Two arguments are usually advanced in support of this view. The first is the Islamic ban on interest. Some have argued that the Arabic term riba , usually translated “interest,” really means usury, that is, excessive interest. This view, however, has in the past commanded litt le or no acceptance among Muslims, though it enjoys some limited support at the present time. The jurists and theologians of Islam are virtually unanimous in rejecting this escape clause. Riba, they agree, means any interest, whether high or low. There is even a saying att ributed to the Prophet that “to make money from money is evil.” So, the argument goes, a strict enforcement of the ban on lending or borrowing money with interest would make any kind of modern finance—and, therefore, economic development—impossible.
Th e other argument adduced by those who claim that there is a fundamental incompatibility between Islam and economic development is the present state of most of the Islamic world, compared with other. parts of the world, not only Europe and America, but also Asia, notably such spectacularly successful recent arrivals to modernity as South Korea. Th ere can be no doubt that the economic condition of much of the Islamic world, compared with other regions, is bad. This is grimly illustrated, exemplifi ed, and documented in a series of reports on human development in the Arab lands, prepared by a committ ee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the United Nations.
The picture they represent can only be described as appalling. It shows, for example, that the exports of the entire Arab world, other than oil, amount to less than those of Finland—one single European country of some five million inhabitants. Th e committee cited many other examples of equally startling disparities. A similar point is sometimes made by comparing the post-imperial history of former imperial dependencies—for example, of independent India and Pakistan, into which the British Indian Empire was partitioned, and of former British crown colonies such as Aden and Singapore. The contrasts are indeed striking.
Is there then some innate incompatibility between Islam and economic development? This question may be examined in two diff erent ways: 1. By looking at Muslim scripture, tradition, theology, and law and seeing how they deal with economic matt ers 2. By looking at the economic record of the Islamic world in earlier times, when one might say that the society was more Islamic, not less Islamic than it is now, when Islam was still new, fresh, and more vigorous.
Economy, Women, Army and Judiciary in Islamic Constitution
