Islamic Economics and Modern Economies: Resetting the Research Agenda

Abstract

The paper serves as background material for the review of debated issues and standpoints in the theory and application of Islamic economics, IE; and for discussion of fruitful research avenues in application of IE to modern economies. The focus is on six areas: (1) theory: links between IE and mainstream economics; while topics (2) to (6) treat applications of the given directives in Islamic economics: (2) replacement of riba by Islamic banking and financial products, (3) replacement of gharar by Islamic insurance and risk management, (4) substitution of haram by Islamic merits, (5) Waqf , and (6) Zakat. The paper proposes some twenty topics of mainly applied research making use of various research methods.