Islamic Economics: The Polar Opposite of Capitalist Economics

Islamic teachings launched a revolution in world history, 14 centuries ago. They transformed ignorant and backward Bedouin into world leaders, and created a civilization which enlightened the world for more than a thousand years. The homepage for this book provides access to chapter-by-chapter summaries, and an online course based on this book: IE: PoC

Most Muslims today believe that progress today depends on following Western models, developed over the past few centuries. They believe that the powerful teachings of the Quran have been absorbed and assimilated by Western philosophers in building their apparently successful economic systems. In accordance with this view, they consider Islamic Economics to be a variety of Capitalism (the most advanced economic system of the West).

My newly launched book asserts that Islamic Teachings are just as revolutionary today as they were 14 centuries ago. Capitalism developed after the rejection of Christianity in Europe, and was based on the idea that there is no Creator. Human beings are just another kind of animal, and the world is a jungle governed by survival-of-the-fittest. This leads naturally to selfishness, competition, individualism, and hedonism as the principles underlying capitalist society. In diametric opposition, Islamic societies are built on generosity, cooperation, social responsibility, and pursuit of the pleasure of God on the day of Judgment. My book explains how this opposite core principles leads to different social institutions at all levels, from state, justice, finance, education, community, down to the individual.

For a brief period of time, I will be offering the ebook for free, for promotional purposes. Please join my mailing list for Islamic Economics to learn about the dates of the free offer, and receive weekly emails about ongoing attempts to implement these principles in the real world today. Sign up at; http://bit.ly/AZIEML

This entry was posted in Uncategorized by Asad Zaman. Bookmark the permalink.

About Asad Zaman

BS Math MIT (1974), Ph.D. Econ Stanford (1978)] has taught at leading universities like Columbia, U. Penn., Johns Hopkins and Cal. Tech. Currently he is Vice Chancellor of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. His textbook Statistical Foundations of Econometric Techniques (Academic Press, NY, 1996) is widely used in advanced graduate courses. His research on Islamic economics is widely cited, and has been highly influential in shaping the field. His publications in top ranked journals like Annals of Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, Econometric Theory, Journal of Labor Economics, etc. have more than a thousand citations as per Google Scholar.

5 thoughts on “Islamic Economics: The Polar Opposite of Capitalist Economics

    • I am from Bangladesh sir!
      Your book is not available in Bangladesh for that i want a ebook very urgent.
      Waiting for your response.

      • Burhan uddin from Institution of Islamic Thought and Research in Bangladesh is in process of translating the book into Bangla. You can contact him via the Facebook Page for their institute at: https://www.facebook.com/iitrbd.org?mibextid=ZbWKwL Also, if you join the IEML chat group for which links were mailed to members of my mailing list (and can be found in the links on the homepage for the book) you can contact me directly about this matter.

  1. Pingback: A New Approach to Islamic Economics | An Islamic WorldView

  2. Salam dr sb.i need a copy of your recent book(islamic economics: the polar opposite of capitalism).is it available in pakistan or can we have an open access to e- version of this book?
    Looking forward.

Leave a comment