Purpose – To reopen for discussion the issue of credit creation and control in the area of Islamic banking. Design/methodology/approach – In view of a rapid expansion of Islamic banking in recent decades, the answer to questions whether Islamic banks can create credit like mainstream banks...

The comments were offered at an International workshop on Comprehensive human development organized by Insaniya University college and IRTI of IDB on August 18-19, 2009 at Langkawi, Malaysia. The main contribution of the comments are that the construction of human development index is faulty,...

This brief paper updates the factual information provided in an earlier paper of the author “Fifty years of Malaysian economic development: policies and achievements” of 2007 and modifies its argument at several places.

Abstract This paper examines the debate on the meaning of sustainable development and the policy implications of different approaches from an Islamic perspective. It integrates mainstream and Islamic positions on the subject and argues that to whatever definition of sustainable development one...

Today widespread poverty is one of the major problems of mankind and its alleviation one of her major agendas. In recent years microfinance has emerged as an important instrument to relieve poverty in the developing countries. Today there are more than 7000 micro lending institutions providing...

This rejoinder refutes the comments of Mohamed Ariff and Faiz Mohammad on the author’s article: The 1997-98 Financial Crisis in Malaysia: Causes, Response, and Results”, published in the Islamic Economic Studies, Vol. 9 No. 2, 2002. My basic difference with the reviewers is this: they...

This paper shows that the recent euphoria in Malaysia to introduce Gold Dinar as money in Muslim countries is devoid of reason. Despite the destabilizing potential of the current monetary arrangements in the world, the return to gold is neither desired nor practicable. The Denarists, as some...

This paper provides an appraisal of some of the researches conducted in recent years for evaluating the efficiency of Islamic banks. It is restricted to studies using parametric (SFA) and non-parametric (DEA) models. It finds that they leave much to be desired and the conclusions they arrive at...

This paper examines the reasons for a widening gap between the conventional theory and current practice of Islamic banks. It finds fault at both the ends. ’No risk, no gain’ is inadequate as a general principle for organizing Islamic finance. It is also not always valid to say that Islam is...

This paper attempts to provide an overview of a vast and important debate from an Islamic angle. It presents the concept of distributional equity in a pure Islamic system. It is argued that this system would ensure distributional equity through reliance on two sets of controls. First is a set of...