400 chapter nine
when they were less successful, provides, with the benefit of hind-
sight, empirical evidence to rely on and lessons to derive conclusions
from. Historical evidence should be treated with caution however,
as history has inherent distortions when it comes to extracting evi-
dence, as the prevailing conditions of the past differ from those dom-
inant in the present. The political and social structure of society,
and to a lesser degree cultural structure introduces biases if culture,
as is the case with Islamic based culture, has the same source of
feeding and enriching. History contains useful lessons to be learned
however, providing that this is received with an examining mind and
an inquisitive attitude. Historical development of economics and eco-
nomic thought is no exception. But the least historical examination
can tell us, is that the Islamic system per se has the capability of
providing the operational norm and the workable model, providing
other things are equal. And these “other things” are: (a) the degree
of adherence to Islamic norms and ideals, (b) the politically strong
Islamic state, (c) the lack of hostility from the political machinery to
Islam internally, through national governments, and externally, through
international pressure, and (d) the adaptability of Islam to new changes
in society, technologically and otherwise. And as the present is an
unbroken chain with the past, the future, in a similar historical fash-
ion, is the ceaseless link with the future. In Islamic economics, as
Muslim economists wish for a better future for their economies, and
they all do, they have realised that studying the problems of today
with a view to solving and resolving, enhances the possibility for a
superior Islamic economics for tomorrow.
To link the present with the future, there seems to be three major
areas that still require particularly further attention: first, on the con-
ceptual side, a need for extracting economic concepts, and even new
terminology if need be, from the pure sources of the Sharì"ah, second,
non-apologetic discussions of present application of Islamic economics
to, particularly, Islamic banking operations, state finance, and global
economic connections, and third, more empirical evidence and field
studies as very little has been done in this area. Muslim economists
have been engaged in an intensive process to reinforce the foundations
of their subject for a healthy take offin the future. Efforts have been
made to show that Islamic economics: (a) is able to accommodate
economic ideas with an Islamic version comparable to those of
Western economics; the writing on economic issues “from an Islamic
perspective”, is not unusual, and (b) is a realistic alternative for a