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A Note on Islamic Economics

Oct. 1998 (pp. 201-211), in which the author argues that economics is not a value-freescience but a moral science in that it is a ‗practical science‘ in the Aristotelian sense.See also Stefano Zamagni, ―Economics and Philosophy: A Plea for An Extension ofEconomic Discourse.‖ International Economic Relations Seminar Series: OccasionalPaper No. 1 (The Johns Hopkins University Center, Bologna, 1996). Jon D. Wismanargues the point that through a process of legitimation, ―economics helps in theformation of society‘s beliefs since it not only informs as to what is but as to whatought to be as well.‖ See his paper ―Legitimation, Ideology-Critique, and Economics‖in Social Research, 46, summer 1979 (pp. 291-320). He also suggests that ―positiveeconomics preserved economic thought‘s abdication of responsibility for addressingthe practical problem of providing enlightenment as to the good and just economicorder‖ (p. 315-316). William K. Tabb, in Reconstructing Political Economy: The

Great Divide in Economic Thought , published by Routledge, London, 1999, attemptsto reinterpret the thoughts of economists over the last two centuries in light of majorchanges that have occurred. This book is a good coverage of history and methodology

of economics. Tabb suggests ―there are now attempts to restore the holistic quality ofeconomics or political economy as a social science‖ (p. 3). Also, he echoes Professor

Ali Khan that economics had its origin in moral philosophy, but it has little to offer interms of ―guidance to those for whom decency, generosity of spirit, and an inclusivesense of community are valued.‖ On the ongoing process of broadening economics,see Charles F. Manski, ―Economic analysis of social interactions‖ in the Journal ofEconomic Perspective, Vol. 14, No. 3, Summer 2000 (pp. 115-136), in which twoviews of economics are offered, the ―narrower view has been that economics isprimarily the study of markets, a circumscribed class of institutions in which personsinteract through an anonymous process of price formation. The broader view hasbeen that economics is defined fundamentally by its concern with the allocation ofresources and by its emphasis on the idea that people respond to incentives. In thisview, economists may properly study how incentives shape all social interactionsthat affect the allocation of resources ... throughout much of the twentieth century,mainstream economics traded breadth for rigor .... the narrowing of economics endedby the 1970s. Since then the new phase has been underway, in which the disciplineseeks to broaden its scope while maintaining the rigor that has become emblematic

of economic analysis‖ (p.115). He then proceeds to show the major developmentsin this ‗broadening‘ process. See also Professor Kazem Sadr: ―Understanding theOrganic and Interactive Relationships between Economics and Islamic Economic

School,‖ Discourse, Vol. 4, Nos. 3-4, winter–spring 2003 (pp. 67–110) who, along theline of Shaheed Al-Sadr, distinguishes between the ‗science‘ and ‗school‘ of Islamiceconomics. He sees no contradiction between the science of economics and ‗school‘of Islamic economics. Rather, he posits a mutually beneficial and complementaryrelationship between the two. Professor Sadr‘s view comes close to consideringeconomics as a ‗method‘ rather than a doctrine, ‗an apparatus of the mind, a techniqueof thinking which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusion‘ which is the view of

Keynes in the introduction to the Cambridge Economics Handbook 1941.