Global Need for a New Islamic Concept: Islamic Economics

Saima Akbar Ahmed:

One of the major hurdles in eliminating riba from the economy is the fact that there are divisions in the Muslim world regarding whether or not, modern-day bank interest is riba. The people who think that modern day bank interest is not riba usually present the argument that it is virtually impossible to have a riba-free economy. While they do not realize that
the definition of Riba does not have much to do with whether we can function without it or not, as we are supposed to follow Divine decree in all circumstances, they also tend to miss out a very important consideration. The current economic system is a system made by the non-Muslims. While designing this system, obviously they did not keep into consideration the prohibition of riba. The current economic and financial system itself is based on riba and obviously will collapse if riba is removed from it. Therefore, it is time Muslims of the world design their own economic and financial system and contribute to the field of economics and finance like they have contributed (immensely!) to the field of natural science. The first step in designing this system would be to identify flaws in the current economic and financial system. Up on thinking hard, one would find out that there are several other common practices in the current economic and financial system that are contrary to the spirit of Islam. Not only that, they are contrary to common economic sense as well. This paper sheds light on such flaws in the current economic and financial system.