Introduction to Methodology of Islamic Economics

Islamic economics is relatively a new area of study. It is ‘new’ in the sense of how modern disciplines are developed. Although the Islamic way of conducting economic activities was established since the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW, and then further developed during the realm of the Islamic empires, but never any label or name was given to the economic conducts as Islamic economics.

From 1924 (the end of the caliphate system) until the end of World War II, the world was busy with wars. After that, when many countries got their independence, some of Muslim scholars started the blueprint of Islamization of knowledge. This includes the project of Islamic economics.

With that brief history, our focus now is to understand how to develop Islamic economics in the modern context? This is a pertinent question because, in the area of epistemology, for any discipline to be developed, certain methodologies must be followed.

Methodology is crucial because it concerns about finding the ‘truth’. To find the truth, correct methods are indispensable. Especially in Islam, the primary sources of knowledge (al-Qur’an and as-sunnah) cannot be neglected since the revelations come from Allah the Almighty, Creator of the universe who knows everything. Undoubted truth is definitely in the revelations (2:2).

Because of this, the process of building model in Islamic economics is different from the conventional approach. In Islam, revelation is central and prerogative in defining and determining the truth. For instance, even if all people did not follow or behave against the revelation, this would not change the fact of good and evil as describe in the Qur’an and the hadith.