Editing Islamic economics (section)

==Criticism and dispute==
Islamic economics has been criticised for
*being "constructed on the basis of isolated prescriptions, anecdotes, examples, words of the Prophet, all gathered together and systematized by commentators according to an inductive, casuistic method."<ref name="roy-13">{{harvnb|Roy|1994|p=[https://archive.org/details/failureofpolitic00royo/page/13 13]}}</ref>
*its alleged "incoherence, incompleteness, impracticality, and irrelevance",  driven by "[[cultural identity]]" rather than [[problem solving]] ([[Timur Kuran]], John Foster);<ref name="FosterMM2010" /><ref>Kuran, "The Economic Impact of Islamic Fundamentalism," in Marty and Appleby ''Fundamentalisms and the State'', U of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 302–41</ref><ref>"The Discontents of Islamic Economic Mortality" by Timur Kuran, ''American Economic Review'', 1996, pp. 438–42</ref><ref name="tobin-2014-139">{{cite book|last1=Tobin|first1=Sarah A.|editor1-last=Wood|editor1-first=Donald C.|title=Production, Consumption, Business and the Economy: Structural Ideals And …|date=2014|publisher=Emerald Group Publishing.|page=139|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGStBAAAQBAJ&q=%22incoherence,+incompleteness,+impracticality,+and+irrelevance%22+finance&pg=PA139 |access-date=23 September 2016|chapter=Is it really Islamic?|isbn=9781784410551}}</ref>
*being  "a hodgepodge of populist and socialist ideas" in theory, and "nothing more than inefficient state control of the economy and some almost equally ineffective redistribution policies" in practice ([[Fred Halliday]]);<ref name="Halliday, Fred p. 89">Halliday, Fred, ''100 Myths about the Middle East'', Saqi Books, 2005 p. 89</ref>
<blockquote>In a political and regional context where [[Islamist]] and [[ulema]] claim to have an opinion about everything, it is striking how little they have to say about this most central of human activities, beyond repetitious pieties about how their model is neither [[capitalism|capitalist]] nor [[socialist]].<ref name="Halliday, Fred p. 89"/></blockquote>
*being little more than a mimicry of conventional economics embellished with verses of the [[Quran]] and [[sunnah]] (Muhammad Akram Khan);{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=xv}}
*claiming to call for a return to Islamic practices that are actually an "[[invented tradition]]" (Timur Kuran);{{#tag:ref|Islamic economics itself exemplifies what has been called an `invented tradition.` ... not until the mid-twentieth century were campaigns launched to identify self-consciously, if not also exclusively, Islamic patterns of economic thought and behavior. Until that time the economic content of discourses grounded in Islam's traditional sources lacked systematization; they hardly formed a body of thought recognizable as a coherent or self-contained doctrine.{{sfn|Kuran|2004|p=x}}|group=Note}}
*failing to achieve its goals of abolishing interest on money, establishing economic equality, and a superior business ethic;<ref name=Pipes-26-09-07>{{cite news|last1=Pipes|first1=Daniel|title=Islamic Economics: What Does It Mean?|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/4973/islamic-economics-what-does-it-mean|access-date=5 August 2015|agency=Jerusalem Post|date=September 26, 2007}}</ref> but nonetheless "spared critical scrutiny out of ignorance, misguided tolerance", and because its methods and objectives are considered "too unrealistic to threaten prevailing economic structures" ([[Timur Kuran]]).{{sfn|Kuran|2004|p=x}}

On economic reforms, Timur Kuran said it is a "vehicle for asserting the primacy of Islam" with reforms being a secondary motive.{{sfn|Kuran|2004|p=5}}{{sfn|Khan|2015|p=88}}

;Islamic banking and finance
One significant result of Islamic economics (and target of criticism) is the creation of Islamic banking and finance industry.{{sfn|Farooq|2005|p=34}} According to several scholars it has bred a new "Power Alliance" of "wealth and Shari'ah scholarship",<ref>Monzer KAHF. "Islamic Banks: The Rise of a New Power Alliance of Wealth and Shari'ah Scholarship," in Clement HENRY and Rodney WILSON (eds.). ''The Politics of Islamic Finance'' [Edinburgh University Press, 2004], pp. 17-36.</ref>{{sfn|Farooq|2005|p=27}}{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=317}}—wealthy banks and clients paying Islamic scholars to provide bank products with Islamic "shariah compliance". Journalist John Foster, quotes an investment banker based in the Islamic Banking hub of [[Dubai]] on the practice of "[[fatwa]] shopping",

<blockquote>We create the same type of products that we do for the conventional markets. We then phone up a Sharia scholar for a Fatwa [seal of approval, confirming the product is Shari'ah compliant]. If he doesn't give it to us, we phone up another scholar, offer him a sum of money for his services and ask him for a Fatwa. We do this until we get Sharia compliance. Then we are free to distribute the product as Islamic.<ref name=FosterMM2010>{{cite web|last1=Foster|first1=John|title=How Sharia-compliant is Islamic banking?|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8401421.stm|website=BBC News|access-date=22 September 2016|date=11 December 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

Foster explains that the fee for services provided by "top" scholars is "often" in six-figures, i.e. over US$100,000.<ref name=FosterMM2010/>

One critic (Muhammad O. Farooq) argues that this unfortunate situation has arisen because the "preoccupation" among supporters of Islamic Economics that any and all interest on loans is ''[[riba]]'' and forbidden by Islam, and because [[Profit and loss sharing|risk-sharing alternatives]] to interest bearing loans originally envisioned for Islamic banking have not proven feasible. With the elimination of interest being both the basis of the industry and impractical, shari'a scholars have become "entrapped in a situation" where they are forced to approve transactions fundamentally similar to conventional loans but using "''[[hiyal]]''" manipulation to "maintain an Islamic veneer".{{sfn|Farooq|2005|p=36}}

;Justice
Instead of "fixating" on interest, Farooq urges a focus on "the larger picture" of "justice", and in economics on fighting  exploitation from "greed and profit," and the concentration of wealth. He quotes an ayat in support: "What God has bestowed on his Messenger (and taken away) from the people of the townships, - belongs to God, - to his Messenger and to kindred and orphans, the needy and the wayfarer; ''in order that it may not (merely) make a circuit between the wealthy among you.'' ..." {{qref|59|7|b=y}}{{sfn|Farooq|2005|p=33}} As an example of the neglect of this issue, Farooq complains that one "rather comprehensive" bibliography of Islamic economics and finance, contains "not a single citation for exploitation or injustice" among its 700 entries.{{sfn|Farooq|2005|p=31}}

A former director of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and the head of Pakistan's Economic Affairs Division, Syed [[Nawab Haider Naqvi]],{{#tag:ref|During an "earlier phase" of the Islamic Banking movement in 1981|group=Note}} also called for "comprehensive Islamic reform to establish an exploitation-free economic system" and not just "mechanical substitution of profit for interest."<ref>Syed Nawab Haider NAQVI. ''Ethics and Economics: An Islamic Synthesis'' [U.K.: The Islamic Foundation, 1981], p.124</ref>

;Zakat
On the issue of ''[[zakat]]'', one of the pillars of Islam, M.A.Khan also criticizes the conservatism of Islamic Economics, complaining that "the insistence of Muslim scholars in implementing it in the same form as it was common practice in the days of the Prophet and the first four caliphs ... has made it irrelevant to the needs of a contemporary society."{{sfn|Khan|2013|p=xvi}}

;Practicality
A supporter of Islamic economics ([[Asad Zaman]]) describes a "major difficulty" faced by Islamic reformers of Islamic economics and pointed out by other authors, namely that because a financial system is an "integrated and coherent structure",  to create an Islamic system "based on trust, community and no interest" requires "changes and interventions on several different fronts simultaneously".{{sfn|Zaman, Asad|2008|p={{page needed|date=January 2022}}}}