ISLAMIC ECONOMY VERSUS CONVENTIONAL ECONOMY

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to display, in a synthetic manner, the specificity of "Islamic economy" as compared to the so-called "conventional economy". First of all, we will highlight the constitutive elements of the discourse of contemporary "Islamic economy" that essentially distinguish it from the discourse of Western economy, but we will also identify the religious and philosophical causes that play an important part within the shaping of this type of theoretical approach. Secondly, we will sustain that the expression "Islamic economy" signifies not only a social-political doctrine, which serves to an economic agenda, but also an "epistemological" project whose methodological framework may allow the evolution towards an "Islamic economics" on its own right.

Headnote

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to display, in a synthetic manner, the specificity of "Islamic economy" as compared to the so-called "conventional economy". First of all, we will highlight the constitutive elements of the discourse of contemporary "Islamic economy" that essentially distinguish it from the discourse of Western economy, but we will also identify the religious and philosophical causes that play an important part within the shaping of this type of theoretical approach. Secondly, we will sustain that the expression "Islamic economy" signifies not only a social-political doctrine, which serves to an economic agenda, but also an "epistemological" project whose methodological framework may allow the evolution towards an "Islamic economics" on its own right.

Keywords: 'ilm al-iqtisad, israf, ijma, riba, zakat, Sunnah, Shari'ah.

We can identify some unsystematic and non-unitary economic concepts, theories, and practices that are conditioned by numerous moral, social, and political factors which were an important part of the history of social and moral philosophy of Islam from its pre-classical and classical period, but things have radically changed after WWII1. Beginning with the middle of the last century, the experts started to take into account and more carefully and curiously analyze the origins, nature, and methodology of Islamic culture. Two interdependent evolutions played an important and encouraging part within the setting up of Islamic economics as a "science": the first one was social-political, the second one was epistemological.

If we refer to the manner of setting up this theoretical construction during present times, the first remark must deal with the discourse of Muslim intellectuals regarding Islamic economy. This discourse is, usually, made up of certain particular contents and representations, either implicit or explicit, of Western "conventional" economy. Almost all papers concerning Islamic economy take the shape of a continuous dialogue, of a permanent relation to contemporary Western economy's realities. The approach is focused on wide comparative-critical analysis over the practices, specific organizations, and objective social-economic structures that are specific to Western world, from the point of view of Islamic ethical-religious principles.

The assumed theoretical goal of Islamic economists is either to "Islamize" the Western economic system and the discourse regarding it, or to adapt Islamic economy to Western economic values without them losing their normative essence. No matter how we look at things, Islamic economy, in either traditional or modern interpretation, implies the existence of a process of "Islamization" of economic system and knowledge of it, which cannot be realized unless at the expense of the adaptation of specialized institutions that are mentioned in canonic Islamic texts to the nowadays economic realities.

The issue is not a simple one and it has serious theoretical consequences. If we refer to the interpretation of Western economy according to Islamic normative standards, we discover a new discourse regarding the economy that is complementary to the one we know, displaying new and surprising intellectual elements, which can stir the interest of the expert in "conventional" economy. But if we take into account the existence of a large project of islamization of the entire field of knowledge, in which an important part of some Muslim countries is involved, we find a radical approach onto economy, which is rather politically biased and serves some Islamic less "orthodox" interests. Unfortunately, it is precisely this stream of thinking - which aims towards the "islamization" of knowledge in general, and of economy, in particular - that stirs the lowest interest from Western experts or is wrongly understood because the lack of attention, as it is considered a type of discourse meant only to describe, from an Islamic perspective, the state of affairs from nowadays world economy.

The critique of the economic paradigm from an Islamic perspective leads, in fact, to the setting up of some images (stereotypes, even) about the "Western economic world", both analytical and normative, that use a double system of reference - ethical and theoretical. This is why we find theologians, academics, attorneys, politicians, clerks, bankers, business men and other practitioners of Islamic economy who are criticizing the perspective of Western economy onto production and trade, services, revenue distribution and resources, in order to deliberately describe a reality that the Muslim world must avoid. Despite all that, the largest part of Islamic economic language is taken from conventional Western economy.

The method of construction of Islamic economy does not difer from that of Western economics, but its specificity, according to its authors, is the critique of the fundamental principles which underline, in fact, its normative character. This does not mean that Islamic economists do not accept the existence of a normative dimension in Western economy (the idea of ideal state, efficiency, distributive justice, etc.). As a matter of fact, they could not even avoid the influence which the dominant paradigm of economic thinking, meaning that of "conventional economy" (generally referring to neoclassical theory, the Keynesian one and the monetary school of economy), exerted upon them.

The stake of Islamic economy is to set up a value equivalent or a viable alternative to conventional economy. If for moderate Islamic thinkers it is enough that the Islamic economy represent such a substitute, for the radical ones, that sustain the Islamization of economy, it should completely and definitely replace the dominant Western paradigm. This is why the Islamic economic discourse is so colored and nuanced, bearing the sign of orientation, of expertize in adjacent sciences, of ideological profile or cultural and political environment in which its author was born and raised. It is far from being unimportant whether the expert belongs to a double culture (Islamic and Western) or to the Islamic one only and, within the last one, whether he belongs to Sunni or Shi'ia lines.

In order to circumscribe Islamic economy discourse one must underline, first of all, what distinguishes it, regarding its contents, from conventional economy. There is a series of factors that determined the development of this discipline in the field of Islamic knowledge. Secondly, the definitions of Islamic economy that were established along time were always connected to a specific social-political context. Thirdly, the theoreticians of Islamic economy asserted and still do that 'ilm al-iqtisad (economics) represents a special paradigm as compared to the dominant one, in nowadays economy.

The discourse of Islamic economy contains, at first, references from the canonic texts - Coran, Sunna and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) - that aim towards reconstructing the definition of the main ethical principles of Islam, to further be applied to economic order. Depending on these, there are descriptions of Islamic early society and economic institutions aimed to adapt these components to present days (if they are convergent to Islamic teachings). The distinctive attribute of Islamic economy is represented by the fact that statements bearing on practices, real organizations and social and economic structures that belong to nowadays society are intended to apply to economy the ethical-religious Islamic principles (for example, distributive justice and the interdiction of squandering - israf in Arabic language) and to respect the particular economic requirements (the interdiction of riba and the obligation of zakat)2.

Concerning economic institutions, the analysis has a double orientation: their evaluation according to their convergence with the "pure" teachings of the Islam and their adaptation to present day economic reality. On the other hand, the studies Muslims carried out onto Islamic economy do not ignore those economic facts that, under the influence of Western economic reality, may occur in society and which must be evaluated from an Islamic point of view. This matters draws on another one, probably of the highest importance: the classification of economic concepts, principles, methodology, theories, and structures that are associated to Islam accordingly or opposed to those that are specific to Western economy. Usually, the papers of Muslim professors are proposing an at least curious approach which, instead of clarifying if and what was the representative "economic order" of early Islam or if Islamic economic institutions have ever existed or functioned as one claims, they develop, instead, a critique - either moderate, or destructive - of economic system that are not Islamic.

Within the conscience of Muslim intellectuals, due to secularization and division of knowledge in Western social sciences, there is a need to unify the entire field of knowledge, unification that is synonymous which what we have called above "islamization of knowledge" or "islamization of science". This intellectual movement, that first and furthermost penetrates the economic discourse, represents a reaction against the secularization of science (Haneef3 and Hefner4). Hefner, for instance, tells us that: "The third an final influence underlying the recent popularity of Islamic Economics has been the related effort to bring about <Islamization of knowledge>. Not all Muslim intellectuals agree with this movement's demand that science and modern inquiry be purged of their allegedly secularist and Western biases. (...) a leitmotif of modernist and liberal Muslim thought has always been that science and technology of <Western> provenance are best regarded as the fruits of God-given human reason, not things that are uniquely Western"5.

Thus, we notice that there is a difference of perspective regarding the true movement of Islamic rebirth during the last two centuries, which is taken either as a return to the project of classical Islam, both political and ideological, supported by thinkers like Sayyid Qutb in Egypt, Sayyid Mawdudi in Pakistan and Baqir al-Sadr in Iraq, or as a movement of modernization and openness of Islamic culture towards Western culture, as in the case of Indonesian modernist Nurcholish Madjid and Iranian reformist Abdulkarim Soroush. Among those who presently sustain the movement of islamization of economy one counts S. H. Nasr, al-Attas, al-Faruqi and Choudhury. Their contributions to the evolution of this intellectual movement in the field of economy were amended by experts in Islamic economy that have more liberal views, like Kuran, Chapra, Shephard and Wilson.

The coherent critiques against capitalism, communism or any other economic system that gathers together their elements are always normative, evaluative, and critical perspectives, which are issued from an ethical point of view and bear upon the economy or other domains of social reality. Islamic economists believe that they are "defeating" the Western ones by means of their own intellectual weapons: their argumentative strategy borrows from them the critical analysis they have set up, from within their own paradigm, onto Western economy. For instance, we find no paper that clarifies the issue of nature and goals of Islamic economy which does not blame the doctrinal liberalism of thinkers belonging to 18th and 19th century and liberal capitalism (regarding economic practices during the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century) for the "deplorable" economic situation of the West, characterized by the lack of social equity. Within this critical perspective, even if capitalist ideology is denounced as materialistic and hedonistic, its gravest sins are inequality and fake liberty (apparently guaranteed by Constitution). Communism is also criticized because, despite its loud noise on justice and equality, it is a system that flagrantly breaks fundamental liberties, which were guaranteed to mankind by God. Despite all these, there were voices who nuanced the perspective upon Western economy, admitting the theoretical and practical value of some of capitalist and communist practices and the permeability of Islamic economy to these. From this point of view, there are two groups of theorists, either Islamic or non-Islamic, that debate upon the Islam's affinity with capitalism or, on the contrary, with communism.

If we analyze capitalism's relation with the Islam, a lot of Islamic economists are accused by Max Weber of creating a false image on the so-called Islam deficiency in relation with Western rationality. This claim was rejected by Islamic and Western thinkers who strived to prove that the Islam is a "rational" and "reasonable" religion. Claiming that not only European culture can be a way towards an efficient modernization, they find within the Islam values that can play the role of economic efficiency generators. According to this, there is no incompatibility between individual rationality of the entrepreneur and Islamic religion. There are authors that found psychological, sociological, and institutional hindrances that might stop Islamic mentality to be opened or to favor to the development of capitalist spirit: the Islam cannot adequately answer to interrogations regarding individual freedom, restrictive character of Islamic solidarity, the lack of interest for economic risk, the interdiction of riba, etc.

On the other hand, Muslim economists consider that the capitalist economic model lacks equilibrium and moderation6. Personal interest and the search for profit at any expense destroy the ethical values that are imposed on all Muslims: humanity, solidarity, empathy, and cooperation. The radical character of this perspective is nuanced by authors like Naqvi, who even finds an area of intersection of capitalism an Islam, meaning the rejection of feudalism (anti-progresses) by the importance given to accumulation as an essential dimension of the dynamic of economic process 7 . Still, if the supporters of capitalism insist on the moral invulnerability of he who tries to maximize his personal interest and profit, in the Islam - although personal interest is acknowledged and can be pursued as such - the ethical-religious dimension is the determinant of all types of economic behavior.

The economic writings of Umer Chapra are the most obvious example of the "translation" of Islam's ethical-religious principles in the language of Western economic conceptions, accompanied by the critique of secular ethical-economic philosophies and that of the "positive" economic ones. According to him, the neoclassical principles - basic needs, growth with redistribution, efficiency and equity, poverty alleviation etc. - did not succeed to realiye in practice because the lack of ethical criteria functioning at the social, political, and religious level, conditions that the Islam comprises by its very nature. As a solution for introducing, within the economic system, of these criteria, there could be the setting up of a socially-agreed ethical filter mechanism, which would play the role to block the lack of moral of rationalist philosophical movements from the Enlightenment, but also that of nowadays theories that support the amoral behavior (consumerism, egoism, hedonism, etc.)8.

Another issue that stirred the interest of experts is Islam's compatibility to communism, found within the ideal of setting up an egalitarian society, with no social classes, that avoids the gaps of life level and which engender the absolute model of human solidarity. As systems of social-political administration, Islam and communism have, as a connection point, collectivism, the equilibrium between individual and general interests, the imperative of equitable distribution of resources. Lewis 9 and Shariati 10 thus sustained that there are strong resemblances between the Islamic and communist economic models. Still, there are hindrances that cannot be left aside. For example, communism does not accept that the pleasure of owning is inscribed in human nature. Also, the cancelling of all competition within communist society leads to exploitation of the individual by the authoritarian state. If we count also atheism, one sees why many Muslims declare themselves as anticommunists or anti-Marxists. Still, socialism was conceived, within Islamic political and economic thinking, as a body of ideas with a double function: either as an official ideology meant to justify etatist policies, social and economic reforms, or as a popular system of critical thinking upon some states of affairs that are unacceptable from an economic and social viewpoint. This is why a large number of intellectuals and politicians have used theological and historical Islamic references to defend the thesis of "Islamic socialism".

We find, according to the perspective on socialism, three groups of Islamic thinkers: a) the partisans of "Islamic socialism" who support Islam's compatibility to socialism; b) virulent opponents of socialism, especially of Marxism-Leninism; c) those who demand the final divorce of Islam from capitalism and communism and propose a global political and economic order that takes into account all benefits of present day knowledge. S. H. Nasr11, for example, characterizes Islamic economy by the phrase "the third way", since this ideology may be defined by concepts gathered form capitalism and communism, without being either of them. It is important to understand that Islamic economy is less a science and more a social-political doctrine, an ideology that aims - under the restriction of its own axiological framework - to prove the principles and practices of all Western economic systems as contrary or opposed to the Islamic ones.

Besides all that, although they use the methodology and analysis tools of conventional economy, the studies in Islamic economy focus on the violent critique of "the economic man" (homo oeconomicus) of neoclassical economy. As compared to this one, homo Islamicus acts following ethical-religious norms that lead to altruistic, fair, "optimal", and collectively "efficient" economic behavior. Briefly, although homo Islamicus follows his personal interest, keeping sight of the optimization of his life level and the application of the principle of rationality, he never goes beyond the framework of the value orientation imposed by the Islam.

The difference between these two human types is not pertaining to nature, but, as Daromir Rudnyckyj notices, it is the result of a certain deployment of knowledge, of technology and infrastructure, etc. that shapes human actions and relations. From the point of view of Islamic moral economy, of what he calls "Shari'ah economy", Valentino Catellan also notices that "(...) paradoxically, the more Islamic moral economy depicts homo-Islamicus in terms of an ethical opposition to the rational/secular homo-oeconomicus, the more it contributes to re-affirm the validity of conventional economics as unique 'logic' (i.e. as a rational discourse enjoying the status of a universal scientific paradigm), without disclosing, in contrast, the autonomy of Islamic rationality. As a result, Shari'ah economics is reduced to an ethical 'particular' of a 'universal' as they were ana-logues (from the Greek ana-, 'again', and logos, 'discourse' = 'similar discourses' resembling one another) when, in actual facts, they are not: in a classic default of anti-thetical reasoning, the 'thesis' is implicitly confirmed by re-naming its validity as starting point of the discussion. Thus, not by chance, the idea of homo-Islamicus always stands by opposition to homo-oeconomicus, which paradoxically remains, in this way, the real 'protagonist' of the discourse; IEF is explained 'in the negative', i.e. by rejecting the aspects of conventional economics prohibited by Shari'ah (e.g. the absence of interest-based transactions; the avoidance of activities involving speculation; ...), while riba, gharar and maysir are not described in positive terms, i.e. as expressions of a self-founding Islamic rationality; in the same way, even the principles 'in the positive' of Shari'ah economics, such as risk-sharing and the favor towards real economy, are conceptualized in opposition to the debt-based and excessively financialized conventional economy"12.

On the other hand, the economic behavior of homo Islamicus must be set up not only according to factual economic consequences of decisions, but also in relation to possible results in "the afterlife". This is why personal interest is always between natural pleasure of "owning" (avoiding squander and ostentation), the obligation of taking into account other people's interests and the hope for redemption in the afterlife, according to Koran norms. Still, it needs further clarification how is homo Islamicus intrinsically motivated by altruism - this has not received yet a satisfactory explanation in any of the papers on Islamic economy so far. There are many papers that analyze human action as reported to the criteria of Islamic belief, but none that offers an insight into economic Islamic behavior, and this is noticed by many authors.

According to this, together with a specific methodology, used to achieve the theoretical setting of Islamic economy, there are many philosophical assumptions that found and distinguish Islamic economy. Firstly, this moral philosophy, that penetrates the core of Islamic economy, follows from the two main sources of Islam: the Koran and the Sunnah (prophetic tradition), on the one hand, and the Islamic Law (Shari'ah), on the other hand.

The Koran contains some verses, revealed during various stages of Islamic society, that were meant to introduce other governance criteria in social-economic structures of this type of community. Sunnah, known in the Western world as the "tradition" of Islam, is a source complementary to the Koran, that highlights and explain the words and practices of the Prophet Mohamed, giving details and clarifying the laws of the Koran. It represents, together with the Koran, the core of Shari'ah, of Islamic Law.

If Shari'ah, the Koran, and Sunnah are the sources of Islamic economy, its principles follow from the central character of some essential Islamic concepts: tawhid, khalifalah, and amanah13. The Islamic philosophy of the tawhid or the unity of the world and Allah ahe some results for economic thinking: the uniqueness of the entire universe is integrated into the uniqueness of Allah, meaning that all that belongs to the created universe (all natural resources, for instance) cannot be used according to the maximization of own satisfaction, but only taking into account the interests of others and conservation of the creation according to the precepts of the Koran.

At its turn, al-khalifalah is particularly important: man is the place-keeper or representative of Allah on earth, and he must act, ay the economic level, according to the "professional ethics" ruled by the creator of the world: "Have faith in God and His apostle and give in alms of that on which He has made you vicegerents" (Koran 57:7, and also 2:30, 35:39)". El-Ashker and Wilson synthesize the meaning of this fundamental concept: "The use of these resources therefore is controlled by the rules of trusteeship and any violation of these rules would render the entrusted party, man, guilty of the abuse and misuse of the subject of trusteeship, earthly economic resources. Man is, therefore, accountable to God and by the virtue of the rules of trusteeship, or stewardship, any violation of these rules would merit God's attribution and punishment"14.

The third relevant concept for economy is the amanah. It is related to the ideas of responsibility and free will and it has a main part into the religious and philosophical ethics of the Islam. One acknowledges the fact that the issue regarding predestination is the most important intellectual challenge for Islamic thinkers so far, given the simultaneous presence, in the Koran, of verses which encourage, on the one hand, free will and individual rationality and, on the other hand, the idea that all human actions are rendered possible by divine will only. The debates of this matter in theological and philosophical Islamic thinking, carefully presented by H. A. Wolfson15, start from verses like "No soul can believe but by the permission of God (Koran 10:100)" and also "Their hearts and their ears hath God sealed up" (Koran 2:6). Man has a free will, is aware of the diference between good and evil, but is free to choose only in accordance to an imposed code. God "previously" knows the man's manner of action given a situation or another, but this does not mean that Allah is the one that predetermines the type of behavior. Therefore, if we refer to economic responsibility, man is free to squander, thus breaking the israf interdiction, or to look for efficiency in the use of resources and social justice in their allotment, thus respecting the principle of moderation (i'atidal), and he is therefore to receive the promised divine punishment or gratification.

Indeed, these fundamental concepts lead to the establishment of essential principles of Islamic economy. The first one was just mentioned. The principle of moderation stipulates that all human behavior, either economic or different, must avoid the extremes. First of all, consumption must be moderate. Being neither a squandered, nor avaricious, the Muslim cannot assume an economic behavior that implies useless risks regarding the future or to leave aside the restrictions of the Koran regarding the "administration" of God-received resources.

This is why moderation is directly linked to another Islamic economic principle: economic efficiency, but differently understood in comparison to the Western world. From an Islamic viewpoint, being economically efficient means using resources at their best in order to increase the value of production as much as possible. The two terms that ground the discourse on moderation or temperance in Islamic economy are israf (squander, meaning "limitless", ostentatious) and tabzir (literally, total and useless squander). This permanent equilibrium between the two that must be maintained within the economic behavior of the Muslim, makes some Western concepts, like "utility maximization" and "personal interest", rather different. For the Islamic economist, the only possible "maximization" is that of complete obedience for the principle of moderation and all other ethical-religious principles that are relevant for the economic discourse. In other words, the Islamic economic man takes his personal interest as a continuous effort to apply the ethical Islamic precepts in his economic practice: adalah ijtima'iyyah (the principle of social justice).

Adalah ijtima'iyyah has two essential dimensions: the principle of general solidarity and the principle of economic-social equilibrium. The Islamic concept of solidarity is radically different from the one used in Western social and political sciences, since it has a fundamentally religious meaning. First of all, the Islamic community (umma) is seen as an ideal society, a unitary one, which displays this type of spiritual dimension, but also collective virtue. The meaning of the zakat, one of the pillars of Islam, resides in the very respect for the idea of social solidarity.

There are at least two issues of Islamic economy that are missing the ijma, the consensus of opinions: the ownership right and the allotment of income and resources. The aforementioned concepts and principles lead the economists to axioms that seem to be contradictory, starting from the same verses of the Koran and from the same prophetic tradition, and even applying the same methods of logical argumentation and juridical reasoning. Starting from the exegesis of the same verses, some authors believe that the Islam recognizes and guarantees private property, but others that public property is in question. Some believe that the state has the right to intervene in the allotment and distribution of revenues and resources, others that this intervention must be as low as possible. Therefore, the perspectives are various and start from the progressive and differentiated taxation for the rich, reaching even the nationalization of resources and seizure of large properties.

This very intellectual "need for clarification" of assumptions and structure of Islamic economy makes Abdulkader Cassim Mahomedy, in his broad study entitled Islamic Economics: Still in Search of an Identity16, to analyze the causes that led to the failure of constructing this matter according to present day science restrictions. First of all, he notices that Islamic economists themselves doubt the possibility of founding of an Islamic economy as a science (Kuran, Phillip, Haque, Behdad, Mehrdad), and take this as a mere symbol of an exalted campaign of preserving the Islamic culture and tradition in a world that goes into a different direction.to people like these ones, Islamic economy is merely a means or an failed exercise to find an Islamic political identity. Other experts, creators of more moderate critiques - as Nienhaus, Wilson, Pryor, Pfeifer, Shams, Hefner or Asutay - do not recognize, for Islamic economy, the role of economic paradigm equal as value to the one dominating the Western world during present times, although it possesses some elements that can serve to the setting up of particularized Islamic economic theories.

Despite all these, the claim of Islamic economy to replace or annihilate the Western economic paradigm did not realize. Either because its theoretical poverty, or because of a vice that affects the construction of its fundamental elements, or because a waste of energy for a lost cause, the Islamic economy is, indeed, in search for its identity. There is a major theoretical conflict between those who want to adapt it to classical economy, lending it its methods and concepts and adding the coordinate of Islamic philosophical-religious values, and those who demand the necessity of reshaping it into a completely different form, in order to become a science in its own right. Choudhury proposes the setting up of an ontological and epistemological framework with a unique profile, focused on the tawhid philosophy17. What remains to be seen is whether this project is theoretically and practically feasible.

Footnote

1 Abdulkader Cassim Mahomedy, ,,Islamic Economics: Still in Search of an Identity" , in International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 40, no. 6, 2013, p. 557.

2 L. Bosca, ,,Le Riba et le Zakat dans le systeme economique islamique", in: Cogito. Multidisciplinary Research Journal, vol. IV, no. 3/September, 2012, p. 99-106.

3 M.A. Haneef, ,,Can There Be an Economics Based on Religion? The Case of Islamic Economics", in: Post-autistic Economics Review, no. 34, 2005

(http://i-epistemology.net/economics-a-business/149-can-there-be-an-economics-based-on- religion-the-case-of-islamic-economics.pdf);

4 Robert H. Hefner, ,,Islamic Economics and Global Capitalism", in: Society, vol. 44, no.1, nov-dec-2006, p. 16-22.

5 Robert H. Hefner, ,,Islamic Economics and Global Capitalism", in: Society, vol. 44, no.1, nov-dec-2006, p. 17.

6 R. Wilson, Islam et capitalisme reconsidérés, Maghreb-Machrek, nr. 187, 2006, p. 29-44.

7 S.N., Naqvi, Islam, Economics, and Society, Londres, Kegan Paul International, 1994, p. 76; S.N. Naqvi, Perspectives on morality and human well-being, a contribution to islamic economics, Leicester, The Islamic Foundation, 2003.

8 Umer Chapra, Islam and the Economic Challenge, Herndon-U.S.A., The Islamic Foundation and The International Institute of islamic Thought, 1992, p. 20-23.

9 B. Lewis, ,,Communism and Islam", in: International Affairs, nr. 30, Londra, 1954, p. 1-12.

10 A. Shariati, Marxism and other Western Fallacies: An Islamic Critique, Berkeley, Mizan Press, 1980.

11 S.V.R. Nasr, ,,Toward a Philosophy of Islamic Economics", în The Muslim World, Hartford, vol. 77, nr. 3-4, 1987, p. 175-196.

12 V. Catellan, ,,Shari'ah Economics as Autonomous Paradigm: Theoretical Approach and Operative Outcomes", în: Journal of Islamic Perspective on Science, Technology and Society, vol. 1, no. 1, 2013, p. 3-11.

13 K. Ahmad, "Economic Development in an Islamic Framework", in Ahmad, Khurshid, (ed.), Studies in Islamic Economics, Islamic Foundation, 1980; S. Naqvi, Ethics and Economics: an Islamic Thesis, Islamic Foundation, 1981.

14 A.A.F. El-Askher and R. Wilson, Islamic Economics. A Short History, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2006, p. 38.

15 H.A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Cambride, Massachusetts and London, Harvard University Press, 1976, p. 601-719.

16 C. Mahomedy, ,,Islamic Economics: Still in Search of an Identity", in: International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 40, no. 6, 2013, p. 556 - 578.

17 M. A. Choudhury, The Islamic World-System. A Study in Polity-market Interaction, London Routledge-Curzon, 2004.

References

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