On 9 October 2024, the Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) hosted a public lecture on the articulation of the Islamic moral political economy and sustainable development. The lecture, delivered by Prof. Mehmet Asutay, the winner of the IsDB Prize for Impactful Achievement in Islamic Economics, took place at the IsDB Headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
At the event, Prof. Asutay, the Director of the Durham Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance at Durham University Business School, was awarded the prize in recognition of his significant contributions to shaping Islamic finance to promote sustainable development and human welfare within the Islamic moral political economy paradigm.
Meanwhile, Prof. Asutay focused on the barriers to accessing resources, and the emergence of new moralities, such as sustainability and ethical business and finance.
Also, he emphasized that true sustainability can only be achieved by fundamentally altering conventional assumptions to ensure equal access to resources. He highlighted the Islamic moral political economy’s perspective on emancipation and empowerment through resource accessibility, guided by the concept of Ihsan, which refers to agile and optimal governance.
In addition, the prize laureate also identified the need for an authentic methodology for sustainability and explained why it is imperative to disrupt conventional assumptions through the Islamic cognitive system or Islamic moral political economy paradigm, leading to new imaginaries.
However, the Islamic Moral Political Economy movement emerged to develop an understanding of an embedded system of economy that fosters an extended stakeholder development strategy with an extended stakeholder governance model. The multifaceted nature of Islamic economic development can be addressed through iqtisad, which is the base of Islamic moral political economy, beyond the Islamization of the neo-classical economy.
Prof. Asutay underpinned the key essence ontology of Islamic moral political economy as being just, sustainable, and being an imperative. Based on this philosophical foundation, the Islamic moral economy within the Islamic worldview can be outlined as:
- Being complementarity nature of all the stakeholders to reach unity (tawhid)
- Being within the balance (mizan)
- Recognizing and provisioning of an opportunity space for the development path for each stakeholder to reach their perfection (rububiyah)
- Harmonizing the growth of each stakeholder with other stakeholders’ (tazkiyah)
- leading to inter-and-intra generational justice (adalah)
- ensuring the equilibrium-based (ihsani) governance
Finally, Prof. Asutay concluded the lecture by noting that it is an opportune time for the emergence of healing and ihsani leadership and governance in civil society.
The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI)
The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) is a multilateral development finance institution that is focused on Islamic finance for infrastructure development and located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There are 57 shareholding member states with the largest single shareholder being Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1973 by the Finance Ministers at the first Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now called the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) with the support of the King of Saudi Arabia at the time (Faisal) and began its activities on 3 April 1975.
On 22 May 2013, IDB tripled its authorized capital to $150 billion to better serve Muslims in member and non-member countries. The Bank has received credit ratings of AAA from Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch. Saudi Arabia holds about one quarter of the bank’s paid-up capital. The IDB is an observer at the United Nations General Assembly.
IsDBI was established in 1401H (1981) to help the Bank in discharging its functions in the fields of research and training assigned to it by its Articles of Agreements. IsDBI’s objectives are: to undertake research and provide training and information services in member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries to help bring their economic, financial and banking activities into conformity with Shariah and to further accelerate economic development and enhance cooperation amongst them.
Read Also: Professor Asutay Wins 2024 IsDB Prize in Islamic Economics
