CHARACTERISTICS AND PURPOSES OF USUL AL-IQTISAD AS THE METHODOLOGY OF ISLAMIC ECONOMICS

-include knowledge of areas such as the Islamic worldview, its Islamic economic vision, philosophy, including its ontology, axiology, and especially epistemology (including methodology) relevant for Islamic economics and other social/human sciences (Haneef and Furqani, 2007).

USUL means “origin”, “roots”, “principles”, “fundamentals”, “rudiments” or “elements” of a particular thing.

IQTISAD literally means “moderation”, “in the middle” and also means economics. Nowadays, economic science is translated into Arabic as ilm al-iqtisad.

1. Usul al-iqtisad is an integration of methodology developed in our Islamic heritage (including usul al-fiqh and other usul of sciences developed in our heritage) and contemporary economics (which may involve the whole spectrum of conventional economics and not just the neoclassical school).

•     Usul al-iqtisad would have to deal with the primary sources of Islam (naqliyyah/revealed); Qur’ān and Sunnah as well secondary sources ( aqliyyah/reason); reasoning, experimentation and observation of both our legacy and of modern economics.

2. As a methodology of Islamic economics, usul al-iqtisad aims at delineating the principles that could be used to appraise Islamic economic theories. 

• It would have to develop principles that would have to deal simultaneously with both types of knowledge, naqliyyah and  aqliyyah. Rather than treating the heritage and modern economics separately, these principles must be integrated through a methodological dialectic and creative synthesis.

3. One thing should also be noted is that Islam has revealed sources (Quran and Sunnah) and non revealed sources, such as analogical reasoning (qiyas), consideration of public interest (istislah), juristic preference (istihsan), presumption of continuity (istishab), and so forth. Whereas the revealed sources may have clear injunctions and command permanent validity, their interpretation via usul al-iqtisad and its non-revealed sources are not permanent, for they are mainly the product of an ijtihad.

References : methodology of Islamic economics :Overview of present state and future direction. International Journal of Economics, Management & Accounting 19, no. 1 (2011): 1-26