Global ethics in the light of Islamic Political Economy

Masudul Alam Choudhury

Abstract:

A theory of Islamic Political Economy is deduced from the Qur’an. Islamic Political Economy is shown to be an interactive, integrative and evolutionary system that endogenously combines moral attributes with knowledge formation. All of these are premised on the Episteme of the Oneness of God, bringing out its epistemological role in the construction of relations in world-systems. The attributes of knowledge formation in Islamic Political Economy are particularised to Mercy and Forgiveness combining together into Love, Justice, Fairness and Compassion. These attributes are taken as the elements of global ethics in the light of Islamic Political Economy.

The emphasis in this paper is on the broad conceptual picture while leaving out the details of specific issues of Islamic Political Economy that confront social issues. Only the participatory nature of the emergent Political Economy is highlighted. A scientific conceptualisation of the role of the given attributes underlying the episteme of the unity of divine knowledge and how they can construct a knowledge-centred world-system out of perpetual learning on the basis of the episteme is examined. The ‘universality’ proof of Islamic Political Economy is made to rely on its consistency, completeness and analytical reasoning.

Keywords: Islam; political economy; epistemology; ethics; embedded learning systems; global order.