Socioeconomic Human Well-Being and Posterity : A Newly Proposed Faith-Based Measurement Index

Faith-based socioeconomic development is imperative for sustainable human and material development. The ultimate goal of socioeconomic progress, in the light of Maqasid al Shariah, may provide a comprehensive framework and a way to benchmark human progress on a wider socioeconomic scale. This study aims to provide insights about one of the components of the Maqasid al Shariah such as posterity; to develop an index to measure the level of development of future generations in terms of sociohealth and eco-environmental aspects. The index is named as “Posterity Development Index (PDI).” The PDI is based on various posterity dimensions developed by Chapra, Khan, and Al Shaikh-Ali (2008). These dimensions are namely proper upbringings of children, their health, education, and eco-environmental protection. The PDI reveals information about socioeconomic human well-being based on the selected indicators to measure and monitor human well-being of the next generation across the different periods and across the different nations. Conceptualization and measurement of posterity as a faith-based socioeconomic development instrument has valuable policy implications. Notwithstanding the limitations of the study, it may contribute to the existing field of knowledge and help in designing an optimal global development agenda for the world in general and believers in divine injections in particular