Islamic Views
This page provides a guide to my writings for a Muslim Audience
Quran 2:147 The Truth is from thy Lord ; so be not at all in doubt. [translation: Yusuf Ali]
All of us who have had a Western education have absorbed certain myths originating from the Enlightenment. Three of these myths are discussed in my article Directions for Muslim Scholars in Social Science. Among the first verses revealed to the Prophet Mohammad salallaho alaihe wasallam state that:
Quran 96:3-5 Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who taught man by the pen, that which be knew not.
It was this knowledge, given by Allah T'aala to mankind, which changed the course of history. It transformed the illiterate and ignorant Arabs and made them the leaders of the world. Unfortunately, as prophesied, Islam has become a stranger to the Muslims, as it was in the beginning Today the world is once again in the grips of Jahilliya, and Islam has the same power to bring light to the world that it did fourteen centuries ago.
I was educated at the finest universities in the USA. But my real education began after I experienced the power of Eeman through the efforts of the global movement of Tableegh and Dawa (see autobiographical sketch). To my great surprise, I learned that most of what I was taught in the course of my western education was false or misleading. To get to the truth requires UNLEARNING the myths fostered by a western eduction -- the unlearning process is very different from, and perhaps more difficult than, the process of learning. My article on Development: Myths and Truths debunks twelve important myths about the process of economic development. Similarly, most of my writing is addressed to correcting errors built into Western educational syllabi. These writings can be organized into the following categories:
Islamic Economics: Fundamental points of contrast between conventional theories and the Islamic approach.
Economics: Collects different dimensions of evidence against dominant economic theories
Econometrics: Methodological problems with conventional econometrics; also some technical work in the area
Social Sciences: Flawed foundations of contemporary social sciences
General -- (Dawa: invitations to Islam for those in doubt)
Methodology: Logical Positivism as a failed philosophical basis for current approaches to social science and economics.
Alternatively, another way to classify would be as follows:
A: Short Articles -- Newspapers and Magazines
B: Short Published Academic Articles: Comments & Book Reviews
C: Regular Academic Publications (2010 or earlier)
D: Recent Academic Publications (2011 and after)
E: Current Research, Drafts and Unpublished Works
I have also provided an overall GUIDE to readers to help them select articles relevant to their interests and purposes.