, there are many similarities between Islamic and conventional economics when it comes to the general objectives and approaches while a number of details differ considerably.

This book is a comprehensive study, which provides informed knowledge within the field of Islamic economics. The authors lay down the principal philosophical foundation of a unique and universal theory of Islamic economics by contrasting it with the perspectives of mainstream economics. The methodological part of the theory of Islamic economics arises from the ethical foundations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (tradition of the Prophet) along with learned exegeses in an epistemological derivation of the postulates and formalism of Islamic economics. This foundational methodology will be contrasted with the contemporary approaches of the random use of mainstream economic theory in Islamic economics. The book establishes the methodological foundation as the primal and most fundamental premise of the study leading to scientific formalism and the prospect of its application. By way of its Islamic epistemological explanation (philosophical premise) in the form of logical formalism and the use of simple real-world examples, the authors show the reader that the scientific nature of economics in general and Islamic economics in particular rests on the conception of the scientific worldview. With its uniquely comparative approach to mainstream economics, this book facilitates a greater understanding of Islamic economic concepts. Senior undergraduate and graduate students will gain exposure to Islamic perspectives of micro- and macroeconomics, money, public finance, and development economics. Additionally, this book will be useful to practitioners seeking a greater comprehension of the nature of Islamic economics. It will also enable policymakers to better understand the mechanism of converting institutions, such as public and social policy perspectives.

In this extensively updated third edition, Hans Visser explores the ideas and concepts that drive and shape Islamic finance. This incisive book reviews the products, institutions and markets offered by Islamic finance in the modern marketplace, offering a critical discussion of the ways in which fiscal and monetary policy can be adapted to Islamic financial institutions. Visser offers new directions for economics and finance students, as well as students of Islamic finance and Islam studies more broadly.

'It was a humbling experience to read the product of such a remarkable feat of scholarship. It is all at once an exploration in analytic history and a complete text of Islamic finance theory and application. It is also one of the most succinct renditions of the evolution of Islamic finance embedded in a comprehensive account of the particularities of economies as diverse as Malaysia and Turkey. This is a unique contribution to Islamic finance and Islamic economic history. It has been a rewarding learning experience. It is truly a breathtaking effort.' – Abbas Mirakhor, former IMF Executive Director and the recipient of the Islamic Development Bank Prize in Islamic Economics (2003) This illuminating and thought-provoking book questions whether classical Islamic capitalism, which has served Muslims so well for centuries, can provide a viable alternative world economic system. In the current recession – the worst since 1929 – this is surely a provocative question. But if Islamic capitalism is to emerge as a viable alternative, its nature and systems must be well understood. Murat Çizakça explores key issues within Islamic capitalism and finance, shedding light on whether the Islamic system can indeed be called 'capitalist', the principles on which the system was built, the institutions that were consequently developed, how they function and have evolved, and, perhaps, most importantly, whether they can be modernized to meet today's needs. Against the backdrop of rapid change in the Middle East, this book gives a solid background to the economic systems that will emerge in the world of Islam. An essential guide to the past, present and future of Islamic economy and finance, this compelling book will prove to be of particular interest to academics and researchers of economics, finance, economic and financial history and political science.

Recent economic crises have made the centrality of debt, and the instability it creates, increasingly apparent. This realization has led to cries for change—yet there is little popular awareness of possible alternatives. Beyond Debt describes efforts to create a transnational economy free of debt. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Malaysia, Daromir Rudnyckyj illustrates how the state, led by the central bank, seeks to make the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur “the New York of the Muslim world”—the central node of global financial activity conducted in accordance with Islam. Rudnyckyj shows how Islamic financial experts have undertaken ambitious experiments to create more stable economies and stronger social solidarities by facilitating risk- and profit-sharing, enhanced entrepreneurial skills, and more collaborative economic action. Building on scholarship that reveals the impact of financial devices on human activity, he illustrates how Islamic finance is deployed to fashion subjects who are at once more pious Muslims and more ambitious entrepreneurs. In so doing, Rudnyckyj shows how experts seek to create a new “geoeconomics”—a global Islamic alternative to the conventional financial network centered on New York, London, and Tokyo. A groundbreaking analysis of a timely subject, Beyond Debt tells the captivating story of efforts to re-center international finance in an emergent Islamic global city and, ultimately, to challenge the very foundations of conventional finance.

Notes on Islamic Economics: Theories and InstitutionsIn this book I present the basic theories and the institutional set up of Islamic economics. It consists of chapters one through eleven. Chapters one and two attempt to answer the questions of 'what is Islamic Economics' and 'why we need to study it', they also discuss issues of definition, scope, sources of knowledge and relevance. The third chapter deals with the basic values and ethical questions of Islamic economics both as a branch of science and as a study of the Islamic economic system. It briefly studies ethical values which affect economic behaviour of men and women like of efficiency, performance, self-reliance, perfection and benevolence. Chapter four discusses the fundamental institutional setup of the Islamic economic system. It argues that the Islamic institutional set up is based on nine pillars which are: 1) Property rights, 2) Exchange and contracts, 3) Economic freedom, 4) Market structure, 5) Wealth and income, 6) State of law, 7) Economic activity of the state, 8) Internal ethical monitor, and 9) Mercy and caring. The next two chapters are devoted to the discussion of the position and place of the state and the private sector in the system and the interrelations between them. The main argument of these chapters is that while the Islamic system adores private ownership and economic freedom, it assigns an important role to the state, in all its branches, and charges it with important functions including the management of public properties and natural resources, which may be huge under certain circumstances. Islamic theories of consumer behavior and producer behavior are discussed in chapters seven and eight. The basic theorem of these two chapters is that human beings are not one dimensional. They rather have a benevolent facet of their behaviors which is present both in the consumers and the firms as well. The analysis in these two chapters tries to take this behavioral element into consideration. Chapter nine revisits the market and deals with the structure of prices at the micro level. It argues that the market reforms introduced by the Prophet, pbuh, himself were very exemplary in setting the desired structure for the market on the basis of fair play of market forces of demand and supply without elements of injustice which may come from monopoly, financial power, unethical practices by some actors or insufficient power of enforcement of exchange contracts. At the same time the Islamic market structure does not assume conditions of perfect competition. The last two chapters are devoted to discussing the effect of market structure on the factors of production and on the allocation process of resources. They also discuss regulations in the market and their extent and effects.In this book as in the other three books of this series, I deal with the fundamental issues of Islamic economics and finance in a realistic yet innovative manner while observing fundamental relations, ties and inspiration from the basic sources of the Islamic religion and its Shari'ah rulings; the Qur'an and the Sunnah.