Entrepreneurs may have less or more capital than they plan to invest. Owners of surplus capital may withhold it or may make it available to investors. This may be based on profit sharing ratio or interest. In the Islamic system, charge of Zakah assisted by expected share in profit motivates the owners of capital to get it invested while in a capitalist system, interest motivates the capitalist creditors to lend capital for earning interest.
October 2025 issue (Vol 5, Issue 10) of Moral Reflections on Economics features
• “Debt Dominance Vs Risk-Sharing Ideals: How Sukuk Reshape the Debate” by Prof. Dr. Turalay Kenc, INCEIF University.
• “Integration of Tawhidic Epistemology in ESG” by Prof. Dr. Suhaimi Bin Mhd. Sarif, IIUM, Malaysia.
• “Zakah Driven Islamic Economy and Interest Driven Capitalism” by Hifz ur Rab.
• Book review of “Kitab al-Isharah ila Mahasin at-Tijarah” byAbū al-Faḍl Jaʻfar ibn ʻAlī al-Dimashqī ; translated by Dr. Adi Setia.
• Research paper in focus on “Do Islamic Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin Co-move at Different Investment Horizons?” by Mosharrof Hosen, Hassanudin Mohd Thas Thaker, Mohammad Nazim Uddin, Abdul Qoyum & Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary.
• Regular sections of reflections, market news, economic and financial indicators and call for papers.
Halal ESG shaped by Tawhidic epistemology is not merely an alternative model; it is a civilizational intervention—calling for harmony between the sacred and the temporal, between environmental responsibility and metaphysical awareness, between economic development and divine accountability. It is this synthesis—rooted in Tawhid, driven by Ummatic consciousness, and aspiring toward Ummatic excellence—that will enable halal industries to become ethical vanguards in a fractured world.
Using a contract-theoretic model, Khan compares two financial arrangements: the Fixed Return Scheme (FRS), which mirrors conventional debt, and the Variable Return Scheme (VRS), which represents profit-and-loss sharing (PLS) contracts such as Mudarabah or Musharakah. His analysis assumes a single lender allocating a fixed pool of funds across many independent projects, with symmetric information and costless observability.
The United Nations Environment Program is mandated to keep the environment under review, which means monitoring environmental changes and issues that may impact our shores. The Frontiers report is a key component of this effort, uniting scientists and specialists from around the world to explore critical emerging environmental issues and recommend policies and courses of action. The 2025 edition of this report addresses four issues that need greater attention from policymakers.
The authors argue that these two fields have traditionally been studied separately, with corporate responsibility focused on the meso (corporate) level and leadership responsibility on the micro (individual leader) level. The proposed relational model seeks to overcome this separation by viewing leadership as a relational phenomenon that is not tied solely to individuals but is instead a “social process” involving all stakeholders.
The earlier scholars provided application of Islamic juristic principles to derive and apply the Islamic teachings related to commerce, entrepreneurship and consumption. Muslim scholarship initially focused on public finance and its administration to deal with the practical problems of the newly formed state which expanded rapidly and required sound legal and administrative framework to legislate economic activities centred around agriculture and trade.
The global momentum behind sustainable development has elevated ESG principles to a central position in both corporate and public sector strategies. The Global Sustainable Investment Review (2020) reports that assets managed under sustainable investment strategies reached USD 35.3 trillion, representing over one-third of total professionally managed assets worldwide. Despite this impressive shift, the practical implementation of ESG is beset by challenges, with the agricultural sector particularly affected due to its central role in food security, economic development, and environmental stewardship. Conflicts over land rights, water resources, environmental impacts, and social inequalities are common and often impede progress toward sustainability and inclusivity.
Sustainable development in an Islamic economy is unattainable without the integration of ethics. To stay relevant, it is essential to broaden the interpretation of Shariah compliance beyond mere legal requirements, incorporating maqasid and qawaid to foster positive social and environmental outcomes. Islamic economics and finance are designed to benefit all humanity, not just Muslims, and achieving “Rahmatil alamin” (mercy to all) requires ethics to be deeply embedded in the economy. However, this can only be realized by transforming the mind-set of economic agents from “homo Islamic-legalus” to “homo Islamic-ethicus,” who prioritize ethical decision-making.
In Islamic jurisprudence, money (mal) serves primarily as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. Classical jurists such as al-Ghazālī and Ibn Taymīyah stressed that money must not be used for speculative ends or to generate guaranteed returns (riba), nor should it expose transacting parties to undue uncertainty (gharar) or resemble gambling (maysir). Extending these timeless principles into the digital age, a Shariah-compliant CBDC must preserve the objectives of Islamic law (Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah) by fostering economic justice, preventing harm, and promoting communal welfare.
Islamic Economics Project 