Islamic Economics: Where From, Where To? by: Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi الاقتصاد الإسلامي: من أين وإلى أين؟ محمد نجاة الله صديقي - تعليق: رودني ويلسون

It is important to acknowledge earlier shortcomings in any branch of academic enquiry with hindsight, even though for many, self-criticism of one’s own earlier work is often difficult. In this context it is refreshing to read Nejatullah Siddiqi, a leading pioneer of Islamic economic thought over half a century ago, freely admit the limitations of his earlier writings. Constructing a convincing Islamic economic paradigm has proved, in Siddiqi’s view, a much more difficult task than the early pioneers envisaged, not least given the enormous gap which exists between the desired behavior of economic agents as delineated in the Qur’ān and Sunnah and the reality of morally dubious decision-making and self-serving economic governance at all levels. Siddiqi’s revised observations are well argued and convincing. They provide a base line for the “where to” debate about the future for Islamic economics, and indeed whether it has a future given the resilience of global capitalism despite the financial crisis of 2008 (Ahmed, Habib, et.al, 2014). --