Capitalism is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as, ‘An economic and political system in which property, business, and industry are controlled by private owners rather than by the state, with the purpose of making a profit.’ Following this definition, not every country can be considered ‘capitalist’.
Islamic economics is fundamentally a normative field, dedicated to the in-depth study of the normative principles outlined in the Qur’an and the Sunna (religious economics). In its empirical research, it probes into the economic behaviours and values of Muslims. As a result, it extensively utilizes economic tools to comprehend Muslim behaviour, integrating the economics of religion as one method of exploration. In reconciling normative (what should be) and positive (what is) economics, the discipline also emphasizes facilitating the transition from the current state to an ideal one, aiming to transform ‘what is’ into ‘what should be’. This agenda is central to Islamic economics, as it is to religious economics.
The author asserts that Islamic economics is currently the result of applying Islamic rules and injunctions (Fiqh) to the secular economic framework, and is not yet a separate discipline that fully replaces secular economics. The author notes that methodology is a messy and confusing area in both fields. He highlights that in Islamic economics, it is often wrongly treated as a research design or work plan. The author explains that economics is usually called ‘science’ and is seen to be built for achieving its objectives on some perception of rationality. Methodology is the ‘theory of theories’; in the field of economics it refers to the “process economists use to authenticate the knowledge about economic phenomena”.
Efficiency is the name of conforming to laws of nature. Ideal performance of interest driven system requires the investment to produce nearly same rate of return so that interest rate may be considered a means of sharing of profit between financier and entrepreneurs and investment may not suffer adversely, but that being grossly contrary to nature, the system is inefficient.
Complexity economics taught us that the world is an ever-changing system with no simple answers. The Dynamic Prescriptive Economics framework takes this knowledge and turns it into a governing principle: Adaptive Governance.
It provides a robust, measurable methodology to:
Quantify the cost of trade-offs using NBCs.
Design a path to synergy using STOs.
Integrate long-term wisdom using AER.
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.
In Marxian economics, it is argued that labor creates surplus value in the production process that capitalists extract in the exchange process. Marx said that the capitalist purchases the use value of labor (service) and pays labor something equivalent to the exchange value of labor time. It is barely enough to keep the labor survive. However, when the capitalist sells products created by “labor power,” these products command more exchange value and this excess is known as surplus value. The surplus accumulates and this is exploitation of labor by the capitalists.
Islamic Economics Project 