Islamic Finance under SDGs feat.

Byline: UROOJ AIJAZ

The evolution of the necessary institutional infrastructure and infrastructure for communities and economies is a continual process where, we may utilize Islamic understanding for development as a standard for measuring the desired change? The goals of Shariah (Maqid Al-Shariah) and its manifestation in the concept of complete human development (CHD) serve as the model for Islamic economics and finance. However, the linear economy paradigm, which was influenced by Hotelling's renowned 1931 framework based on the economics of exploiting natural resources and which does not acknowledge the ecological environment as a resource, drives the free-market economies in the real world. The linear economic paradigm is safeguarded and preserved by the global financial infrastructure so, Islamic finance has continued to be a Halal subset of this system in practice.

In the pre-modern history, all authority over individuals, public affairs, and politics in general had been cemented by religion, represented by the church, and the state, represented by rulers. Politics and religion have, however, since the birth of the 'nation-state' and the European experience of the renaissance, politics and religion have been experiencing different sets of relationships, e.g., mistrust, conflict and even different trajectories of influences.

The Muslim world was plagued by the syndrome of equating westernization with modernization, which resulted in the dislocation of Muslims from local development models. Reviving faith-based development models that are underpinned by civil society is key for achieving sustainable development and human dignity. Roughly one-third of those suffering from extreme poverty worldwide live in member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In 21 of those 57 countries, fewer than half of the population has access to adequate sanitation, 4% of infants born in these countries die before they reach the age of five so, many OIC nations are struggling to achieve widespread growth. Many countries confronted with the fabled 'resource curse, while ineffective leadership and failing institutions are blaming each other and unfortunately, almost 71% of the 125 million people impacted by conflicts and natural disasters live in OIC where, national budgets are severely strained by instability.

Nonetheless, these nations do have choices. Particularly if Islamic finance is utilized to its full potential, the cash that has...