10 |
E k o n o m i S y a r i a h T e r k i n i
4. Scope Another deficiency of the mainstream Islamic economics is its single-
dimensional scope. To date, the concentration of the mainstream Islamic economics seems to be limited to the economic dimension per se.
Even though the emergence of Islamic economics especially the Islamic banking and finance as the most rapid off-shoot of the Islamic economics
for instance is attributable greatly to the political will of the establishment, political dimension has been very rarely included in the mainstream
Islamic economics. Instead, the mainstream Islamic economics has been overwhelmingly assisted by mainly quantitative and mathematical
approaches. This phenomenon is undoubtedly in contrary to the stance of a handful of
Islamic economics thinkers. Masudul Alam Choudhury
– an Islamic economist who could be regarded as a peripheral rather than the
mainstream Islamic economists – for example thinks that Islamic
economics should not have been existed as a stand-alone discipline. In fact to him, strictly speaking there should not be Islamic economics at all. The
right term is Islamic Political Economy, not Islamic economics, for there is a clear indication of the incorporation and mutual-influence of both
disciplines
8
. So is the thinking of Muhammad Syukri Salleh and Mohd Syakir Mohd Rosdi 2014. In analyzing the use of tahaluf siyasi the
Islamic arts of political negotiation in economic development in Kelantan Malaysia, both come to a conclusion that the analysis is incomprehensive
unless it is seen from both the economics and political perspectives, hence the Islamic Political Economy.
5. Research Methodology The fifth deficiency of the mainstream Islamic economics relates to the
research methodology that has been used in Islamic economics. In almost all cases, we have been using conventional research methodology, not an
Islamic research methodology. In so doing, the scholars of Islamic economics are trapped within anti-dogmatic, value-free, and merely
scientific modes of enquiries of the conventional research methodology.
8
Personal conversations with him in Doha, Qatar on 26 December 2011 and in Istanbul, Turkey on 28 February 2013.
K o n f e r e n s i I n t e r n a s i o n a l
| 11
It is definitely illogical to study about Islam and Muslims using such an exogenous research methodology. Moreover, the conventional research
methodology also suffers from a lack of tools of analysis. Its tools of analysis are meant only for the tangibles, not the intangibles, hence the
emphasis on the “scientificity” of the findings per se. Efforts in understanding Islam and Muslims to the best therefore confines only to the
efforts in “tangiblizing” the intangibles through a process of all sorts of quantification available in the conventional models and formulas, or
through proxies that are considered able to reflect the so-called real socio- economic and political realities.
Worst still, the conventional research methodology that is born out of the western social sciences is actually endangering the aqidah of the Muslim
researchers. The anti-dogmatic nature of the conventional research methodology questions all the dogmas of Islam; the value-free stance of
the conventional research methodology direct or indirectly insists us to detach ourselves from our Islamic values in the name of objectivity; and
the scientific nature of the conventional research methodology locks us up with observable matters while direct or indirectly denying us from the
mechanisms prevailing in the unseen world. In such a situation, it is high time for scholars of Islamic economics to
construct an Islamic research methodology for the purpose of studying Islam and the Muslims. Such an effort has yet to become a serious
endeavor in the real sense. Undoubtedly, there are already dispersed writings on the critiques of conventional research methodology and on the
deliberations on the philosophy of Islamic research methodology
9
, but a concrete construction of systematic Islamic research methods and
techniques is much to be desired. This is another area that I think needs an urgent attention and action.
9
See for instance Ahmad von Denffer 1985, Yusuf Ziya Kavakci 1990, Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi 1995, Muhammad Mumtaz 1996, Fazlur Rehman Faridi 1996, Irfan
Ahmad Khan 1996, Mohammad Rafiuddin 1996, Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi 1996, Louay Safi 1996, Mohammed Muqim 1999, Mohammad Anwar 1999,
Universitas Islam Jakarta 2002, Muhammad Syukri Salleh 2003a, 2008, Ahmad Sunawari Long 2007, and Mahmood Zuhdi Haji Abdul Majid 2007.
12 |
E k o n o m i S y a r i a h T e r k i n i
6. System The sixth deficiency of the mainstream Islamic economics relates to the
Kategori