Western interest in Islamic economics and finance is, in our estimation, due to the following reasons:

First, because there is no religious moral economy with credibility today except in Islam.

Second, the rationality enjoyed by Islamic economics — even if it has its origins and basic elements in the revelation to the Prophet — is the result of an ijtihad (diligence in independent reasoning) systematically practiced in reading the sacred texts and noting the human experience. This diligence has employed the most accurate tools of rational deduction, extrapolation, inference and representative analogies, and its jurists were also first-class philosophers.

Third, the billions of dollars that now exist in Islamic banks — and perhaps it is this that is of the utmost importance.

Fourth, Islamic law is consistent with the capitalist system in many ways, although it differs with it in some issues, which perhaps it can help to re-formulate.

Fifth, the Islamic system is a balanced system.

Translated by Yusuf Lenfest