A few weeks back I wrote briefly about the citadel of beliefs. These are ideas that are so embedded in our souls that a challenge to them is fought with ferocity, not because the challenge is weak, but because the challenge threatens the foundations of our personal life.
I have been working on a few Islamic economics ideas over the last few months and I am quite surprised (and not so surprised) to see the pushback I get when I share some of these ideas. But the biggest challenge is not the pushback. It is when people agree with me and then, very nicely (and in honesty) suggest that I should come up with an alternate system that essentially provides the same output that the current system does.
Some do argue back, of course. Some argue that Riba (usury, forbidden in Islam) is not the same as interest. Others say that Islam, as a philosophy, is taken out of context and it is not meant to expound on economics. I met a scholar who argued that interest is not riba because we deal with fiat currency these days and it is not backed by gold. He has a point worth taking seriously, since the classical rulings were worked out for gold and silver. But most jurists have held that what matters is what money does, not what it is made of.
Those arguments I can have. The friendly one I cannot, because it is not an argument. It is a specification: same output, just permissible.
And here lies the main issue with Islamic economics. Since its rebirth in the twentieth century, it has tried to gain acceptance by trying to look like the capitalist system. Islamic economics may look like a market based system but only because academics/scholars/practitioners, fearing rejection by the mainstream system, have dressed it up like that.
The first step is to remove all anchors to the current system. Put that fear of loss of wealth on hold. And then look at first principles to see the goals of an Islamic economic system. Goals first, then the rules, then the prohibitions that follow from them, then the institutions, and only at the end the instruments. The industry ran that sequence backwards. With that, build a system no matter how different it may seem from the existing version of Islamic finance.
I also realize no one individual can change their behavior while the system continues to behave like an apologist to the capitalist model. We need the group to come together and rebuild a new order. One day maybe...but now I have to run as my portfolio needs attention - money doesn’t grow on trees...it grows in highly speculative, albeit shariah compliant, markets!
[More to follow]