Objections to DE

Dear Colleagues

After looking at the website for Divine Economics put up by Dr. Syed Nisar Hussain Hamdani, I learned that this title "Divine" economics is actually code for Shia Economics. I have two major objections to this.

1. Divine does not mean Shia, it has its own meaning and connotations. So making the definition as done on the website, is a wrong use of terminology.

2. Islamic Economics does not distinguish between Sunni and Shia and allows for both schools of thought. It is acknowledged by all that Imam Baqir Sadr [leading Shia cleric] and Maulana Maudoodi are the founding fathers of Islamic Economics. Currently, Shia scholars like Abbas Mirakhor are playing a major role in shaping the field of Islamic Economics. So creating a separate, misleading name, and field for Shia economics seems like an effort to create divisions among Muslims, which is prohibited in the Quran.

I am attaching a letter I wrote to Dr. Nisar Hamdani, whom I regard as a respectable academic, on this matter.

Dear Dr. Nisar Hamdani, AOA

For a while I have been uncomfortable with the term Divine Economics, because I do not know what it means, and why there is a need for another term in addition to Islamic Economics. After reading the definition from your website, I became even more confirmed in view that this is a bad devellopment, and I defiiniteyl do not want to be associated with this:

The Divine Economics is a recently developed framework to study economics and religion in each other’s perspective using scientific process. It comprises of theoretical model, empirical work, a series of papers and some survey instruments. The Divine Economics is similar to conventional economics because is based on rational choice theory but departs from it by incorporating religion in the model. Hence it becomes similar to the economics of religion. However is different from Economics of Religion also because substantial work in the economics of religion is done under the Christian and Jewish religions ignoring Islam. Hence, this aspect makes it closer to Islamic economics but it differs from Islamic economics too on the basis of sources of jurisprudence mostly used by contemporary Islamic Economics which is constructed over Sunnite school of thought lead by Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Taimia, Ibne Khuldoon, Abu Yousaf, Imam Shatibi, Imam Ghazali, Shah Waliullah, etc ignoring almost all of the 12 Imams from the family of the Holy Prophet (Imams of AhleBayt). On the contrary, the Divine Economics is not a one-sided chain of arguments but takes a comparative view of both of the major schools of Islamic thoughts. It, in principle, does not ignore the point of view of even smaller sects in Islam. Moreover, contrary to contemporary Islamic Economics which uses Islamic shariah terminologies, the Divine Economics attempts to use Islamic shariah concepts using a relatively broader or universal terminologies so that the language of faith-based economics becomes compatible with the neo-classical economics.

The idea that Islamic Economics is SUNNI and you want to create a separate name for a SHIA economics is ludicrous. It is widely acknowledged (see my article Islamic Economics: A survey of the literature) that the founding fathers of Isamic Economics are Maulana Maudoodi and Baqir Sadr. Nowhere in the entire lilterature on Islamic Economics can you find anyone who has given any definition which would single out the Sunni school of thought and exclude the Shia's. The vast majority of Islamic Economists are not followers of any Mazhab, and would have no objections to citing or using opinions from the Fiqh of the twelve Imams.

Then to seek to make divisions in this discipline goes directly against the order of Allah.

30:32 [DO NOT BE] among those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects, each group delighting in but what they themselves hold [by way of tenets]

There are many warnings to Muslims to remain united. For you to reject the label "Islamic" means that you yourself do not consider your faith to be part of Islam, which is rather strange.

Asad Zaman