The Challenge of Poverty and the Poverty of Islamic Economics

Abstract

In the past half century Islamic economics was eclipsed by Islamic finance movement. Gradually Islamic economics has taken a back seat without any economy to back it up empirically. Although Islamic finance emerged as an offshoot of Islamic economics and with the blessing and advocacy from Islamic economists, prevailing patterns of Islamic finance are markedly delinked from any broader developmental goals. Can Islamic economics step up to the challenge of poverty, or is Islamic economics itself suffering from poverty of substance? Those are the questions dealt with in this exploratory paper.