Money, Debt, Interest, and Real Economy

The shari’ah orientation to the problem of money and real economy and all that such a relationship upholds has failed to give money its distinctive nature and logic. Only the mainstream monetary and its financial implications were copied from prevalent ideas and theories. Thus the profound theory of money, monetary policy, debt, interest and the real economy in Islamic perspective as derived from the cardinal qur’anic ontological precept of Tawhid as law could not be in quest, search, and discovery. The consequence of such a remiss of this most substantive field of knowledge was the unquestioned acceptance of debt-bound instruments, and thereby the ambivalence of the atemporal and intertemporal meaning of interest rate (riba). Thereby, the so-called field of Islamic economics and finance and its potential contribution to a most outstanding theory and functioning of the new financial architecture remained null and void. The Tawhidi law of monetary oneness with the wellbeing objective criterion of money and real economy remained unknown in shari’ah as a human concocted mechanism. This must change completely to bestow meaning, substance, and ultimate functioning of the Tawhidi law of unity of knowledge to money and real economy interrelationship and all the wellbeing implications that the Tawhidi law upholds.