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.
Clarity on issue of Riba is so important in Shari’ah that while recognizing change in value due to change in quality, it does not force us to exchange different qualities in equal quantity and yet in case of Amwale Ribuwiah, it does not allow these to be directly exchanged with any excess of weight (quantity) on either side. As generally understood by our scholars, this restriction was essential to stop practice of Riba by hiding behind difference in quality.
The omission of the family from ESG frameworks is not a minor oversight—it is symptomatic of a deeper malaise within secular ethics and governance. As Professor Nejatullah Siddiqi once noted, “The preservation of family is not a cultural preference—it is a civilizational necessity.” The Mf-ESG model, with its Tawhidic, Maqasidic, and civilizational foundations, offers a corrective to the ESG paradigm’s moral myopia. It presents a model of sustainability not limited to compliance and metrics but inspired by meaning, purpose, and transcendence.
This model deserves further exploration and institutional support through high-level scholarly forums, international think tanks, policy summits, and academic curricula. It bridges theory and practice, faith and governance, offering not only a critique but a constructive framework for a just and flourishing civilization.
He wrote extensively on Islamic microeconomics giving the Islamic perspective to the theory of consumer and producer behaviour. He would go beyond philosophical debates and narratives to also discuss the operationalization of the analysis of consumer and producer behaviour. He wrote several books, book chapters and research papers on Economics, Microeconomics, Development Economics, Essays on the issues in Islamic Economics and Islamic Banking.
Islamic Economics Project 