Workshop Papers
on
Teaching of Islamic Economics
6th International Conference on Islamic Economics and
Finance, Jakarta – Indonesia
Contents
Paper Title
Page
• Discussion on the Teaching of Islamic Economics (Asad
Zaman)
1
• A Survey for Teachers of Islamic Economics (Asad
Zaman)
9
• Teaching Islamic Economics at The Department of
Economics, International Islamic University Malaysia
(Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin)
11
• Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University:
Programs, Challenges and Suggestions (Mohammad
Mahdi Askari)
31
• Problems and Prospects of Promoting Partial Programs of
Teaching of Islamic Economics: A Case of BZU
(Pakistan) and MIHE (UK) (Toseef Azid)
54
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Discussion on the Teaching of Islamic Economics
Asad Zaman∗
Introduction: This note is meant as a springboard for discussion, and not as
polished and referenced article. I take a radical point of view in this note. I believe
that the current evolutionary approach to the creation and development of the new
discipline of Islamic Economics will not prove fruitful in the long run. Briefly, I do
not believe it is possible to create a viable mix of neoclassical economic theory
with Islam. I then propose alternative radical approaches which offer better
prospects for establishing a viable Islamic alternative to conventional economic
theory.
Are Islamic Financial Institutions a Success Story for Islamic Economics?
The creation, progress, and continued growth of numerous Islamic Financial
Institutions is clearly the most important way in which the nascent discipline of
Islamic Economics has influenced the real world. Nonetheless, the author shares
with numerous other researchers and practitioners the impression that these
institutions represent the impact of modernity on Islam, rather than conversely.
That is, Islamic principles have been (and are in process of) being modified to
accommodate modern institutions. The hope of Muslim economists was to reshape
the world, and in particular the theory and practice of economics, in accordance
with Islamic views. To the extent that Islamic Financial Institutions represent the
reshaping of Islamic Laws in accordance with the demands of modernity, these
represent the failure rather than the success of Islamic Economics. These views are
controversial, and many Islamic Economists would be vehemently opposed to
them. In the current note, I propose to bypass this controversy by putting Islamic
Financial institution out of the scope the discussion. I propose to discuss below
only the developments in Islamic Economic Theory.
Some Failures of Islamic Economics: Among contributors to the literature, it
is widely agreed upon that Islamic Economics, with its concern for justice, equity,
poverty, and its multidimensional conception of human development (not confined
to income & material wealth) represents a paradigm shift and a radical alternative
to conventional neoclassical views. The existing literature in Islamic economics
does not reflect this radical perspective. We find two types of works of relevance to
this issue. Numerous papers introduce Islamic concepts entirely within a
neoclassical framework, or else make minor adjustments to it, and therefore cannot
form a basis for a paradigm shift. Another set of papers discusses the radical
concepts offered by Islam in a general philosophical way, without offering any
∗
Director General, International Institute of Islamic Economics, International Islamic
University, Islamabad, Pakistan, e-mail: [email protected]
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Asad Zaman
means of operationalizing these concepts. This is where I believe our biggest
failure lies. Even though Islam offers us critical insights in the domain, we have
failed to make these insights operational:
• Islam urges the feeding of the poor, and condemns those who do not do
this. Muslim economists have brought up the issue of poverty in their
writings well before mainstream economics were paying attention to it.
However we have participated only marginally in the huge literature
which has since developed – literature on basic needs, measurement of
poverty, etc. Even issues central to Islamic economics, such as the effects
of Zakat on poverty, have been addressed in a general theoretical and
argumentative way, with little attention to empirical effects, and
operational method of efficient utilization of Zakat funds for poverty
alleviation.
• According to the Quran, wealth should not become concentrated in a few
hands – rather it should circulate freely. Although Marxists and other
economists have documented the increasing concentration of wealth and
its harmful effects, Muslims have been conspicuous by their absence in
this literature.
• Islamic teachings place a lot of emphasis on spending in the path of
Allah. Muslims have not made any systematic study of charity behavior
of Muslims, nor have they made any comparative studies of Muslim and
non-Muslim societies with regard to charity contributions.
• Muslim economics put forth the concept of Homo Islamicus and
suggested that actual human behavior is guided by motives other than
pure self interest. However no empirical evidence on this issue was
offered. Behavioral and Experimental economists demonstrated that in
many situations, human beings will accept personal loss for achieving
broader goals such as justice, equity etc., contrary to neoclassical
teachings.
• From the beginning, Islam has been substantially more concerned with
spiritual and moral development of human beings, and not so much with
material development. While these ideals were duly espoused in the
literature, no operational or empirical aspects were developed. Other
researchers developed the Human Development Index, as well as the
Capacities approach to development to bring in these multidimensional
components of development.
The areas listed above represent failures in the following precise sense. Over the
same period of time that we were engaged in the development of Islamic
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Economics, others developed, launched and established active research programs,
which have had substantial influence, in each of the fields listed above. In each
case, the research programs ran counter to established orthodoxy and faced
resistance from conventional economists. In each case, Muslim Economists were
there first with the ideas, but failed to make them operational, and did not
participate in or influence the secular research programs that did translate these
ideas into workable concept.
Dissatisfaction with Progress Among Leading Scholars: When it comes to
theory, it seems clear that there has been no real progress in the area. We have no
consensus as to what the field is, what its guiding principles are, what the
methodology should be, what Islamic Economists are trying to achieve. Numerous
people have written on these subjects and expressed their views with varying
degrees of eloquence and conviction, but no consensus has emerged. The words of
Umer Chapra, a leading luminary in the field, succinctly summarize the ills that
plague Islamic Economics:
The practical wisdom of Islamic economics has thus been unable to come to
grips with the task of explaining the rise and fall of Muslim economies in the
past, the lag between Islamic norms and the actual behavior of economic
agents, and the causes of problems faced by Muslim countries. It has been
unable to suggest a balanced package of policy proposals in the light of
Islamic teachings to enable Muslim countries to perform the difficult task of
reducing their imbalances and simultaneously actualizing the Islamic vision.
Moreover, its theoretical core has also thus far been unable to come out of
the straitjacket of conventional economics, which takes into account
primarily the economic variables that are measurable and generally avoids a
discussion of the complex historical interplay of moral, psychological.
economic, social. and political factors. Islamic economics has thus "failed to
escape the centripetal pull of Western economic thought, and has in many
regards been caught in the intellectual web of the very system it set out to
replace (Nasr, 1991, p. 388). It is thus unable to explain the difference in the
performance of various societies with respect to overall human well-being.
Each of the issues raised goes to the heart of the matter, and need to be put on
the high priority agenda for future work in Islamic economics:
1. Islamic Economics should grapple with (economic) problems faced by
current Muslim countries. It should be able to explain and analyze the
economics of their colonial past, and be able to make policy
recommendations regarding their immediate future.
2. Islamic Economics should assess the gap between norms of ideal Muslim
behavior (as represented by Homo Islamicus) and existing reality. It
should also present an action plan for removing this gap.
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Asad Zaman
3. Islam offers a unified outlook on life, and Islamic scholars have considered
economic problems within such a unified perspective in the past. We
cannot take for granted the field boundaries between Politics, Psychology,
and Economics which developed in the context of European social
experience. Rather, we must develop the discipline in a multidisciplinary
fashion suitable to our own historical experience and the Islamic
Worldview.
4. Islamic Economics cannot be developed by presenting a critique of
neoclassical views and offering suitable modifications. Western social
science is firmly rooted in Western historical experience. Because the
historical experience of Muslim societies is radically different, we cannot
graft a branch of Islamic Economics onto the tree of Western Knowledge.
Rather, our analysis must be rooted in an analysis of our own experience,
and developed in the course of struggling to solve our economic problems.
In this process we may of course fruitfully borrow relevant tools and
tactics from the West, but we cannot found our analyses on Western
premises.
This last point is of the greatest importance in the teaching of Islamic
Economics. The vast majority of current teaching of Islamic Economics is in fact
structured around a critique of neoclassical theories, and the development of some
alternatives which are mostly grounded in neoclassical assumptions and
methodology. To escape the “centripetal pull” of neoclassical thought, we must
build our camp in a distant location, and work together to achieve “escape
velocity.” This means radically modifying the existing methodology for teaching
Islamic Economics. Proposals in this direction are put forth in the next section.
Focus on Solving Real Economic Problems Faced by Muslim Societies: As
discussed, our biggest failure has been in operationalizing extremely good ideas
present in our religious traditions. Our Prophet (s.a.w.) sought protection of Allah
s.w.t. from useless knowledge –useless knowledge is precisely that knowledge
which is not translated into action (or not operationalized). Teachers and
researchers in Islamic Economics should focus very sharply on the question “What
existing problems faced by the society we live in will be solved by my teaching
and/or research?” Good theory develops as a tool to grapple with a practical
problem being faced by a society or a group. Because theory develops out of
indigenous struggle, it is well understood, and easily motivated with reference to
indigenous historical experience. In contrast, alien knowledge and technology
developed to solve alien problems can be borrowed but is not readily assimilated.
Teamwork and How to Develop It: An important aspect of the lackluster past
performance of Islamic Economics is the failure to develop consensus and
teamwork. Nearly all of the leaders in the field have their own unique approach to
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5
the subject – while sharing a broad general approach based on Islam, they differ
substantially on the details of how it should be implemented. A research program,
like a building, requires teamwork with large numbers of participants working
together on a common vision. In contrast, researchers in Islamic Economics have
all been placing bricks in different locations, with no two bricks being placed one
on top of the other. To achieve synergy, we need to have consensus. Consensus
exists only on the fundamental teachings of Islam, and consequently, we need to
make these teaching the foundational basis of our endeavors. Thus we propose the
following as the definition of Islamic Economics: “The effort to realize the orders
of Allah pertaining to economic affairs in the lives of Muslims.” For example, the
Quran enjoins the “feeding of the poor” and condemns those who do not advocate
this. Therefore research and actions aimed at removing poverty and hunger should
form an integral part of Islamic Economics. Similarly, all of the teachings of Islam
regarding management of our economic affairs (some of which were discussed
earlier), and their implementation in Muslim societies should form the body of
Islamic Economics.
Reject Theory/Applied Distinction: Western methodology suggests that
theoreticians should not get their hands dirty – some perspective is needed for
neutrality and emotion free evaluation. As Muslims, we must reject this
methodological principle. We should require translation of all theories into
practical recipes. Our Prophet (pbuh). demonstrated the applied orientation of his
teaching on many occasions. When a questioner asked him about the times of
Salaat, he demonstrated the earliest and latest time in practice, instead of giving
him a verbal/theoretical answer. I believe it is essential for us to work from
problems to theory instead of the other way around. We should look for a real
world problem to solve, and then develop theory as part of a solution to this
problem. Muslims economists must get involved in the problems of their
communities as well as the larger problems faced by their nation and the Ummah
as a whole. Each university should have detailed knowledge of poverty in the
neighborhood, and Muslim students should be actively involved in attempts to
solve these problems. Theories about poverty should be assessed in order of their
relevance to the solution of the problems. Our students should be able to ask and
answer questions about what is the best utilization, for the welfare of the Ummah,
of the wealth generated by sales of Muslim oil? Is it really in the best interests of
the Ummah to sell oil for paper, and invest proceeds in Western economies, or
would we be better off restricting such sales to the amount that we can profitably
invest in our own development. What benefits would accrue, economic and
otherwise from greater cooperation among the Muslim countries? We should be
able to evaluate the costs and benefits of introducing a common Muslim currency
(the dinar) as suggested by Mahathir. Another common problem of Muslim
countries is the post-colonial bureaucratic structure. In the colonized world,
administrative structures were designed mainly for generation and collection of
revenue from the people, and its transport to the imperialist powers. They were not
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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Asad Zaman
meant to serve the people in any real way. Post colonial governments typically
continue in this tradition, exploiting the people to serve material interests of the
people in power. Muslims are praised in the Quran as those who decide their affairs
by “Shoora” or consultation – that is, decision making processes must be
responsive to the needs of the people. How can we transition from present
oppressive and exploitative structures to Islamic ones? When students are
motivated to solve problems, they will get a much better grasp of the strengths and
weaknesses of economic theories as instruments which help solve these problems.
In the process of developing solutions, they will discover the multi-disciplinary
nature of the subject, as they find that developing solutions will require political,
social, and moral resources.
Tableegh & Dawa: An essential component of the mission of the Prophet
(pbuh) was the spiritual transformation of human beings. The culture of Jahilliyah
where people killed each other for petty purposes, was transformed to one where
people fed each other while they themselves were hungry (as documented in the
Quran). Islam continues to have this power to transform lives, and the Quran and
Hadeeth are full of methods and incentives to bring about this transformation. In
the course of their struggles to solve economic problems, our students must be
taught to encourage the richer Muslims to take care of their poorer neighbors, to
encourage bureaucrats they come into contact with to be honest, etc. In other
words, they must learn the same techniques of dawaah and tableegh that were
learnt by the Companions when they went to preach the message of Islam to their
own tribes and others. This is the only way to remove the gap that exists between
current behavior of Muslims in existing Islamic societies and the ideals we espouse
in Islam. Unlike Western economics, which takes character as exogenous, the focus
of Islam is on the transformation of character. Therefore we need to make this an
integral part of Islamic Economics.
An Illustration: Because the arguments above have been made at an abstract
level, it is worth giving a concrete illustration of the contents. Our main contention
is that all our work should be driven by an operational target – a goal which is
prescribed by the Quran and Sunnah. For instance, this present paper has three
operational targets:
1. To convince Muslim Economists of the futility of building up the
discipline of Islamic Economics as an auxiliary, an adjunct, a variation or a
critique of neoclassical economics.
2. To generate consensus around an alternative approach – this is because the
Hand of Allah is with the Jamaah, and without consensus the effort is
doomed to failure.
3. The heart of the alternative approach is that we should start our work by
attempting to solve a practical problem being faced by Muslim societies,
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and attempt to solve it in the light of Quran and Sunnah. This goal itself is
prescribed by Islam, and there are many Ahadeeth on the virtues of helping
a fellow Muslim or group of Muslims in need. Theories should be
borrowed or developed as they are needed towards the solution of these
problems.
To illustrate these principles, consider the teaching of utility theory. We must
ask: what purpose does this serve? What practical problem being faced by Muslim
societies can be solved by the use of this tool? As a first pass, we could answer that
this will help us understand the behavior of Muslim consumers (which does not
differ much from their secular counterparts). But in fact empirical studies show
clearly that consumers do not behave according to the utility maximization model1.
Thus, utility maximization will not help us understand consumer behavior. In fact,
Imam Shatibi’s theory of categorization of needs, competently surveyed and
developed by Fahim Khan, will give us a much better understanding of both
consumer behavior, and also of the relative welfare of consumers. Thus it will
provide us with much deeper insight into the problem of poverty which we are
trying to solve. The main point here is that this approach – which is the current
main approach of Muslim economists – is backwards. We first study tools from
Western economics and then try to fit them into a solution of our problems. The
proposal here is to reverse this. Let us look, for example, at the problem of poverty
(either in a neighborhood, or a city, or a country, or even the Ummah as a whole).
We can attempt to solve it using the tools provided by Islam – these are Zakat,
Sadaqat, and also the encouragement to good behavior which is part of our duties
as the “Khair-ul-Ummah”. In the process of applying these tools, we might come
up with several problems to which there is no clear solution. For example, how to
measure poverty, evaluate effectiveness of our programs, do cost benefit analyses
of alternative ways of spending on the poor. Here we may profitably borrow theory
and methods from Western analysts, while ensuring that these tools are modified
appropriately to suit our specific historical and social circumstances. We should
adopt a similar methodological approach to solution of all economic problems we
face – in formulating these problems and their solutions, we should be guided
principally by the Quran and Sunnah. This is in contrast to the current approach of
blind and wholesale adoption of the framework, diagnosis, and prescriptions of
Western social science, followed by an attempt to modify it to solve our problems.
1
This is one of the reasons for the development of the “as-if” methodology
of Friedman, widely accepted by economists, which says that even if our
assumptions (like utility maximization by consumers and profit
maximization by producers) are false, our theories are still valid if they
predict well.
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Asad Zaman
Conclusions: As Muslim economists, we should focus on economic problems
being experienced by Muslim countries. On a broader level, we should express our
concern with the economic exploitation and oppression of all human beings. The
most urgent problem that we face as economists is the existence of massive
resources, the phenomenal concentration of wealth into a few hands, together with
large scale hunger and poverty. We should join hands with efforts to solve these
global problems of inequity. We should strive to work for practical solutions, along
the lines recommended by Quran and Sunnah. We should work on implementing
the orders of Allah in the economic domain in Muslim societies. In the course of
solving practical problems we face, we will develop (and if necessary borrow)
tools, techniques, and theories that we need. To develop Islamic economics, we
need teamwork. This can only be built around the Quran and Sunnah. To establish
Islamic Economics as a viable discipline, we need to show a successful example.
We have to show the world what Islam can do in the economic domain, rather than
talk about it. This involves showing (for example) how Zakat can play a role in
eliminating poverty. Instead of discussing the theory of this, Muslim economists
must get involved in the nitty gritty of it – practical problems faced in identifying
the poor, political problems in getting the money to the target population, etc. We
must involve our students in this as well. We can borrow Western theories when
they are useful to solve the practical economic problems being faced by our
societies. However, my guess is that since our problems are substantially different
from those which were faced by West, and also because we have resources at our
disposal (due to an Islamic identity) which they did not have, we will frequently
have to develop our own theories.
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Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
A SURVEY FOR TEACHERS OF
ISLAMIC ECONOMICS
Asad Zaman∗
For the purposes of this survey, we would like to consider only the theory and
practice of Islamic Economics, which we would like to differentiate from
developments in the Islamic Banking, Insurance, and other Islamic Financial
Institutions. Please disregard developments related to Islamic Banking and
Insurance for the purposes of this survey. Use backside if needed.
1. What, if any, are the significant concepts of Islamic Economics which
differentiate it from standard economics? Please give your view on the
MAJOR development(s) in this field in the past 30 years or so.
a) No Major Developments
List no more than two:
b) Topic ________________________________________________________
Author(s):_______________________________________________________
c) Topic ________________________________________________________
Author(s):________________________________________________________
2. If you think that there has been insufficient and unsatisfactory progress in this
field, please indicate the reasons why Islamic Economists have not been able to
make much headway.
3. Initial concerns of Muslim economists were with poverty reduction, justice and
fairness in economic transactions, redefinition of growth to provide a more
balanced picture than the conventional concern with income per capita. Many
economists have expressed the concern that the filed has been sidetracked
(some use the word “hijack”) by Islamic Banking/Insurance. Wealthy Muslims
seek halal ways to invest their money, outside Western institutions, and are
willing to fund research. They have taken control of the research agenda. Do
∗
Director General, International Institute of Islamic Economics, International Islamic
University, Islamabad, Pakistan, e-mail: [email protected]
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2
you agree that higher goals of Islamic Economics have been hijacked, or do you
feel that practical development of Islamic Institutions is the only way to fulfill
these goals and therefore development and growth of Islamic Banks and
Financial Institutions is a good thing.
4. What are the areas where there is the most potential for Muslims to make a
contribution to knowledge about the field of Economics?
5. One can identify three broad areas where work is being done by Muslim/Islamic
Economists.
A. Applications of Shari[ah and Usul-ul-Fiqh to developments in the Economic
Domain.
B. Modification of conventional (neoclassical) Economic Theory to make it
more compatible with Islam.
C. Economic thought of distinguished Muslims, and study of economic and
business practices of Muslim societies, from the Khulafae Rashideen
onwards.
In addition, the following areas would appear to need some study, but I am not
aware of people working in these.
D. Historically based analysis of economics of contemporary Muslim
societies – impacts of colonial era, and current common economic
problems. We do see neoclassical analyses, but I have not seen a general
broad perspective historical view which takes into account contemporary
realities.
E. Outside the neoclassical theory, there are a number of schools of economic
thought, such as Marxist, Post-Keynesian, Austrian, Latin American
(Center/Periphery), Institutionalist, etc. Many of them have more to offer
and have better match with Islamic themes than neoclassical. Again, I have
not seen Islamic Economists adapting insights from these schools of
thought to utilize for problems we face.
Among the categories listed above, what are the priority areas for research for
Islamic Economists? Would have any other categories (not mentioned above)
which are high priority?
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
TEACHING ISLAMIC ECONOMICS AT THE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS,
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
MALAYSIA
By
Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin∗
1. Introduction
Islamic economics, in both theory and practice, has been an area of discussion
and debate for the last two decades. While the theoretical discussions see their
contemporary beginnings with the First International Conference on Islamic
Economics, held in Makkah in 1976, the practical debates came to the forefront in
the 1980’s with the various ‘Islamization’ initiatives undertaken in various Muslim
countries. Malaysia has been at the center of such initiatives with the Inculcation of
Islamic Values (IIV) Policy launched in 1981. The establishment of Bank Islam
Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) in 1983 saw the beginning of numerous Islamic reforms
in the banking and financial system culminating in the creation of a ‘full-fledged
Islamic financial system’ running parallel to the conventional system. The
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), also established in 1983,
through the Kulliyyah (Faculty) of Economics (later, Economics and Management
Sciences) offered degrees in economics (later, in business administration and
accounting) at both the undergraduate and graduate/post-graduate levels. Since
then, many new programs and courses were developed and offered to cater for the
increased interest in and demand for formal education and training in these areas.
While literature on Islamic economics, particularly Islamic banking and finance,
has increased tremendously in the last two decades, one very neglected area has
been in Islamic economics education.1 This paper tries to fill this gap by
discussing and analyzing the ‘Islamic economics curriculum’ at the Department of
Economics, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences (KENMS), IIUM.
∗
Associate Professors, Department of Economics, Kulliyyah of Economics & Management
Sciences, IIUM. The authors would like to thank the Department of Economics, Kulliyyah
of Economics and Management Sciences, IIUM, for their cooperation in providing the
materials for this study.
1
See Mohamed Aslam Haneef and Ruzita Mohd. Amin (1997) and Mohamed Aslam
Haneef (1999).
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
It specifically looks at developments in Islamic economics education with the
introduction of specific degree programs in the KENMS in 1983 but specifically
after the second curriculum review in 1997.
The next section discusses the background of the KENMS as well as the
program structure of the B. Economics (Honours) offered by the Department of
Economics, IIUM. Section 3 presents an analysis of the program by the type of
courses offered. Section 4 presents selected issues in Islamic economics education
and the relevant development of Islamic economics curriculum in general, while
the last section concludes.
2. Background of the KENMS
The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) was established in 1983
by the Government of Malaysia. Based on the recommendations of the First World
Conference on Muslim Education held in Makkah in 1977, the university’s
ultimate aim was to produce morally and spiritually strong, mentally rational,
physically fit, and professionally equipped individuals who would develop the
Muslim ummah and achieve progress that is in harmony with Islamic ideals.2 Thus,
it was the expressed objective of the IIUM to create professionals who, while being
educated in their traditional values, were able to function and change contemporary
society according to the vision of Islam.
To achieve this goal, the IIUM attempts to introduce a unified teaching and
learning process along with the inculcation of moral and spiritual values through
Integration, Islamization, Internationalization and Comprehensive Excellence
(IIICE). Its curriculum combines courses in Islamic civilization and worldview
(which are compulsory for all students),3 with contemporary disciplines found at
other universities. The process of integration in the IIUM is done at two levels.
The first is at the Kulliyah (faculty) level where academic staff are expected to
present the Islamic perspective of the various disciplines, requiring the processes of
de-westernization and the infusion of Islamic values. The second level involves
university level required courses offered by the Department of Islamic Revealed
Knowledge and Heritage (IRKH)4 in the Kulliyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge
and Human Sciences) as well as non-formal activities for students from all
faculties. The non-formal activities include the compulsory weekly halaqah
tarbiyah al-Islamiyah (Islamic education circle) and the cibadah camp (week-end
retreat) which is also compulsory for students in their first year of study at the
IIUM.
2
International Islamic University Malaysia (1983), p. 10.
Ibid., p. 7.
4
Formerly called the Center for Fundamental Knowledge.
3
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The Kulliyah of Economics and Management Sciences or KENMS (formerly,
the Kulliyyah of Economics) was one of the two inaugural faculties of the IIUM in
1983. At present, the KENMS comprises of 3 departments, namely, the
Department of Economics, the Department of Business Administration and the
Department of Accounting, with programs leading to the Bachelor of Economics,
the Bachelor of Business Administration and the Bachelor of Accounting,
respectively. The curriculum of the programs depicted the early aspirations of those
who were involved in setting up the university. To attain the stated objectives, the
programs are quite unique in its curriculum, syllabus, and pedagogy. The
framework of the Bachelor of Economics program (which was the first program
offered by the KENMS in 1983), as stated in the 1986 Memorandum for Degree
Recognition, was as follows: 5
1. Every course is presented from an Islamic perspective. Western economic
theories will be presented and then critically analyzed from an Islamic
viewpoint.
2. The program generally adopts a comparative approach.
3. The program hopes to “devalue” economic concepts from all alien values
(and to infuse Islamic values where possible).
4. The program has certain core subjects in caqidah, sharicah and akhlaq.
5. The Arabic language is very central to the objectives of the program.
6. After a strong foundation in the Islamic perspective in economics, the
fourth-year courses are of more conventional in nature.
7. To ensure correct understanding, a limited number of options are offered.
2.1 Program Structure of the B. Economics (Honours)
Since 1997, students in the B. Economics program at the KENMS are required
to fulfill 125 credit hours of course work. As can be seen from Appendix I, the
program is made up of the following components: University Required Courses (17
credit hours), Kulliyyah Required Courses (36 credit hours), Department Required
Courses (36 credit hours) and Elective courses (36 credit hours). Two major
reforms/reviews were undertaken at the Department, one in 1989/1990 and the
most recent in 1997. The current program allows students to choose from 4
concentrations namely in Islamic Economics, Finance, International Economics
and Development Economics. In addition, the 1997 reform also saw the
introduction of a double-degree program for B. Economics students who could
pursue another degree in B. Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Heritage (IRKH) by
taking approximately 2 additional semesters of IRKH courses.
3. An Analysis of the B. Economics Program by Type of Courses Offered
5
Mohamed Aslam Mohamed Haneef and Ruzita Mohd. Amin (1997).
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
For purpose of analysis, we categorized courses offered in the B. Economics
program as consisting of the following 6 categories:
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a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
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Conventional economics courses (Conv.)
Courses with some Islamic input/Comparative courses (SI/Comp.)
Islamic economics courses (IE)
Fiqh courses (F)
Usul al-Fiqh courses (UF)
Other Islamic courses (OI)
The type of courses is determined based on the course outlines provided by the
Department of Economics. Conventional courses are defined as courses which do
not have any additional Islamic input (content following purely the conventional
content and no reference to materials from the Islamic perspective); Courses with
some Islamic input and comparative courses are those that provide some Islamic
input and references either on a few or many topics;6 Islamic economics courses
are courses in Islamic economics or those related to Islamic economics; Fiqh
courses are those that concentrate more on the legal aspects of the subject matter;
Usul al-Fiqh courses are those that discuss methodology/sources of knowledge in
Islam; and Other Islamic Courses are courses which are not directly related to
Economics, Fiqh or Usul al-Fiqh. Tables A-F provide some data of courses in the
B.Economics (Hons.) program.
3.1 Conventional Courses
At the university level, students in the B. Economics program at the KENMS
will take at least 7 conventional economics courses and a possible maximum of 19
conventional courses, which equal to 21-57 credit hours (see Tables 3-5 of
Appendix I). This represents between 17-46% of the total degree requirement at the
KENMS. External examiners for the B. Economics program have indicated that the
amount and depth of these courses (based on outlines and examination questions)
are sufficient and compare equally with international standards. While 6-7
minimum courses in conventional economics are theoretically sufficient for a
minor or even a major in many American degree programs, quantity alone may not
be sufficient to gauge the effectiveness of these courses. Not only is the course
outline important, but equally so is the ability of these outlines to be effectively
taught and learnt by students, an issue that will be taken up later.
6
It should be noted that the courses in this category differ considerably in the amount of
Islamic content/references found in their respective course outlines. For example, in the B.
Economics program at the KENMS, ECON 3230 (Economic Development) and ECON
3730 (Islamic Countries in the Global Economy) contain relatively a significant amount of
Islamic input and references (even having comparative approach). On the other side of the
spectrum, one could find courses such as ECON 4220 (Industrial Economics) where the
stated Islamic input was only found in the course synopsis without any readings or input in
the course outline.
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Table A: Conventional Courses by Program Requirements
Program requirement
University required courses
Kulliyyah required courses
Department required courses
Department and other electivesb
Total
% of degree requirementc
B. Economics (KENMS)a
No. of courses
Total credit hours
5
15
2
6
0-12
0-36
7-19
21-57
17-46%
Notes:
a
The breakdown excludes language courses.
A total of 12 courses with a minimum of 4 courses from at least one of the packages in the
Department.
c
The degree requirement for the B. Economics (KENMS) program is 125 credit hours.
Numbers in italics indicate the minimum required number of courses/credit hours that can
be taken.
Numbers not in italics indicate the maximum possible number of courses/credit hours that
can be taken.
b
3.2 Courses with Some Islamic Input
As far as courses with some Islamic input/comparative courses in the B.
Economics program, students take 3 courses (9 credit hours) at the Kulliyyah level
and 6 courses (18 credit hours) at the department level. In addition, students are
able to take up to 10 elective courses (maximum 30 credit hours) that have some
Islamic input/comparative courses. In total, students in the B. Economics program
take between 9-19 courses (27-57 credit hours) which represents between 22 to
46% of the degree requirements. This will be discussed further in section 4 of this
paper.
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Table B: Courses with Some Islamic Input/Comparative Courses by Program
Requirements
Program requirement
University required courses
Kulliyyah required courses
Department required courses
Department and other electivesb
Total
% of degree requirementc
Notes:
B. Economics (KENMS)a
No. of courses
Total credit hours
3
9
6
18
0-10
0-30
9-19
27-57
22-46%
a
The breakdown excludes language courses.
A total of 12 courses with a minimum of 4 courses from at least one of the packages in the
Department.
c
The degree requirement for the B. Economics (KENMS) program is 125 credit hours.
Numbers in italics indicate the minimum required number of courses/credit hours that can
be taken.
Numbers not in italics indicate the maximum possible number of courses/credit hours that
can be taken.
b
The experience at the KENMS has shown that it is necessary to have two
introductory level courses in economics (one each in principles of microeconomics
and macroeconomics) and similarly, to have two intermediate level courses each
for microeconomics and macroeconomics, if Islamic perspectives/comparison were
desired. In addition, this also allows for the inclusion of actual case studies in these
theory courses, hence providing an applied approach to the subject. Once again the
effectiveness of these two courses is an issue that will be given later.
3.3
Islamic Economics Courses
In the Islamic economics component, students are required to take 1 course (3
credit hours) at the Kulliyyah level and 2 courses (6 credit hours) at the department
level. In addition, students may opt to take up to 6 elective courses (18 credit
hours). In total students take between 3 to 9 courses (9-27 credit hours) that
represent between 7 to 22% of the degree requirement.
The biggest problem faced in presenting Islamic economics courses as
experienced in the KENMS program has been “the focus on the economics side of
issues” rather than the fiqh/Sharicah discussions. One reason for this problem has
been the lack of suitable textbooks, references and the scarcity of lecturers who are
able to convey the Islamic economics perspective. Most lecturers in the
Department are themselves trained in economics and are not necessarily equipped
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
to present Islamic economic perspectives on the various topics covered.
Sometimes, lecturers teaching these courses are trained in fiqh/Sharicah rather than
in Islamic economics or economics, hence the approach tends to be overly
legalistic.
Table C: Islamic Economics Courses by Program Requirements
Program requirement
University required courses
Kulliyyah required courses
Department required courses
Department and other electivesb
Total
% of degree requirementc
B. Economics (KENMS)a
No. of courses
Total credit hours
1
3
2
6
0-6
0-18
3-9
9-27
7-22%
Notes:
a
The breakdown excludes language courses.
b
A total of 12 courses with a minimum of 4 courses from at least one of the packages in the
Department.
c
The degree requirement for the B. Economics (KENMS) program is 125 credit hours.
Numbers in italics indicate the minimum required number of courses/credit hours that can
be taken.
Numbers not in italics indicate the maximum possible number of courses/credit hours that
can be taken.
In terms of the content of the courses, the History of Islamic Economic Thought
course in the program is found to be ‘overly’ historical. Although it is called a
‘history’ course, the course can be improved by including discussions on
contemporary Islamic economic thought. Also, as in the teaching of theory courses
discussed earlier, it may be relevant to include case studies of Islamic economics in
practice in the Islamic economics courses to give them a more applied orientation.
This is pertinent since one of the main problems found in the teaching of
economics (including Islamic economics) was the perception that economics was
too ‘abstract and theoretical’.7
Such an effort has already been made, to a certain extent, in the Islamic banking
course where a discussion on the Malaysian case has been included. However, the
focus is found to be too narrow and could be guilty of giving the impression that
Islamic banking/finance is all there is to Islamic economics. This needs to be
rectified as there is already an unhealthy trend to that has neglected the economic
foundations in the teaching of Islamic finance. As a result, this has created great
7
See Mansor Ibrahim and Mohamed Aslam Haneef, 2001.
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Teaching Islamic Economics at International Islamic University, Malaysia
9
confusion and even skepticism/cynicism on the whole effort at producing Islamic
financial instruments. As for the references used in the courses, they are found to
be generally satisfactory.
3.4 Fiqh and Usul al-Fiqh Courses
For fiqh courses in the B. Economics program, students are required to take 2
courses (6 credit hours) at the Kulliyyah level. In addition, students could take
another department elective (3 credit hours), making up a total of between 6 to 9
credit hours that represent 5-7% of the degree requirement.
Table D: Fiqh Courses by Program Requirements
Program requirement
University required courses
Kulliyyah required courses
Department required courses
Department and other electivesb
Total
% of degree requirementc
Notes:
B. Economics (KENMS)a
No. of courses
Total credit hours
2
6
0-1
0-3
2-3
6-9
5-7%
a
The breakdown excludes language courses.
A total of 12 courses with a minimum of 4 courses from at least one of the packages in the
Department.
c
The degree requirement for the B. Economics (KENMS) program is 125 credit hours.
Numbers in italics indicate the minimum required number of courses/credit hours that can
be taken.
Numbers not in italics indicate the maximum possible number of courses/credit hours that
can be taken.
b
As far as the usul al-fiqh courses are concerned, students are required to take 2
courses (6 credit hours) at the department level, and possibly another course (3
credit hours) as an elective. Hence, students take between 6 to 9 credit hours in
total that represent between 5 to 7% of the total degree requirement.
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
Table E: Usul al-Fiqh Courses by Program Requirements
Program requirement
University required courses
Kulliyyah required courses
Department required courses
Department and other electivesb
Total
% of degree requirementc
B. Economics (KENMS)a
No. of courses
Total credit hours
2
6
0-1
0-3
2-3
6-9
5-7%
Notes:
a
The breakdown excludes language courses.
b
A total of 12 courses with a minimum of 4 courses from at least one of the packages in the
Department.
c
The degree requirement for the B. Economics (KENMS) program is 125 credit hours.
Numbers in italics indicate the minimum required number of courses/credit hours that can
be taken.
Numbers not in italics indicate the maximum possible number of courses/credit hours that
can be taken.
The program at the KENMS is essentially an economics program, which is
complemented with courses in Islamic studies and fiqh/Sharicah.8 From the
breakdown of the fiqh and usul al-fiqh courses, the emphasis seems to be overly
‘fiqh’ oriented when it may be important to pay equal, if not more, attention to usul
al-fiqh. There is a need to give emphasis here since the methodological aspect of
dealing with both the traditional and modern economics from Islamic perspectives,
is what is needed in developing contemporary Islamic economics. Also, rather than
focus on fiqh view on economics, focusing on ‘fiqh axioms’ may be more relevant
for economics and this is usually done in usul al-fiqh courses.
3.5 Other Islamic Courses
For this category, students are required to take 4 university level courses (12
credit hours) which represent 10% of the degree requirement. These courses can be
chosen from the 8 courses offered, namely, Sciences of the Qur’an, Sciences of
Hadith, Revelation as Source of Knowledge, Fiqh al-Sirah, Methods of Dacwah,
Islamic cAqidah, Fiqh al-cIbadah, and Man in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
8
Having said this, the KENMS has since 1999 introduced a double degree program in
Economics and Islamic Revealed Knowledge where, among others, students would have to
take an additional 13 courses from the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and
Heritage, many of them in the areas of fiqh and usul al-fiqh.
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Teaching Islamic Economics at International Islamic University, Malaysia
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Table F: Other Islamic Courses by Program Requirements
Program requirement
University required courses
Kulliyyah required courses
Department required courses
Department and other electivesb
Total
% of degree requirementc
B. Economics (KENMS)a
No. of courses
Total credit hours
4
12
4
12
10%
Notes:
a
The breakdown excludes language courses.
b
A total of 12 courses with a minimum of 4 courses from at least one of the packages in the
Department.
c
The degree requirement for the B. Economics (KENMS) program is 125 credit hours.
Numbers in italics indicate the minimum required number of courses/credit hours that can
be taken.
Numbers not in italics indicate the maximum possible number of courses/credit hours that
can be taken.
This component is actually an important component of an Islamic education. It
was supposed to provide students with a wider exposure to Islam, its worldview,
selected aspects of Islamic history and civilization as well as contemporary issues
in the Muslim world. This was the practice between 1983 to about 1989 when
students would have to take 11 courses (each worth 2 credit hours). Unfortunately,
over the years this component has been narrowed to cover the just these four
courses.
4. Selected Issues in Islamic Economics Education
4.1
Content of Program
The first observation that can be made is that the program is an economics
program as seen in the nomenclature of the degree offered. This is also reflected in
the students that are accepted in the program and the academic staff teaching in the
Department of Economics. The economics content of the program is, therefore,
more than sufficient to cater to the needs of the market. However, the Islamic
economics content may not be obvious at first glance. Hence, it was thought
necessary to offer an elective ‘Islamic economics’ package into the program
beginning 1997/98 where interested students could take another six to ten courses
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
in Islamic economics and Sharicah -related studies.9 This package was seen as
important in furthering the Islamic contents of the program as the other packages
were concentrating more on conventional courses. It should also be noted that a
double degree program (B. Economics and B. IRKH) has also been offered since
1999/2000, where interested students can further their studies in the Islamic
heritage. So far about 10-15 students have graduated with the double degree. It is
still early to gauge the success of these graduates but the authors are optimistic that
these graduates are in a better position to help develop Islamic economics, either as
teachers or practitioners.
4.2 The Comparative Component: Attempts at Integration
One of the most interesting aspects of the curriculum in the program is the
comparative component, i.e., attempts at teaching economics courses with some
Islamic inputs or in a comparative manner. Underlying this approach is the process
of integration/Islamization of knowledge. This is basically an attempt to modify the
content of existing economics courses or even to develop new courses utilizing
both modern western knowledge and the Islamic heritage.
In the KENMS case, it was found that two courses in Microeconomics and
Macroeconomics are needed if both conventional and Islamic perspectives were to
be given, let alone offering a critique of the conventional topics. Despite this aim,
some of the courses have only been able to have ‘some Islamic input’ rather than a
comparative/integrated approach. This was partly due to the lack of human
resources with sufficient ability to handle such courses,10 and as a result, there may
have been a conscious decision to actually provide a strong conventional
economics with some Islamic inputs rather than present the courses in a
comparative manner. This is an important issue that has to be addressed by any
program hoping to undertake integration/Islamization.
In addition to the economic theory courses, this problem is also seen in other
applied courses. For example, the economic development course is taught with a
comparative approach, but the project evaluation course is primarily taught from
the conventional perspective with some Islamic input. Apart from human resource
problems, another reason is also the insufficiency of materials that have been
written in the various areas of economics. While some areas like banking and
finance, development and even economic cooperation among Muslim countries
9
This has now been followed by the introduction of a double degree program, where
students in the B.Economics program (especially those in the Islamic economics package)
can complete a second degree in Islamic revealed knowledge by taking an additional 7-12
courses (1 year).
10
A number of staff with expertise in the area left the University during the early 1990s
either to pursue their doctorates or for other reasons.
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13
have been written on, many other areas are neglected, despite almost 30 years of
Islamic economics. It is for this reason that attempts have been made at the
KENMS to undertake a large-scale research project to produce review articles in
various areas of the discipline that involves as many academic staff as possible.
However, this has not proved easy as many feel unqualified to undertake the
process of integration/Islamization. Based on these shortcomings, it seems
important to distinguish between the claims of integration (found in course
outlines) and actual implementation.
4.3 Teaching Islamic Economics and the Education Process
The last point of observation relates to the components of the education process.
If, to use the definition of al-Attas, education is the ‘process that instills
adab/knowledge into human beings’, the issue of the recipient, the teacher, the
content and pedagogy come into question.11 Assuming that monetary resources and
other physical resources are sufficient (and they are not necessarily so), these four
components in the education process have to be addressed.
In the process of instilling knowledge, particularly in the field of Islamic
economics, the educational background of students being recipients of knowledge
is a pertinent issue. The students that enter the KENMS are from both national-type
schools12 and religious schools.13 They will still have to take Arabic language as a
11
See al-Attas (1980).
These are mainly schools that follow curricula taught in the Malay language with one
religious knowledge subject. However, there are also ‘religious streams’ in some nationaltype schools where a small number of students are exposed to more ‘religious subjects’ in
addition to taking Arabic language.
13
These are schools receiving state funding, private funding or funding from public
donations. They are usually focused on the more ‘traditional’ subjects such as Arabic
language, fiqh, kalam, etc., although a small number have ‘modernized’ and do also offer
subjects such as mathematics, science, geography, history, etc.
12
References
al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib. The Concept of Education in Islam. Kuala
Lumpur: Muslim Youth Movement, 1980.
International Islamic University Malaysia. The Philosophy and Objectives of the
International Islamic University and Their Implications for the Islamic Discipline
of the University community. Unpublished document, 1983.
Mansor Ibrahim and Mohamed Aslam Haneef. “Analysis of an Economics
Program at the International Islamic University Malaysia.” Proceedings of the
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
requirement to enable them to refer to Arabic texts. Despite this requirement, the
training is usually insufficient to enable them to refer to Arabic scholarly texts,
hence the problem of effectiveness of the teaching of Arabic. Nevertheless, what is
probably more important is producing graduates who are open to and supportive of
Islamic economic and finance reforms that are taking place. In this, the program is
successful.
As far as the teacher is concerned, we could ask about the qualifications and
understanding of Islamic economics possessed as opposed to qualifications in
Sharicah or economics, separately. In other words, we would want to find out if the
teachers have been trained in Islamic economics. Generally the answer would be in
the negative. What is found are mainly conventionally-trained economists
interested in Islam/Islamic economics on the one hand, and Sharicah-trained
scholars interested in economic/banking issues from a primarily ‘fiqh’ (legal)
approach on the other.
As a short-term measure, training or further education in the ‘deficient’ areas
must be given while in the longer term, there is an urgent need to recruit students
who themselves are graduates of ‘Islamic economics’ programs, i.e., from the B.
Economics program (especially the double degree program) itself. This will assist
in overcoming the shortage of human resources who have comprehensive expertise
in the area as mentioned earlier. It is only with this ‘teacher’ component
satisfactorily addressed can the issue of content and then, pedagogy be looked into
seriously.
Efforts at the IIUM, which was set up specifically to present knowledge in an
integrated manner and to promote the Islamization of knowledge agenda, can offer
lessons to other institutions. The IIUM experience for the last 22 years can also
provide insights into one model of Islamization of knowledge. For sure, the lessons
to be learnt are both ‘positive and negative’, i.e., what to do and what not to do. As
for a positive lesson, attempts at integration at the KENMS despite its
shortcomings can be one area to be emulated. On the other hand, the experience of
National Seminar on Economics Education at the Crossroads. Bangi: National
University of Malaysia, 2001: 252-69.
Mohamed Aslam Haneef. “Islamic Economics Education: Some Obstacles to
Curriculum Development.” Journal Pendidikan Islam 8, no. 4 (Nov-Dec 1999).
Mohamed Aslam Haneef, and Ruzita Mohd. Amin. “Conceptual and Practical
Dimensions of Islamization of Knowledge: A Case Study of the Economics
Program at the IIUM.” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 14, no.2
(Summer 1997).
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15
the KENMS which saw an increasing dichotomy in the course offerings between
Islamic and the conventional in the early 1990’s (mainly due to the rapid expansion
of the program) need not necessarily be emulated.
The experience of the KENMS in sending staff for further studies is also a
lesson that should be emulated by other institutions. In the majority of cases,
academic staff were sent to do their doctorates in economics programs either in the
US or the UK. While this produced qualified economists, it may not have produced
qualified Islamic economists. Hence, other institutions and even the KENMS at
present may want to be more flexible in allowing staff with economics degrees to
pursue higher degrees in Islamic economics/Sharicah, and vice versa. The problem
faced here will be the difficulty in finding suitable programs and scholars who are
able to provide the Islamic economic ‘value added’. One may even say that the
community of Islamic economists have not been able to produce sufficient second
and third generation Islamic economists to carry on the vision of the pioneers in the
1970s and early 1980s.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, we have attempted to analyze the Islamic economics program at
the Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, IIUM. Based on the
academic structure of the B. Economics program, one model of providing Islamic
economics education was discussed. Other models can be found in Malaysia (e.g.,
the program at the Academy of Islamic Studies at the University of Malaya) and in
other Muslim countries (e.g., the program at the International Islamic University
Islamabad). Efforts should be undertaken to do thorough comparative analyses of
these programs to enable further improvements in future programs.
Much work still needs to be done before a true integration of knowledge can be
achieved. The content of the program, the methods and manner in which
integration efforts are made, and the planning for manpower needs in the
integration process are all crucial issues that must also be addressed. As pointed out
earlier, more resources, financial and human, need to be allocated to Islamic
economics education as an area within the broader discipline of Islamic economics.
No effort in developing Islamic economics in theory and practice can really
succeed without ensuring that Islamic economics programs in universities and
institutions of higher learning are given the necessary attention. For these programs
to succeed there is a need to recruit the ‘best’ graduates and retain them in
universities. More importantly, there must be a change in attitudes towards
universities, university education and to the teaching profession as a whole.
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Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
APPENDIX I
Table 1: Program Structure: Bachelor of Economics (KENMS)
Requirements
Courses
University
University Required
Courses:
General Studies Courses
Languages
Requirements
Credit
Hours
12
5
Total
Credit
Hours
17
Kulliyyah Required Courses
36
Department Required Courses
36
Elective Packages
36
Total
Note:
125*
*In the case of international students, the total graduation requirement is
123 credit hours since they are not required to take LM 2015 (see Table
6).
Source: Kulliyyah of Economics & Management Sciences, IIUM, Bachelor of
Economics Curriculum Structure (September 1997 Intake Onwards)
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Teaching Islamic Economics at International Islamic University, Malaysia
Table 2: University Required Courses
Course
Code
Course Title
Credit
Hours
Type of
Course
a. General Studies Courses (Any 4 of the following)
12
RKQS 1010
Sciences of the Qur’an
3
OI
RKQS 1020
Sciences of Hadith
3
OI
RKQS 1030
Revelation as Source of Knowledge
3
OI
RKQS 1050
Fiqh al-Sirah
3
OI
RKUD 1030
RKUD 1010
Methods of Da’wah
Islamic ‘Aqidah
3
3
OI
OI
RKFQ 2150/A
Fiqh al-‘Ibadat
3
OI
RJQS 1120
Man in the Qur’an and Sunnah
3
OI
b. Languages
LE 4000
LQ 2001
LM 1010
LM 1011
LM 2015
5
Language for Academic Purposes
3
Arabic: Core Competence Paper
0
Bahasa Malaysia for Foreign Students I
0
Bahasa Malaysia for Foreign Students II
0
Komunikasi Perniagaan for Malaysian
2
Students
TQ 2000 Tilawah Course (for Muslim students)
0
Source: Kulliyyah of Economics & Management Sciences, IIUM, Bachelor of
Economics Curriculum Structure (September 1997 Intake Onwards)
Note:
OI represents ‘Other Islamic courses.
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Table 3: Kulliyyah Required Courses
Course Code
Course Title
Credit
Type of
Hours
Course
ECON 1140
Statistical Methods
3
Conv.
ECON 1150
Business Mathematics
3
Conv.
ECON 1510
Principles of Microeconomics
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 1610
Principles of Macroeconomics
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 1710
Foundation of Islamic Economics
3
IE
MGT 2010
Principles and Practice of Management
3
SI/Comp.
INFO 2010
Information Technology
3
Conv.
ACC 2055
Financial Accounting I
3
Conv.
ACC 2056
Financial Accounting II
3
Conv.
ECON 3510
Transactions in Islamic Economics I
3
F
ECON 3511
Transactions in Islamic Economics II
3
F
LE 4600
Language for Occupational Purposes
3
Source: Kulliyyah of Economics & Management Sciences, IIUM, Bachelor of Economics
Curriculum Structure (September 1997 Intake Onwards)
Notes:
Conv. represents ‘Conventional courses’.
SI/Comp. represents ‘Courses with some Islamic inputs/Comparative courses’.
IE represents ‘Islamic economics courses’.
F represents ‘Fiqh courses’.
Table 4: Department Required Courses
Course Code
Course Title
ECON 2110
ECON 2111
ECON 2310
ECON 2311
ECON 3010
ECON 3110
ECON 3410
ECON 3430
ECON 3450
ECON 3550
ECON 3551
ECON 4010
Intermediate Microeconomics I
Intermediate Microeconomics II
Intermediate Macroeconomics I
Intermediate Macroeconomics II
Malaysian Economy
Econometrics I
Money & Banking
Islamic Banking & Finance
Public Finance
Usul Fiqh I
Usul Fiqh II
History of Islamic Economic Thought
Source:
Credit
Hours
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
Type of
Course
SI/Comp.
SI/Comp.
SI/Comp.
Conv.
SI/Comp.
Conv.
SI/Comp.
IE
SI/Comp.
UF
UF
IE
Kulliyyah of Economics & Management Sciences, IIUM, Bachelor of Economics Curriculum
Structure (September 1997 Intake Onwards)
Notes:
Conv. represents ‘Conventional courses’.
SI/Comp. represents ‘Courses with some Islamic inputs/Comparative courses’.
IE represents ‘Islamic economics courses’.
UF represents ‘Usul al-Fiqh courses’.
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Teaching Islamic Economics at International Islamic University, Malaysia
Table 5: Department Elective Packages (At least 4 courses from the package)
Course
Code
Course Title
Credit Hours
Type of
course
3
Conv.
a. Finance Package
FIN 3010
Financial Management I
FIN 3011
Financial Management II
3
Conv.
FIN 4020
Investment Analysis
3
SI/Comp.
FIN 4040
Corporate Finance
3
Conv.
FIN 4710
International Finance
3
Conv.
ECON 4130
Forecasting for Economics & Business
3
Conv.
b. International Package
ECON 3710
International Economics
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 4740
International Trade & Development
3
Conv.
ECON 4730
International Monetary Economics
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 3730
Islamic Countries in the Global Economy
3
SI/Comp.
FIN 4710
International Finance
3
Conv.
ECON 3720
Globalization & Regional Economic Powers
3
SI/Comp.
c. Development Package
ECON 3230
Economic Development
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 4280
Environmental Economics
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 4740
International Trade & Development
3
Conv.
ECON 4240
National Economic Accounting
3
Conv.
ECON 4220
Industrial Economics
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 4230
Human Resource Development
3
Conv.
3
F
d. Islamic Economics Package
ECON 3512
Transactions in Islamic Economics III
ECON 4020
Contemporary Economic Thought & Policy
3
Conv.
ECON 4510
Issues in Islamic Economics
3
IE
c
ECON 4530
Objectives of Shari ah
3
UF
ECON 4540
Economics in the Qur’an & Sunnah
3
IE
ECON 4550
Economics of Zakat
3
IE
Other elective courses
ECON 3150
Mathematical Economics
3
Conv.
ECON 3620
Project Evaluation & Feasibility Studies
3
SI/Comp.
ECON 4110
Econometrics II
3
Conv.
ECON 4710
ECON 4780
ECON 4810
Issues in International Economics
Economics of Asean
Research Methodology
3
3
3
Conv.
Conv.
SI/Comp.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
20
Course
Code
Page 30
Mohamed Aslam Haneef & Ruzita Mohd. Amin
Course Title
Other elective courses from the Department of
Accounting, Department of Business
Administration and Kulliyyah of Information
Systems
Credit Hours
Type of
course
3 of the
courses are
IE courses
Source: Kulliyyah of Economics & Management Sciences, IIUM, Bachelor of Economics
Curriculum Structure (September 1997 Intake Onwards)
Notes:
Conv. represents ‘Conventional courses’.
SI/Comp. represents ‘Courses with some Islamic inputs/Comparative courses’.
IE represents ‘Islamic economics courses’.
F represents ‘Fiqh courses’.
UF represents ‘Usul al-Fiqh courses’.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq
University: Programs, Challenges and Suggestions
Mohammad Mahdi Askari∗
Abstract
Voices are being raised from various quarters in the world against the flaw
inherent in the contemporary economic and financial system. Eventually, the
system would undergo changes but it will be a painfully slow process.
Muslims should expedite this change, not only because they posses the
required knowledge in the form of Islamic economic principles given by the
Holy Quran, the Hadith and derived from the spirit of Islam, but also because
they have responsibility to do so.
Modern economists lack the thorough knowledge of Islam, and therefore
they spontaneously get weary of studying the economic foundations for the
economic problems of our time On the other hand, our theologists lack
training in modern economics, a fact that makes them unable to do well in
revealing the economic foundations of Islam and using them in ways that are
consistent with the requirements of our time and with reality of our current
complex economic world.
Imam Sadiq University proposed a program in economics to fulfill the
above goals. It’s original, underlying, and future programs in Islamic
economics together with the challenges facing the program, and some
suggestions for promoting Islamic economics are discussed in this paper.
1.INTRODUCTION
Imam Sadiq University (ISU) was established in 1983. At first there was 3
faculties named as Economics, Political sciences and Islamic Science and two
departments: English and Arabic Literature for men. Now ISU contains six
faculties (in addition to the mentioned ones, Faculties of law, management , and
Communication are added ); two departments for men and 3 faculties for women
(philosophy, Arabic literature and Law)
In the faculties for men , the student which ends the high school after
acceptance in the university , through passing about 220 credits will achieve M.A
degree. There are graduate studies in PhD level in Economics, Law, political
science, Islamic science and communication for men. The faculties for women give
B.A degree.
All of the fields which are considered as social science and humanities , are
combined with Islamic courses named as “ Islamic knowledge” i.e. a kind of multi
disciplinary program is presented in this university.
∗
Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, e-mail: m.askari@ isu.ac.ir
Page 31
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
2
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Mahdi Askari
The goal of establishing the faculty of Islamic knowledge & Economics is to
train some specialists in Economics who are taught Islamic knowledge (as Fiqh,
Usul, Tafseer, …) in order to be able to analyze the economic problems with an
Islamic view and try to find solutions in an Islamic sense i.e. moving toward
“ Islamic Economics” (IE).
In this paper the teaching programs of the faculty of Islamic knowledge &
Economics in ISU are analyzed in detail together with its future plans considering
the challenges facing IE and some comments for the teaching programs in this
regard.
2.THE ORIGINAL TEACHING PROGRAM OF
IMAM SADEQ UNIVERSITY IN ECONOMICS (M.A LEVEL )
a. The structure of the program
This program which was carried out from 1983 to 1995 contains 209 credit hours
and includes Shari[ah courses (Islamic knowledge), Economics, Language (Arabic
& English) and complementary courses. Table -1 indicates the structure of the
program.
Table 1: structure of the original M.A program in Economics
Title
credit hours required
The share from total
Islamic courses
68
32.5
Economics
67
32
Language
68
32.5
Others
2
1
Dissertation
4
2
Total
209
As we notice, the shares of Shari[ah courses, Economics and languages are
almost the same.
Table - 2 describes the courses in detail and their corresponding credit hours
required which are classified according to the classification presented above.
M.A program can be covered in 5 years and then a dissertation should be
written by the student preferably in Islamic Economics.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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3
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
Table - 2 The detailed original program of ISU in Economics
Shariah Courses
Tajweed
Ulum Al-Quran
Tafseer (1-2)
Ayat Al-Ahkam AlIqtesad*
Logic (1-3)
Preliminary Figh (1-2)
Figh (1-4)
Figh Al-Iqtesad (1-3)*
Usul Al-Figh (1-3)
Aqeeda (1-3)
Islamic History (1-3)
* Course presented at M.A level
No. of
Credits
1
1
4
2
6
8
13
10
9
8
6
Economics
Mathematics (1-2)
Statistics (1-2)
No. of
Credits
6
8
Arabic
Conversation (1-9)
14
Principles of economics
Microeconomics (1-2)
4
6
Grammar (1-7)
Literature (1-2)
21
4
Macroeconomics (1-2)
Growth & Development
Money & Banking
Islamic economics
Iran economy
Research Paper
Economic Planning*
International trade*
Econometrics*
Topics in Islamic
Economics*
Economic systems*
History of Economic
Thought*
Thesis
6
3
3
2
3
3
3
3
4
3
English
Conversation (1-3)
Grammar (1-5)
Economic texts
10
16
2
3
3
4
Language
Farsi
Literature
No. of
Credits
4
Others
Physical
Training
(1-2)
No. of
Credits
2
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
4
Mahdi Askari
b. The Role of Fiqh in the program
Since the graduate students are expected to derive the Islamic rules in economic
areas, it is necessary for every teaching program in IE to be facilitated with some
courses in Fiqh especially Fiqh Al-Eqhtesad. About 15 percent of ISU program in
economics is devoted to Fiqh in different levels. The texts are original not
translated.
In preliminary Fiqh, the students will learn different books (parts) of Fiqh
without reasoning. In the second level of Fiqh, they will be familiar with the
opinions with some kind of reasoning. In this level not only economic books (like
Muamalat, Mudarabah, Ijarah) but also other books (like Ibadat) are taught.
As I mentioned, the original books in Fiqh (according to Shiah school ) are
studied by the students in Arabic. In this way the graduates can understand the Fiqh
concepts and communicate with Ulama to some degree if it is required in the way
of theorizing IE.
c. The Role of Usul Al- Fiqh
This course is a necessary device for understanding Fiqh and deriving Islamic
rules from Quran and Sunnah. It provides some principles by which we can
understand the real meaning of the words given by Allah in Quran or the Prophet in
Sunnah in the form of behavioral rules or prohibitions and wujoobs affecting
economic behavior.
The other usage of usual , is that it provides some rules for Faqih to find the
prescription for the cases in which there is no direct (or explicit) way to find out
the purpose of Shariah in a field of life .For instance there is several contracts, for
which there is no prohibition, in these cases Usul Al Baraa and Ibaha can be sued
and we conclude that they are Halal (or not prohibited).Usul Al – fiqh is taught in
ISU using original books in Arabic.
In this way, the graduates will be able to use these principles in their researches
in IE especially if they work on Quran and Sunnah to derive originally the Islamic
economic rules.
d. The Role of English Language in the Program
As Mentioned before , one of the goals of ISU program in Economics was
introducing the conventional economics to the students as well as possible using
the original books, so as other fields of the university.
For this reason , one independent department was erected as department and
about 15 percents (28 credits) of the courses was devoted to this subject .
The students should study all of the main courses using original English text
books (e.g. Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, money & banking, and so
Page 34
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
Page 35
5
on) .Moreover , at least 3 courses must be taught in English (Micro 2 , Macro2, and
international trade)
In this way, the graduates will be able to use the main texts in Economics in
English and study the related papers. It is valuable to mention that ISU in this
regard has had a comparative advantage in sending its graduates to the famous
International universities to continue their study in PhD level (e.g. Toronto, Ottawa
and MC Gill universities)
e. The Importance of Arabic in the discipline
Arabic is considered as the language of Quran and Sunnah. Approximately 20
percent (40 credits) of ISU discipline in Economics is the share of Arabic, with one
independent department established simultaneously with the establishment of the
university.
The objective, as referred to earlier, was understanding Shariah directly using
original sources to enable the graduates to derive the Islamic principles in their
field (i.e. economics ) by using Fiqh and Usul and other Islamic sciences as well as
possible.
Conversation and Grammar are emphasized to be used in communication with
other scholars in Islamic countries. ISU may be regarded the only university in Iran
which pay such an attention to Arabic.
f. The share of Economics in the program
Although some graduates of this program have been accepted in PhD level in
Iran and other countries, but as Iqbal (1998) concludes, the share of Economics is
about one third and this program to some degree is Shariah oriented.
Table (3) clarifies some basic courses that are not included (e.g. public
finance)and some of them that should be studied at two levels (B.A and M.A)are
presented only at one level(e.g. micro, macro , mathematics and econometrics)
In spite of the above remarks, since the university was using distinguished
instructors with incentived students and using original texts, it has been successful
and its results were satisfactory.
It should be mentioned that some courses named as “complementary” courses
were presented to the graduates who were willing to continue their study in PhD
level as a compensation for the incompleteness of the Economic knowledge of
them from 1989. Table (3) explains these courses. The reason that the number of
credits for economic courses were not added was the limitation of total credits (In
Iran, the M.A credit hours was 175 in that time).
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
6
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Mahdi Askari
Tables- 3:Ccomplementary courses for the original program
N0
Title
No of credit hours required
1.
Advanced Microeconomics
4
2
Advanced Macroeconomics
4
3
Advanced econometrics
4
4
Advanced Mathematics
4
5
Monetary Economics
3
g. The Result of The program
By addressing some indices we might evaluate the original program of ISU in
Economics highlighting its contribution to IE. The number of accepted students in
PhD levels in Iran and other countries the number of dissertations of the graduates
of ISU in IE, and the number of graduates that are accepted as staff in universities,
are used as some indicators for evaluating the program from the point of view of IE.
Table 4: Summarizes the results of this consideration
Accepted as PhD
Total
number of student
graduates
Iran
Other
countries
207
30
16
(14.5)
(7.7)
Accepted
as
university
staff
48
(23.1)
Dissertations
Dissertations
in IE at M.A in IE at PhD
level
level
33
(15.9)
Table 4: some indicatory indices of the application of the
program of ISU in economics (…): share from total
8
(17.4)
original teaching
3.The underlying Program of ISU in Economics (M.A Level)
Considering the following remarks about the original program, there was a
revision in the teaching program.
a. Necessity of revising the original program
There are some reasons that justify the revision of the original teaching program
of ISU in Economics. First, the share of economics was relatively low (about
1
)
3
and it was equal to the share of Shariah and language courses. It was lacking some
basic courses in economics such as public finance, energy economics, agricultural
economics; some courses must have been covered in two levels, B.A and M.A
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Page 37
7
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
while they were in B.A level and were presented as complementary courses. These
courses must have been included in the program .
Third, the share of language was as large as the share of Shariah courses and
Economics. It was possible to diminish their credit hours but compensate it by
increasing the share of the economic courses that could be presented in English. By
this procedure, there was a chance to increase the share of Economics.
b. The structure of the underlying program
This program which is done from 1995 , contains 225 credit hours. Table (5)
illustrates the structure of the program and the share of Shariah courses, Economics
and language from the total. In the new program totally 15 credits are increased
which are economics courses.
Table (5). Structure of underlying M.A program in Economics
Kind of course
Credit hours required
The share from total
Islamic courses
63
28
Economics
100
44.5
Language
53
23.5
others
4
1.7
Thesis
5
Total
225
Table (6) describes the courses and their corresponding credit hours required
categorized based on the above classification.
This program can be fulfilled in 6 years and then a dissertation should be
written by the student preferably in Islamic Economics.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
8
Table 6: Detailed courses of ISU teaching program
Shariah Courses
Tajweed
Ulum Al-Quran
Tafseer (1-2)
No. of
Credits
1
1
2
Preliminary Figh (1-2-3-4)
5
Figh (1-2-3-4)
8
Figh Al-Iqtesad* (1-2-3-4)
13
Usul Al-Figh (1-2-3)
10
Aqeeda (1-2-3)
7
Islamic History (1-2)
4
Ayat Al-Ahkaam*
Al-Iqtisadi
2
* M.A Courses
° Optional Courses
Mahdi Askari
Economics
Mathematics (1-2)
Statistics (1-2)
Principles of economics
Microeconomics (1-2)
No. of
Credits
6
8
4
6
4
Logic (1-2-3)
Page 38
Macroeconomics (1-2)
Money & Banking
Islamic Banking
Islamic Economics
Iran economy
Research paper
Economic Planning*
International trade
International Finance
Public Economics (1-2)
Econometrics
History of Economic Thought
Agricultural Economics
Computer Science
Mathematical Economics
Energy Economics
Intermediate Microeconomics (1-2)*
Intermediate Macroeconomics (1-2)*
Development Economics*
Economic Planning*
Topics in Islamic Economics*
Economic systems*
Econometrics o*
Mathematics(3) o*
6
3
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
3
3
3
2
2
6
6
3
3
3
3
3
Language
No. of
Credits
Arabic
Conversation (1-7)
9
Grammar (1-8)
20
Others
Persian
No. of
Credits
3
Islamic Revolution
2
Physical Training
Thesis
2
5
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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9
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
c. The share of Economics in this program
As Table (5) shows, the share of Economics is increased from 32.5 percent to
44.5 percent and numbers of credits devoted to economics is increased from 67
credits to 100 credits. The incompleteness of the original program in lacking some
basic economic courses and some courses in M.A level is compensated in the new
program . Actually the complementary courses(table3) are included in the program
as compulsory ones.
As we will see later, the result of increasing the share of Economics in the
discipline is rising the number of graduates who are accepted as PhD student.
d. The Role of language
Although the share of language is diminished (from 32.5 percent to 23.5 percent)
in the new program, but the number of courses which must be taught in English are
increased. In the underlying ISU program in Economics more than 25 credits (9
courses) are presented in English. This experience of Economic department will
help the student (and graduates)to be able to pass any economic course if presented
internationally.
e. The Results: Evaluation of the new program
Using the analysis presented for the original program, we can evaluate the new
program indirectly through introducing some indices about the graduates of the
new discipline of ISU in Economics, even though its life is not more than 10 years.
Table (7) summarizes the result of using some indices for evaluating the
underlying program of ISU.
Table 7: some indices showing the result of the new program
total number of graduates in
new program
19
accepted as PhD
student
No. of M.A Theses in
IE
11
4
4. ISU program in PhD
PhD program in Economics is started at 1994 in ISU. The program has not been
revised till now but some “new horizons” have been opened (will be mentioned).
The third group of students is going to finish their course in the next semester.
a. The structure of the program
PhD program in Economics contains 50 credits from which 20credits is devoted
to the dissertation. This structure which is described in table (8) is the same for all
universities in Iran
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
10
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Mahdi Askari
Table - 8: Structure of PhD program in ISU
Title
No. of credit hours
No. of courses
Compulsory courses
15
5
Major filed (optional)
9
3
Minor field (optional)
6
2
Thesis
20
Total
50
Table(9) describes the courses that can be categorized under the titles
mentioned above. I have listed only those optional courses which are chosen by
PhD students in ISU.
Table - 9: The format of PhD program in ISU
Compulsory
No. of
credits
Optional courses (field)
No. of
credits
Advanced
Microeconomics (1-2)
6
Advanced Mathematics (1-3)
9
Advanced
Macroeconomics (1-2)
6
Advanced monetary
economics(1-3)
9
Topics in Economics*
3
Advanced development
economics(1-3)
9
Advanced econometrics (1-3)
9
*The contents are determined by the department. It can be Islamic.
Imam Sadiq University in addition to the conventional PhD program of
Economics in Iran, presented some additional courses as complementary coping
with its objective of promoting IE and training specialists in this area. Table 10
illustrates these courses.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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11
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
Table - 10: The special complementary courses of ISU in PhD level
Title
No. of credits
Advanced Fiqh Al- Iqtisad(1,2)
4
Advanced Usul Al-Fiqh(1,2)
4
Advanced mathematics
3
Advanced English literature
3
b. Fiqh in PhD level
Some advanced topics are presented using original books. The items, which are
economic in nature, are taught in a comparative sense in which different views of
the scholars (Fuqaha) are discussed. The student will become familiar with the
methodology of Ijtehad by studying some Fiqh problems.
A research paper about a conventional economic problem which is related to
Fiqh should be provided by the student. Conclusion of the student himself is
required. This course may give some ideas to them for their theses which is
proposed to be written in IE.
c. Usul Al-fiqh in PhD level
It enables the student to analyze Quran and Sunnah and is necessary to derive
Shari[ah opinion in economic matters. It is also presented in a comparative sense
negotiating different views. A research paper in a qaeda (principle) al-fiqhi (e.g.
dheman , yad)which is related to economic relations is required . It should include
different views and a conclusion by the student himself is needed.
5. Oppennig New Horizons to ISU in Teaching IE
In 1999, ISU sent an academic group to Saudi Arabia to have a visit from, King
Abdul Aziz University and IDB. This was The first formal academic relationship
between two countries after the Islamic revolution in Iran.
The main subject of the discussion in visiting IRTI was the establishment of
“Islamic monetary economics” as a field for the second group of PhD students in
ISU and scientific communication of the two centers in IE. IRTI presented all of
its publications to the ISU. This was the beginning of the international
communication of ISU in IE. In summer 2000, Dr. Umar Zubair and Dr. Munawar
Iqbal had a visit from ISU. They had a lecture for the staff and the students of the
economic department. In winter 2000, Dr. Umar Chapra presented a lecture on
“Ibn Kaldoon Economic Thoughts” in ISU. Establishment of PhD program in
“Islamic monetary economics” as a joint project between ISU and IRTI renewed in
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
12
Page 42
Mahdi Askari
our discussions. Our constraints were shortage of time for the scholars in IRTI in
addition to the financial problems.
a. Distance learning: A New horizon for ISU in IE
In march 2003, Dr Munawar Iqbal suggested a plan for “distance learning
course” (DLC) on “Islamic Banking and Finance” with the assistance of IDB to
ISU in addition to Islamic International university of Pakistan, state bank of
Pakistan & Markfield center for higher education. with the assistance of IDB , ISU
center for DLC using video conference facilities was established.
In the following, the topics and the lecturers of DLC1 are introduced.
Table - 11: DLC1 schedule in “Current issues in Islamic Finance".
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Lecture
Recent Developments in the Theory
and Practice of Islamic Finance
Basle Framework and the Issues of
Regulation, Supervision and
Corporate Governance in Islamic
Banking
Issues of Islamic Accounting
Standards
Evaluation of Performance and XEfficiency of Islamic Banks
Risk Management in Islamic Banking
Liquidity Management in Islamic
Banking
Financial Engineering and Evaluation
of New Instruments (Sukuk,
Tawarruq, Islamic Mortgages etc.)
Challenges Facing Islamic Finance:
Research Areas
Islamic Banking at Systemic Level:
Issues and Approaches
Panel Discussion
Lecturer
Dr. Hamayon Dar
(from Markfield, U.K)
Dr. Umar Chapra
(from IRTI in Saudi Arabia)
Date
5-10-04
(21-8-25H)
12-10-04
(28-8-25H)
Dr. Seif el Din
(from Markfield, U.K.)
Dr. Khalid Hussein
(from IRTI in Saudi Arabia)
Dr. Tariqullah Khan
(from IRTI in Saudi Arabia)
Dr. Salman Syed
(from IRTI in Saudi Arabia)
Dr. Munawar Iqbal
(from IRTI in Saudi Arabia)
19-10-04
(5-9-25H)
26-10-04
(12-9-25H)
2-11-04
(19-9-25H)
9-11-04
(26-9-25H)
20-11-04
(7-10-25H)
Dr. Sayyid Tahir
(from Islamabad, Pakistan)
Dr. Sayyid Tahir
(from Islamabad, Pakistan)
One person each at IF, IIIE, IRTI
and ISUI,
23-11-04
(10-10-25H)
30-11-04
(17-10-25H)
7-12-04
(24-10-25H)
One week before every lecture , the ppt. version of the lecture together with its
source (related papers ) were sent by IRTI for the four centers. A research paper
was required to be written on the subject in addition to the exam.
The lecturers who were chosen from the centers engaging in DLC1 were the
scholars who had researches on their respective topic. The students were allowed to
ask their questions in the intervals of every session.
Imam Sadiq University has one course in its M.A program named as “Topics in
Islamic Economics”. It was being presented by different lecturers in different
related new topics in IE.DLC sessions were arranged as a part of this course. In
addition to our M.A students , some of the staff and PhD students were attending at
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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13
Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
DLC1. Considering the papers that were presented or referred, one written exam is
held. The students have chosen related topics and presented a research paper.
The lack of international relationship between the centers who are working on
IE has was a serious problem in the way of improvement of this discipline. DLC
was an initiative idea which provided a new channel by which the above problem
was solved
IRTI has organized DLC 2 for Fall 2005 0n “the principles of Islamic
Economics”. The program’s schedule is given below.
Table - 12: outline for DLC course of “Fundamentals of Islamic Economics.
No.
1
Topic
Comparative economic philosophies and
systems
Speaker
Dr. Umer Chapra,
IRTI.
2
Major prohibitions (riba, gharar, israf, …)
and major ‘wujoobs’ (zakah, infaq,…)
affecting economic behaviour.
Islamic vision of sustainable development
(social justice, basic needs included)
Justice and Development: An Islamic
Perspective
Dr. Anas Zarqa,
Kuwait.
Role of finance and financial
markets :Structure and management in an
Islamic perspective
Welfare theorems and their (ir)relevance
for Islamic economics – The role of state
and voluntary sector
Market structures and market equilibrium:
An Islamic perspective
Role of morality and religion in moulding
behaviour of economic agents:
Implications for consumer and firm
behaviour and for economic performance
Islamic approach towards insurance/takaful
in contemporary setting
Public policies (fiscal and monetary) from
an Islamic perspective
Panel discussion
Dr. Hamayon Dar,
Loughborough, UK.
7
4
8
6
5
3
9
10
11
Dr. Munawar Iqbal,
IRTI.
Dr. Zahedi Wafa,
ISU, Tehran, Iran
Dr. Asad Zaman,
IIU, Islamabad.
Dr. Seif el- Din,
MIHE, UK.
Dr. Davood
Manzoor, ISU,
Tehran, Iran.
Br. Attiquzzafar,
IIU, Islamabad.
Dr. Sayyid Tahir
IIU, Islamabad.
All resource persons
Date
4-10-2005
(probably 1st
Ramadan)
11-10-2005
(8-9-1426H
15-11-2005
25-10-2005
(22-91426H)
7-11-2005
(5-101426H)
8-11-2005
(6-101426H)
15-11-2005
(13th Shawal)
22-11-2005
(20-101426H)
29-11-2005
6-12-2005
13-12-2005
The Successful arrangement and fulfillment of DLC 1 provided a good
incentive for ISU staff in Economic department to participate in DLC2 : two
lecturers were chosen from ISU.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
14
Mahdi Askari
We have arranged the teaching program of the mentioned M.A course (topics in
IE) to be held by DL so that the remaining sessions of the semester be concentrated
on the DLC topics
According to the PhD program of ISU, it is required that one field must be in
“Islamic Monetary Economics”. One of our goals for International relationship was
satisfying this purpose.
By negotiating with IRTI, The following schedule shows the final proposed
topics on “Islamic Monetary Economics” which are to be presented by their
corresponding lecturers in Fall 2005 at PhD level for the ISU Students.
Table - 13: DLC course on “Islamic Monetary Economics” at PhD level
#
Topic
Speaker
1.
Efficiency of Financial Institutions
Dr. Khalid Hussein, IRTI
2.
Risk Management in Islamic Banking
Dr. Tariqullah Khan, IRTI
3.
Challenges faced by Islamic Banks in the
Framework of New Basel Accord
Dr. Tariqullah Khan, IRTI
4.
Financial Derivatives: An Islamic
Perspective
Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, IRTI
5.
Alternatives to Riba in Islamic Banking
Dr. Ausaf Ahmad, IRTI
6.
Prices and Wages Indexation: An Islamic
View
Dr. Munawar Iqbal, IRTI
7.
Monetary Management in an Islamic
Economy
Dr. Mabid Ali Al-Jarhi
(subject to availability of
videoconference facility in
Dubai)
8.
Riba Vs. Profit in an Exchange Economy
Dr. M. Umer Chapra, IRTI
9.
The Experience of Financial Markets in
Islamic Countries: A Comparative
Analysis
Dr. Abdelhameed Bashir,
IDB
It is hoped that some of the dissertations of these students be written based on
these topics or related ones in IE. Considering the background of the PhD students
in Fiqh and Usul – Al Fiqh together with this course, we are expecting to have
some research papers and dissertations in which a kind of original deduction of
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Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
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15
Islamic Economic laws (rules)by using Kitab (Quran) and Sunnah presented to the
Islamic Economic literature.
b. Off campus research and short semester teaching program
In addition to DLC for promoting IE in teaching programs and researches, it is
to have off- campus research and teaching program in other Islamic countries
which are considered as pioneers in IE.
Malaysia by establishing IIUM in 1979 and working on IE, is regarded as one
of the main centers for teaching and applying IE. Northern University of Malaysia
has a department in “Islamic banking and finance” which is noticeable in this field.
ISU is negotiating with the above center to have a bilateral scientific
communication starting by sending its PhD students to use their experience as well
as IIU M’s professors in the form of a short semester in the second half of the next
semester in Fall and winter 2005.It will be a kind of university to university
contract.
6. The future program of ISU in teaching IE
a. The need for revising the underlying program
The theories which are presented in every discipline are mostly based on some
axioms. These axioms are deduced by the scientist either by his rational logic
or(and) by noticing the behavior of the agents.
Islamic Economics is going to theorize the behaviors of The economic agents
according to the Islamic rules which are based on inspiration(wahi) and we know
that all these rules can not be derived directly from Kitab (Quran) but should be
deduced using Sunnah and the principles which are discussed in Fiqh and Usul AlFiqh. This process is called Ijtihad.
Considering these remarks, ISU teaching programs give a key role to Fiqh and
Usul Al-Fiqh. But in the discussed programs (the original and the underlying
programs), the graduates in M.A level are unable to move toward Ijtihad in
economic areas, since first, they should study different parts of Fiqh among which
some economic parts were discussed. Second the level of Fiqh and Usul Al-Fiqh
are not satisfactory for this purpose Fiqh and Usul are (according to the Shiah
school (the major religion of the country) not other schools so that their
communication with other Islamic economists in other countries who are believing
in other schools (i.e. Hanafi, Hanbali. Shafi, and Maleki) findings in IE are based
on their religious rules, may be difficult.
Moreover, in the two mentioned programs, the share of conventional Islamic
Economics courses were not satisfactory. Regarding the above reasons, the
economic department of ISU proposed a new teaching program which is to be
finalized in the next semester.
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Mahdi Askari
c. The structure of the program
Before illustrating the program in detail, we have a quick glance on its features:
i)
Only the economic books (parts) of Fiqh are studied but at different levels
ii) The share of conventional IE courses is increased
iii) Some fields(consisting of 6 to 12 credits in M.A level on different subjects
among which “Fiqh and Economics” and “Islamic philosophy of
Economics” are included)can be presented to the students.
iv) Optional courses (12 credits)are presented in the form of two minors (with
6 credits)or one major (with 12 credits)
Table (14) indicates the main structure of the future program of ISU in teaching
IE.
Table - 14: The structure of proposed program of ISU in Economics.
Title
No. of credit
hours required
The share from total
Islamic courses (compulsory)
72
32.9
Economics (compulsory)
88
40.1
Language (compulsory)
43
19.6
The field(s)* (optional)
12
5
Dissertation
5
Total
* It includes economic and Islamic courses
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Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
Table (15) describes the courses in detail in the proposed program.
Islamic courses
Title
Figh Al-Iqtisad* (1-6)
No. of
Credits
12
Economics in Quran & Sunnah
2
Figh’s principles (qawad Figh)
2
Figh (1-3)
5
Tajweed
1
Tafseer(1-4)
10
Sunnah Texts
2
Nahj al-Balagheh
2
Islamic thoughts (1-4)
8
Mahdi & Global Islamic
civilization
2
Islamic Humanities
2
Imam’s History (1-2)
4
History of Islamic civilization
2
Logic (1-2)
Principles of Islamic Government
3
2
Theoretical ethics(1-2)
2
History of Iran
2
Physical training (1-2)
2
Guidelines of life (1-2)
2
Study skills
1
Economics
Title
No. of
Credits
B.A courses
Principles of Eco. (1-2)
Mathematics (1-2)
Statistics (1-2)
Microeconomics (1-2)
Macroeconomics (1-2)
Money, Banking and financial markets
4
6
6
6
6
3
Islamic Economics (1-2)
International Economics (1-2)
Public Finance (1-2)
Islamic Banking and Finance
Econometrics
History of Economic thoughts
Development Economics
Iran Economy
Economics of Energy and Resources
Computer science
Accounting
4
6
4
2
3
3
3
3
3
2
3
Research report
2
M.A courses: compulsory
Microeconomics (1-2)
Macroeconomics (1-2)
Econometrics
Mathematics
Topics in Islamic Economics
Fields: optional
1-Figh & economics
2-Philosophy & Islamic economics
3-Law and Economics
4-International Economics
5-Development Economics
6-Monetary & Financial Economics
7-Energy Economics
8-Agricultural Economics
9-Mathematical Economics
10-Environment Economics
Dissertation
6
6
3
3
3
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
6 or 12
5
Language
Title
No. of
Credits
Arabic
Arabic Economic Texts
Conversation (1-7)
Grammar (1-5)
1
19
12
English
Conversation (1-2)
Grammar (1-5)
4
14
Farsi
Literature
Others
Title
Physical
Training
No. of
Credit
2
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Mahdi Askari
Every student should choose one or two fields which are presented at M.A level
preferably “Fiqh & Economics” as one field (with 6 credits) and one other among
the mentioned fields. The sum of his optional courses should be 12 credits.
The fields 3 to 10 which contain some researches in IE are planned in a manner
that includes at least one course in this regard.
Table (16) shows the Islamic courses in some of those fields
Table - 16: Islamic courses included in the fields
The field
Islamic courses
No. of
credits
Monetary and Financial
Economics
Islamic Monetary economics.
Islamic Financial economics
3
3
International
Economics
International Islamic Economic
organizations
3
Energy and
Environment
Economics
Energy & Environment in Islamic
Economics
3
In this way, except the first two fields, which are based on IE, the three other
fields also contain some courses in IE.
c. The field: Fiqh & Economics
Although the share of Fiqh and Usul is diminished in the future program of ISU
in comparison with the underlying program in compulsory courses, but as
mentioned in the features of the new discipline, all of the Fiqh’s credits at M.A
level are in Economic subjects Moreover , there is one field , named as “Fiqh &
Economics”, which contains the following courses at M.A level (table 17).
Table - 17: Description of the field “Fiqh & Economies”
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
Title
Advanced Fiqh Al-Iqtisad
Advanced Usul Al – Fiqh
Comparative Fiqh Al-Iqtisad
Comparative Usul Al-fiqh
Islamic public Finance
Intermediate Qawaed Al-Fiqhi
(principles of Fiqh)
No. of
credits
3
3
3
3
3
The student can choose two or four courses mentioned in table (17) as a minor
or major field. The courses (3) and (4) are planned to make the student familiar
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Teaching Islamic Economics in Imam Sadiq University
with the opinions of the Fiqhi scholars in economic subjects from different schools
of Islam.
All of the courses in the field “Fiqh & Economics” will be presented so that the
Fiqhi subjects in Economic area are described with their reasons from Kitab (Quran)
and Sunnah. As a result, the student will find the method of deriving the Islamic
rules using the basic (original) sources (Kitab & Sunnah).
d. The field: Philosophy and Islamic Economics
This is the second field at M.A level containing 4 courses that is related to IE.
One the basic debates about the nature of IE is rooted in philosophical features of
IE.
The course “Islamic Economics (I)” in the proposed program [mentioned in
table (15)] is devoted mostly to this subject. If the student (or researcher) has no
enough knowledge in this area, he can not think about IE as an independent system.
Table (17) illustrates the courses of the field in detail
Title
No. of credits
Philosophy of Economics
3
Philosophy of Islamic Economics
3
Ethics and Economics
3
Topics in philosophy of Economics
3
The student can choose 2 or 4 courses of the list above as his minor or major
field.
7. Challenges facing teaching IE in ISU
We can recognize some problems in the way of teaching Islamic economics among
which the insufficiency of resources (books, papers,…), insufficiency of applied IE
courses, the lack of international relationship with other centers, high opportunity
cost of searching in IE, and the lack of belief in IE in managing the society in
economic area can be recognized.
a. Insufficiency of IE resources
This problem which has some roots in other ones (e.g. lack of International
linkage) is a basic reason for ISU or other universities to be cautious in establishing
new field or defining new courses which are Islamic in their nature. It is also
considered as one of the reasons for M.A or PhD students not to write their
dissertations in IE or not to write their research reports in this area. This process by
itself leads to a fall in the progress of accumulation of these documents
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
20
Mahdi Askari
b. Insufficiency of Applied IE courses
Shari[ah courses in ISU are based on some original resources which are
presented by their specialists in Fiqh, Usul, Tafseer and others. The Application of
Islamic principles in economics should be done by defining some multi
disciplinary courses like “Islamic banking”, “Islamic public finance”, “Islamic
monetary economics” and so on.
The most of these courses are not existing the original and underlying courses
of ISU as well as other universities of Iran. This problem by itself may have some
reasons among which the insufficiency of resources can be named.
c. High opportunity cost of research in IE
As Ahmadi (2005) refers, specializing in IE requires an accepted level of
knowledge in Fiqh and Usul in addition to Economics. Moreover, the demand side
of IE is not active as conventional economics which causes disincentive effect on
teachers and researchers consequently diminishing the supply of effort in this area.
Another related problem is the dominancy of quantitative conventional
economics and the market for its empirical cases (e.g. dissertations and projects) to
IE which attracts the instructors and researchers so that investing in IE has a high
level of opportunity cost for them.
d. The lack of International relationship
This is a basic problem which strengthen the other problems mentioned above.
Up to the last year, ISU almost had no academic relationship with other IE centers
in other countries. This is a challenge facing other universities in Iran.
This problem may have some political and financial roots. It affects the level of
knowledge in IE to be far from that in Islamic world, the lack of interaction
between the ideas in different schools of thoughts in Islamic ideology, repetition of
the findings of Islamic economists and accepting their ideas without any challenge.
Moreover, the experiences of other countries in applying IE in different areas
will teach us not to repeat their mistakes and is valuable for saving money, energy ,
and time.
e. The weakness of the belief in Islamic discipline
As Al-Fanjari (2003) mentions, Islam was not revealed to man for spiritual
guidance, but it came in order to organize man’s life in all its aspects, whether they
are political, social or economic. Thus, Islamic economics is as old as Islam.
We can realize the result of this problem in different areas: first it discourages
the governors to follow the policies or strategies for promoting IE consequently not
supporting the IE centers (like ISU) and not demanding projects, plans or teaching
programs. It affects the students and researchers’ view about IE.
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21
Second, It causes the learned people (the scholars) in economics not to believe
that Islam by itself, independent of other schools, can manage the society,
consequently make them prescribe some mixed solutions which are not originated
from real Islamic rules but are some economic laws which are Islamized. These
principles may fail to solve the underlying economic problem since they are not
neither economic nor Islamic. For instance, Qarz al-Hasan is introduced as an
alternative to Riba by Quran. If There is a strong belief in this Islamic idea, it will
be the duty of economists and policy markers to propose some strategies consistent
with this rule in banking system.
8. Concluding Remarks: suggestions for promoting IE
Considering the experience of ISU as an Islamic university which was
established to theorize the application of Islamic principles in different aspects as
in economics, the following remarks can be mentioned.
a. Encouraging the researches in IE
It contains both the faculty members and the students. For the students, recently
the economic department of ISU announced that only those PhD dissertations are
acceptable that be written in IE. At M.A level, IE has the first priority but the
dissertations in Iran economy need some kind of contracts that justify the
usefulness of the research for the society and is supported financially by some legal
entity .
Those faculty member’s researches which are in agreement with IE have some
additional weight in their scientific progress and that their respective projects will
be preferred to other ones.
In this way, we can be hopeful that after some period of time we may have a
stock of knowledge which may be useful for different purposes.
c. Distance learning courses (DLC): A new International communication
As mentioned before, ISU is experiencing distance learning courses at M.A
level and it is planned to have this opportunity at PhD level in the near future. this
is a new horizon which is provided by IDB and had following advantages for ISU
in IE.
First, it provided a new area for the students to use the recent researches in IE in
the form of DLC by some famous Islamic economists. This opportunity was not
possible before and the scientific level of this course (DLC) has been considerably
superior to the previous one (native course). It is valuable to mention that the
students communicate in English (or Arabic)with the lecturer and discuss their
comments. This may encourage them to study the subject before the class.
Second, the students are supposed to present an acceptable research paper
related to the topics. This process will promote by itself the Islamic economic
knowledge and give some theme for their dissertation. .
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
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Mahdi Askari
Third, it will encourage the faculty members to work in this area to be able to
present a lecture at this level. As an experience, the proposed topics of two faculty
members of ISU are acceptable for DLC2 which will be held in fall 2005. They are
working hard, using many papers for presenting their lecture. This is in agreement
with the goals of ISU (or any other IE center). The continuance of this procedure
will guarantee the dynamics of teaching programs and research process in the
center.
Fourth, DLC will lead to the definition of new courses in IE, since a
considerable volume of papers are gathered through the sessions in addition to the
positive incentive which provides for the students, instructors the center and at the
final for the government to invest in this field.
Fifth, it saves a lot of time and money required for managing and undertaking
these kinds of joint programs at M.A or PhD level considering the full time
position of the scholars presenting the lectures.
Sixth, by using this kind of international teaching program, we can establish
new applied Islamic economic fields in graduate level. As an experience, we
designed the field “Islamic monetary economics” at PhD level for our second
group of PhD students in ISU, but it failed since we could not carry the program
out without the assistance of the international IE center in other countries. But after
our experience of DLC at M.A level, we are planning to present the mentioned
filed in the form of DLC.
c. Constructing a positive belief in IE
One of the major problems challenging IE was introduced as the weakness of
belief in this discipline. There may be different suggestions for promoting it.
First, presenting a complete set of Islamic courses to the student so that the
graduates (although in limited numbers) have an acceptable background in Shariah
courses which enable them to analyze the economic matters in an Islamic context.
The dominance (or equivalence) of Shariah courses to economic courses in ISU has
been for this purpose.
Second, to support these graduates, especially PhD graduates, by choosing their
best ones as staff or researcher for the center. This process was done in ISU. The
Economic faculty contains eleven members form which 7 members (more than 63
percent) are its graduates in M.A and PhD level and 2 members are its graduates in
M.A level whose PhD is from Canadian universities.
Third, to provide some opportunities for them to communicate with other
Islamic economists in different countries and be informed other experiences of IE
in theory and application in the Islamic world. This will strengthen their belief in
the validity of Islamic rules since the successful experiences of other Islamic
centers make them deterministic in their belief. This procedure is initiated in ISU
by sending an academic group to Saudi Arabia in 1999 but it should be promoted.
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REFERENCES
1. Ahmadi, Ali Mohammad, (2005), “Challenges Facing Islamic Economics
Teaching System”, Quarterly Journal of Islamic Economics, vol.5, No.18 , Qom,
Iran.
2. Ahmed, S.A, “Global need for a New Economic concept: Islamic Economics”,
International Journal of Islamic Financial services, vol. 1, No.4.
3. Al Fanjari, M.S., (2003), “The Essence of Economic policy in Importance of
Islamic Economics” , www.ymofmd.Com /books/eepie.
4. “Imam Sadiq Teaching Program”, (1987), ISU Publications.
5. “Imam Sadiq Teaching Program”, (1997), ISU Publications.
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Problems and Prospects of Promoting Partial
Programs of Teaching of Islamic Economics: A Case
of BZU (Pakistan) and MIHE (UK)
by
Toseef Azid∗
In this advanced age of information technology the nature and structure of
knowledge do not seem as we have in the past centuries; new disciplines of
knowledge are emerging, structural changes are observed in the old discipline and
interdisciplinary approach is getting more importance than ever. The institutions of
higher education have, in the main, attempted to adapt by changing their curricula,
access procedures and organisation, to meet the challenges which knowledge
change has brought about. Many individuals nowadays have to handle many
frames of reference in order to understand themselves and the world around them.
This has been described by Barnett (2000) as an age of “super complexity”, the
outcomes of which will be changing perceptions of the function of knowledge and
profound challenges to the future of higher education. Among the different
disciplines Islamic Economics is one which revived after the mid of previous
century.
The introduction of Islamic Economics into university curricula started quite
late in spite of the enthusiasm shown by the Muslims towards the application of the
precepts that contain the principles of Islamic economics. After the conference on
Islamic economics which was held in Mecca in February 1976, this subject got
room in university curricula of almost all over the world. At present Islamic
economics has become one of the prescribed subjects in several institutes and
universities of Muslim as well as in the western world.
The basic purpose of the module of all these programs is to train students in
traditional economics and teach them Shariah aspects side also so that they could
study and understand the original sources and answer the questions related to daily
life within Islamic framework. After a struggle of thirty years it has become a
noticeable thrust to analyse the problems and challenges faced by the institutes
teaching Islamic Economics and to foresee the future prospects of this discipline.
Generally for the teaching of any subject (same for the Islamic Economics) two
types of approaches are prevailing in the academic institutions (Thomas 2004;
∗
Markfield Institute of Higher Education, Markfield, Leicestershire, LE67 9SY, UK
Page 54
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Toseef Azid
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2
Barnett 2001).
i) Commodification
The proponent of this approach has the idea of producing students according to
the requirement of the market. In this way they can take the benefit of
multinational corporations, the world of financial institutions and the market
economy. Through this mode they can develop different dimensions of the subject
theoretically as well as practically (Thomas 2004; Barnett 2001).
ii) Originality and inventing new paradigm
The other group raises the objection that commodification endangers academic
freedom and minimise the university education in society. In their opinion the
subject will only develop if we give less attention to the market dimensions and
place more emphasis on the development of original ideas (Barnett 2001).
Two approaches can also be observed related to the mode of learning of higher
education, i.e., deep learning approach and surface learning approach. The first
approach has the view that each and every topic should be covered in detail in the
prescribed module (so much time is required), this should be based on three layers;
i) presage, ii) process iii) output. The second approach guides that more topics
should be covered within a minimum time and student can apply this knowledge
in their practical life (Guest and Nerina 2003).
The main objective of the present study is to analyse the structural pattern of
different institutions which offer the Islamic Economics at post graduate level.
To achieve this purpose we selected two institutes in our sample, having the
different structural model for teaching of Islamic Economics, one is the Bahauddin
Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, Pakistan (offers a single module at the post
graduate Level in Economics, Islamic Studies and Commerce) and other is the
Markfield Institute of Higher Education (MIHE), UK (offers a complete program
on Islamic banking, Finance and Management). This study is organized in the
following way: section (I) discusses the case of BZU and MIHE whereas section
(II) deals with the general problems, challenges along with some suggestions for
improvement in the teaching.
Section I
1.1 Teaching Structure of Islamic Economics at BZU
For teaching Economics and Shari’ah simultaneously in Pakistan the module of
Islamic Economics was developed and introduced in this and other institutes. In
1976 it was introduced for the students of Economics, then in 1983 for students of
Islamic studies and in 1998 for students of commerce. The syllabi of Islamic
studies and economics cover almost all the important topics of economics, i.e.,
consumer behaviour, firm behaviour, ownership, factors of production, market
structure, banking and finance, comparative analyses of the systems and so on. The
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Promoting Partial Programs of Teaching of Islamic Economics
Page 56
3
method of teaching in both the disciplines is similar, normally no technicalities are
discussed of the economics.1 The surface learning approach is applied for this
module. It is assumed that it is sufficient to introduce the basic concepts for
students to apply these in their practical lives. This is a one semester course. The
commodification approach has not been applied but unfortunately no efforts are
made in the development of the theoretical aspects. Same model prevails at all the
postgraduate institutes and universities in Pakistan except International Institute of
Islamic Economics.2
However, the faculty of commerce and business administration offers a course
on Islamic Finance. This module covers some basic and practical concepts relating
to banking and finance in the environment of Islamic system, like Musharakah,
Mudhrabah, Takaful, Murabaha and their practical implications discuss during one
semester. The so called deep learning approach is applied. Implicitly the
development of the module is based on the idea of commdodification. This course
is offered because of competition among the different institutes of Pakistan.
In fact positive learning spillovers do exist in between topics and therefore
dropping of some topics reduces the quality of learning outcomes of other topics
(Thomas 2004). Over and above positive learning spillovers do not exist in the
structure of teaching at BZU. Another phenomenon which observed at BZU is that
teaching is more preferable than research (same situation exists in all the post
graduate institutes and universities those offer Islamic Economics).
i) Teaching is a primary objective whereas research is secondary
ii) Research culture has been slow to take off
iii) Outcome of teaching is less measurable
In a nutshell, the approach is not issue and problem oriented, no uncertainty and
enquiry so existing model of teaching of Islamic economics is in a blur situation.
Another dimension which is very weak is that faculty of concerned disciplines
is not well equipped with the appropriate techniques, issues and methodology of
teaching of Islamic economics and almost no one has the proper training. The
faculty does not know how to teach and what to teach in the module of Islamic
Economics. Furthermore, a common understanding prevails among the faculty
members that there is no need of training in this subject. Unfortunately, still most
of the faculty has the feelings that Islamic Economics is not a technical subject as
all the other branches of these disciplines. In this case the faculty has no challenges
and no future planning.
1
All the universities and post graduate colleges of Pakistan except International Institute of
Islamic Economics (Islamabad) are applying the same approach and methodology for the
teaching of Islamic Economics. However for Islamic finance too some extent so called deep
learning approach is applied and also the emphasis is on the commodofication.
2
See appendix A.
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Toseef Azid
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4
However, two types of view are prevailing related to the teaching of Islamic
Economics:
i) According to first view mainstream economic methodology adapted for the
study of Islamic economics does not have rationality. There is no relationship
between the two methodologies and hence between the vastly distinct tracts of
concepts, theories and application of the two different fields. Instead of
comparing and contrasting with the conventional economics, it is a best way
to develop the complete model of Islamic Economics.
ii) According to second view there should be a balanced program, for example if
we are developing the model for Islamic Banking we are intentionally or
unintentionally formulating this model on the basis of conventional system or
when we are developing the model of profit and loss share, the western labour
market helps us in this development or similarly for micro economics we
borrow the terminologies from the western literature. According to them
conventional economics is a well developed discipline whereas Islamic
Economics is in its embryonic stage so only leave those topics which have the
contradictions with the Islamic system. They are in opine that we cannot teach
the Islamic Economics in isolation from the conventional economics.
Owing to the above mentioned problems and issues the students do not seem to
be satisfied with the teaching as well as the arguments in the favour of Islamic
economics.
1.2. Markfield Institute of Higher Education (MIHE)
At present MIHE has launched a MA program in Islamic banking, Finance and
management. In this program five modules are covering the different concepts of
Islamic Economics. The titles of these courses are (students have to the take the
following modules):
Compulsory:
Islamic Economics; Islamic Banking and Finance; Financial Institutions and
Systems; Cross-Cultural Management; Research Methodology; and Dissertation.
And one of the following:
International Development and Finance or Quantitative Development
Except the Islamic Economics all others are starting from the conventional
economics and then explaining with reference to Muslim countries in the periphery
of Islamic economics. In the development of these courses the institute considered
the following basic points:
i) Use topical issues particularly those involving policy implications, to illustrate a
range of ideas
ii) Provide some empirical grounding for theoretical model in the modules
Workshop on Teaching of Islamic Economics
Promoting Partial Programs of Teaching of Islamic Economics
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5
iii) Make sure that students know something about the Islamic economic history
especially the first two centuries(hijrah) and the importance of Islamic
economic institutions
iv) Take advantage of advances in computer technology to enable students to use
interacting agent based models wherever possible
The model is based on deep learning approach simultaneously applying the
principle of the commodification.
However, some issues are observed relating to the above mentioned program at
MIHE. These are as follows:
i) The first issue which has been observed is the difficulty in presenting the
Islamic economic system, as it is a developing discipline, and most of the
issues remain to be discourse rather than tested facts and realities. This makes
the entire exercise terribly difficult for those students who like to see Islamic
economics beyond fancily designed discourses. In other words, theoretisation is
missing and because much of the efforts go to Islamic financial issues, Islamic
economics is not allocated enough efforts. For instance, for economic growth;
Islamic economics has not come up with a theoretical framework to
demonstrate how economic growth can be achieved in the Islamic economic
system. Another example is the development economics. While it is true that
criticism of the capitalist system is presented, the Islamic approach remains
very discursive and does not even provide a concerted theoretical formulation
and therefore remains only poverty oriented policy suggestions. This is an
important issue, as some of the books on Islamic economics suggest policy
recommendations which are not terribly different than neo-classical approach.
Therefore, for instance, this year a number of student wrote their assignment on
the critics of Islamic economic development discourse. Thus, discipline has not
evolved enough to provide the relevant material and it resulted students’
disappointment with Islamic economics course.
ii) As to the Islamic finance, students may find it more relevant and more easily
handled, as Islamic finance is heavily relied on neo-classical economic way of
understanding finance. Thus, students coming from conventional finance
background can easily handle the Islamic finance, despite its Shari’ah
dimensions.
iii) The difficulty in Islamic finance teaching is that students tend to expect too
much practical dimensions of Islamic finance and complain that these are all
very theoretical financing modes and wonder it practicability. Most of the
students come to the course expect to find a job after their masters degree at the
Islamic finance sector. However, Islamic financial institutions rather prefer to
employ people who have degrees on conventional finance. Thus, this creates
problem between supply and demand and as a result students feel that they
should learn more practical aspects of Islamic finance. However, this is due to
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the fact that Islamic financial sector is far ahead of academia in relation to
Islamic financial engineering. This is something that students feel and realise as
well.
Consequently, due to the market conditions, Islamic economics, banking and
finance course include a number of modules on conventional economics and
finance to substantiate student’s understanding of the subjects and prepare
them for better futures in terms of their professional career.
iv) In addition to such subject related issues, it should also be mentioned that the
variation in student’s backgrounds can be a difficulty as well. This is because
students are drawn from traditional Shari’ah and economics and finance
background. While they take the same modules, the variation in the
background can hinder the depth of teaching.
v) At MIHE, one of the difficulties is human resources in terms of teaching
Islamic economics, banking and finance. If the resources were available, then
it would have been possible to breakdown Islamic economics, banking and
finance subjects into more detailed modules. This can result in a number of
optional modules and can provide specialisation areas. In addition to human
resources, this currently is not an economically viable option as MIHE have
about 20-23 students, and hence MIHE cannot provide many optional modules
for such a small student body.
vi) An external problem for MIHE is the political circumstances in the UK. The
recent developments in the UK involving Muslims have not been helping to
substantiate and consolidate the position of the Institution. While London has
become an important hub for Islamic finance, the political development seems
to undermine the strength of the institution despite the fact that institution is
no way a part of the conflict. The media has on various occasions attempted to
scrutinise MIHE. However, since MIHE does not involve in any political
discourse, the harmful intents from such incidents have not been successful.
This has implications for students’ future carriers as the future employees may
not be happy to see the student graduating from an Islamic institutions, or they
may express concern that student has done master something to do with
Islamic. Due to such fear, some students who graduate from MIHE do not
include MIHE in their CV, as they get their diploma/graduation certificate
from Loughborough University in any way.
However, this is a Compact program. So far more emphasis is given on finance
than management. Students seem to be emotional and they have the curiosity as to
how the Islamic instruments will apply in the real world. They have also some
confusion about the different instruments like Murabaha. They have the opinion
that policy of compromises is not the best policy. According to some of them they
have good exposure of Islamic economics and finance but less emphasis is given
on Islamic jurisprudence so balance should be made in the syllabus.
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MIHE also has a plan to start the distance learning program of Islamic Economics.
Section II
2 A General Outlook
In this section we present some common issues and their appropriate solutions.
2.1 Some common issues
Some common problems which we observed during the study are presented
here.
i) Lack of Literature and Experts: In general, the main problem is lack of
literature. Approximately all of the institutions lack full literature covering all the
aspects of Islamic economics. Students, in general, need text books but no
particular comprehensive text books are available. Furthermore, in the literature
more emphasis is given on the Islamic finance and less on Islamic economics.
Lack of experts having the knowledge of both fields, i.e., traditional and Islamic.
ii) Opinion of the Senior Faculty Members in the Institutions: Another
considerable enigma facing Islamic Economics at universities is related to the
opinion of a quite number of senior faculty members. They believe that the
discipline hasn't been able to develop the kind of rigour that would justify a fullfledged post-graduate course under that title. They also blame that this is the
political agenda of one particular group. We are sure that the opinion is a little
biased but it does suggest that the experts of mainstream economics haven't as yet
been introduced to the subject in academia effectively.
iii) Important queries: Teachers of Islamic economics have the following typical
queries.
i) Technically what are the dominating behavioural values or ethos assumed in this
discipline?
ii) Is competition unique, positive driving force of our economic activities?
iii) What makes the economy works?
iv) How scientific can we be in studying the economy in this framework?
v) Can we know about the economy with stressing history?
iv) Difference between the conventional and Islamic economics: We have to
understand the difference between greed, materialism, individuality, rationality and
the Islamic injunctions; examine the ethics, methodology, history, institutions and
policy formulations and how these are different from the other systems.
v) Internal inconsistencies: Because of ideological commitment, Islamic
Economics hasn't been able to progress the way it could have. Many people in the
process of promoting ideas of Islamic Economics are committed to one religious
view or the other. Once a religious view is accepted, it becomes the word of God to
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many. Anyone who attempts to criticize it is seen to be a misguided heretic. The
end result is lack of rigour and much lesser possibilities of new, bright minds
getting attracted towards it. Several examples from the field of Islamic Banking
and Finance prove the point. The completely unintelligible concept of Riba al-Fadl
along with the accompanying arguments to justify it and the strange logic to justify
Murabaha are just two of the many examples that can be quoted. The end result is
that the Westerners claim that there is no internal consistency in the theory of
Islamic Finance and can only make sense to a religious committed person.
vi) Ideological commitment: The biggest challenge the cause of teaching Islamic
Economics in Universities is facing is that there seems to be an ideological
commitment attached to teaching it. Introducing it is therefore seen more as an
actualization of a religious ideal rather than introducing a new, exciting field of
investigation. When religious value gets attached to a field of learning which
traditionally has been seen as a completely secular area of investigation, the
ideological biases of the decision-makers creep in. Since Economics is dominated
by those people who have a secular mindset even in the Muslim countries, it will
take some time before Islamic Economics gets greater recognition. Islamic
Economics alone, becomes more prominent and therefore threatening for many
non-religious people. The current challenge is to recruit a significant number of
faculty whose skills, ability, motivation and philosophy match the mission and
goals of the Islamic Economics.
2.2 A path towards improvement
After reviewing the behaviour of the institutions and collecting the opinion from
the experts3 we have the following suggestions:
It has been felt that in order to overcome the difficulties arising in the teaching
of Islamic economics and finance, it is important that more research should be
conducted in the field. This is related to resources, indeed. However, without
finding the resources, developments in the discipline will be very little and the gap
between academic endeavours and professional Islamic financial sector will widen.
It is already the case that professionals have a very dismissive attitude towards
academics in the subject matter.
3
We are very much indebted to Professor Masud ul Alam (University College of Cape
Breton, Canada), Professor John Presley(Loughborough University, UK), Dr Mehmat
Asutay and Dr Attaullah Siddiqui (Markfield Institute of Higher Education, UK), Professor
Syed Tahir and Dr. Syed Nasim Shirazi (International Institute of Islamic Economics,
Islamabad Pakistan), Professor Khalid Aftab (Vice Chancellor, Government College
University, Lahore, Pakistan), Professor Eatzaz Ahmad (Quaid-i-Azam University,
Islamabad, Pakistan), Dr Khalid Zaheer (Lahore University of Management Sciences,
Lahore, Pakistan), Professor Abdul Hafeez Ch. (Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan,
Pakistan) and Dr Abdul Basit (Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan) for their valuable
comments and suggestions.
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There is a need of more work on empirical basis. Those should be presented in
the academic conferences and there should be sharing the knowledge, problem and
experiences. There is a need of empirical studies, especially for the Muslim
countries and involve more people in the research. Theoretical model taught in
courses need empirical grounding if they are too persuasive. Probably there is no
other way out but to publish more and more articles in academic journals of high
repute. Simultaneously, standard text books should be developed having sound
base of theory with empirical evidences. We have to put more efforts on another
dimension that related to the several old books written by the Muslim scholars are
full of original ideas that could be compared favourably with the modern concepts
and theories of economics. Also several intellectuals do not imagine the existence
of an Islamic Economic system which can meet the needs of modern society and
compare favourable with the two dominant systems of capitalism and socialism. So
we need to develop the durable foundations and manners of Islamic Economics for
those intellectuals.
Students learn from the mainstream economics that economic agents are
responded to price mechanism or bounded rationality, students are asking
frequently that how these concepts are different from the Islamic injunctions. It
alerts academics to address the issues constructively. Islamic Economics makes a
real and substantial difference in how economic affairs understood and how
economics taught, i.e., we have to teach this subject with the moral and ethical
attitude.
A university or college is only as good as its faculty is (Dressel 1981). An
institution’s most valuable resource is its faculty. The faculty determine the
structure and quality of the curriculum, control the quality of instruction, positions
the institution relative to creativity and scholarship, and implement the institution’s
service linkages and relationships. Apart from the physical plant, the faculties are
the institution’s greatest investment (Jennings et al 1991). Orientation, education,
training and development of teachers of Islamic Economics are a principal thrust.
Periodic training program for teachers should be arranged. Not only teaching a
certain contents in economics as an alternative to the mainstream but also changing
the way we as teacher conceptualize the learning process. Teachers should have the
capacity to Predict the knowledge expansion in this field and have the ability to
plan the curricula accordingly. Teachers should know the present challenging
realities in attaining the goal of an effective and relevant curriculum and they also
have the command to develop the research needs priorities and their management.
The teaching should follow the following criteria:
• Philosophical criteria: Theoretical, methodological, and values position of the
curricula, enhance the intellectual development of the students (include the
technicalities)
• Psychological criteria: Develop high level skills, reasoning, problem solving,
critical thinking and creativity, and relate to the process of activity (Papers, case
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studies and exercise )
• Practical Criteria: Articles based on the empirical evidences
• Student Criteria: Relevant, interesting and contemporary
Teachers should know the extrinsic and intrinsic needs of the subject whereas
students should know the all aspect of the chosen field. At the time of module
development some priorities should be established and these three questions should
always be there, i.e., what, how and how far, knowing how and knowing what is
the most important. More efforts should be done on the durable concepts rather
than the transit one. More emphasis should be on the application and the practical
value of the contents.
There should be a dynamic balance between the culture of Islamic and
conventional economics (fiqh etc. should be taught in English). In this present
scenario, every branch of academic have local and global dimensions, keeping this
in view the experts should be careful in the generation, production and then
distribution of the knowledge of Islamic Economics. The question about the
diversity or uniformity of both the cultures should be clear to the teachers as well
as to the students.
There is a vacuum in the area of academic interaction in this field. It seems that
there are a number of institutions providing education and training in the Islamic
Economics. However, there is a lack of communication between these institutions.
It is felt that a closer relationship would improve educational and research work
conducted in each of these institutions. So the need of twinning partnership and
other forms of close academic exchange is recommended. . It is also suggested that
interaction among the teachers of Islamic Economics should be started and
continued. A strong and efficient networking is required among the institutions,
industry, marketing, financial institutions, commercial multinational organizations
and international bodies such as Islamic Development Bank.
Students should be better equipped to meet the challenge of the age of super
complexity. They should be more aware of global and international issues and also
be able to face the challenges both now and in the future. They should be
encouraged for sound critical,
innovative and creative thinking, active
participation and apply what they have learned. Strong impact of learning of
Islamic Economics should also be observed on their behaviour (reflects own
cultural needs and values.). The following some points are suggested for the
development of students;
• have a content that was relevant to contemporary world issues
• question the theoretical content and its practical relevance
• Stimulate analytical thought
• Engage and inspire the mind
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• Encourage high level of interaction between fellow students (recognisable
interaction and exchange of knowledge, skills and attitude
Each student should write an essay on any the related topics and present in the
class and then submit. Then presenter be asked to leave the room and discussion
continued with a view to improve it.
In this present age of globalization, exogenous and endogenous variables are
effecting the academic environment of every society. The endogenous variables are
related to the culture of the society. Now-a-days new domain of knowledge is
emerging, i.e., aesthetic, normative and spiritual knowledge. So in this scenario the
importance of Islamic economics is growing which also discusses a significant
portion of the normative economics. A comparative economic theory and
international relations theory is required.
No doubt the main emphasis should be on the traditional economics, but they
have to introduce some basic courses in the Islamic Economics, such as
Fundamental/Doctrine of Islamic Economics and Current Issues etc. For teaching
the deep learning approach will be more useful instead of surface learning
approach. Because every topic has its own externalities, so deep learning approach
is giving more insight of the subject than the surface learning approach. There
should be a process of teaching like the first we have the presage, then the process
of learning and then the product. This is a natural phenomenon. The model should
be the mixture of market orientation and original thought provoking.
An aggressive propagation is required from the international institutes such as
IRTI for the development of this subject. Sufficient finances are required for
setting up the new Departments in the different parts of the world and also some
chairs for Islamic Economics are to be announced along with new projects
through IDB in these institutions and encourage the young and new scholars in this
field and get the benefit from their abilities in this way we can use their skills in a
better way.
Last but not the least, other than the pure Islamic economics and the Shari’ah
courses it is up to the individual teachers to decide the level of Islamic economics
content in their courses.
Recapitulations
Islam as a religion has its own code of life and the different disciplines of
knowledge has the guidance from Qur’an and Sunn’ah. The development of all
these disciplines is based on the Islamic jurisprudence. After the mid of this
century different disciplines in the Islamic framework are started to revive., e.g.,
economics, political science, sociology and jurisprudence. Among all of these
disciplines, economics got the more attention from the academia as well as from
the practitioners, especially Islamic banking and finance are more attractive areas.
However, research and area of study pertaining to this subject is still limited. So
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this is the voice of the time that highlights economic percept of Islam in the
language of modern times. This only can be done in the institutes of higher
education. As we have reviewed the working of two institute in section I. It is clear
from the survey that the teaching of Islamic economics is still passing in the
transitory phase and requires the sound and durable grounds. Through teaching we
can produce the dedicated and good student who could be able to develop this
subject. However, our suggestion hinges on striking a trade-off between the
idealistic and pragmatic, and the less attainable and more attainable: all within the
constraint of cost, accessibility, staff and time factors.
References
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Barnett, R.(2004) “Learning for an unknown future”, Higher Education Research
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Chan, G. P. W. Miller and Moon Joong Tcha (2005) “Happiness In University
Education”, International Review of Economics Education, volume 4, issue 1,
pp. 20-45
Colander, D (2004) “The Art of Teaching Economics”, International Review of
Economics Education, volume 3, issue 1, pp. 63-76
Dressel, G A (1981) “The professional staff. Two accounts of addressing the
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Elliott, C (2003) “Using a Personal Response System in Economics Teaching”,
International Review of Economics Education, volume 1, issue 1, pp. 80-86
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36-60
Jennings, CM, Barlar, A.D., & Bartling, C.A. (1991) “Trend in colleges’ and
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Ormerod, P (2003)Turning the Tide: Bringing Economics Teaching into the
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in the context of Globalization” Institute of Education, University of London.
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Appendix A*
TEACHING OF ISLAMIC ECONOMICS AT
THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC ECONOMICS, IIUI
The IIIE started instruction at B.Sc. (Hons.) level in 1981. This was followed by
introductions of Master’s and doctoral programs in 1985.
The Charter of the IIIE demanded that all effort must be made for development of
Islamic economics. While this was, and still remains, the goal, the pioneers also
took into account the marketability of the IIIE’s graduates. Thus, in order to attract
promising students, the main program was designed by keeping the international
equivalence issues for the degrees. But a good number of courses were introduced
in order to enable the students to have direct access to the original sources of the
Islamic knowledge and Islamic economics.
Leaving aside the Arabic and Shari’ah courses, teaching of Islamic economics
have evolved as follows.
1. Initially, the B.Sc. program had two courses on Islamic economics:
(i) One course on the economic values and teachings of Islam.
(ii) One course on Current Issues in Islamic Economics for senior undergraduate
students.
But, at their individual level, the instructors also tried to introduce Islamic
economic in the various courses or microeconomics, macroeconomics, economic
development, etc.
2. The situation changed in 1985. Additional elective courses on Islamic
economics, such as Economic System of Islam and Readings in Islamic Economics
were introduced in the B.Sc. (Hons) program and the Shari’ah content of the
program was also increased. At the same time, advanced courses were introduced
at the Master’s and doctoral levels both in the Shari’ah and in Islamic economics.
There was no separate compulsory course on Islamic economics for the M.Sc., but
the courses on The Qur’an and Economics and Hadith and Economics were
introduced for the doctoral students.
Of course, at this stage the previous practice of teaching Islamic economics
content in as many courses as possible, was continued.
3. Next major change took effect in 1989 with redesigning of the B.Sc. (Hons.)
program. However, the change was more on giving applied content to the program
through introduction of courses on accounting, finance and management for the
students. The previous approach to teaching of Islamic economics continued.
4. The last move toward consolidation was made in 1997. At this stage, the
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following approach was adopted in respect of Islamic economics and the Shari’ah:
(i) Three full-fledged compulsory courses on Islamic economics were introduced at
the bachelor’s level: Islamic Economic Theory, Zakah and Public Finance and
Islamic Banking in Theory & Practice.
There was also an increase in the number of optional courses in Islamic economics
in order to help the students meet their requirements for elective courses for B.Sc.
(Hons.) degree.
(ii) Steps were taken to ensure that all Master’s and higher-level students met the
above standards (through either having studied them in the IIIE’s B.Sc. program or
compulsorily taking them by other non-IIIE entrants).
In addition to the above, a graduate level course on Current Issues in Islamic
Economics was made compulsory for M.Sc. and higher degrees. Through this
course, IIIE was able to introduce to its students more recent developments in
Islamic economics and finance. This course also provided the platform for defining
fresh issues of a practical significance and tracking their answers from the point of
view of Islamic economics.
(iii)
The teaching of the Shari’ah was also reviewed—both rationalized and
scaled down—in order to bring the subject matter closer to the needs of economists
and business.
The above moves reflect on the confidence that IIIE has achieved in rigorous
teaching of Islamic economics through exclusive courses.
We consider the IIIE’s experiment a successful one due to its ability to linking
teaching to research on the various issues of a practical significance.
* We are thankful to Professor Syed Tahir, International Institute of Islamic
Economics, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan for providing this
appendix.