Islam and the Economic Challenge

I consider the task of reviewing this book an honor as well as a challenge.My task is made even more difficult and the challenge moE significantwhen I read excellent reviews from both intellectual spectra,Western as well as Islamic. From the West, Kenneth Boulding, an eminentbehavioral scientist and social economist, expresses his admirationboth for the author’s readable style as well as the depth and the maturityof his knowledge when he writes:This is an excellent work . . . His understanding is quitesophisticated. At the same time his style is clear and he writeswith humanity and a very deep concern for the welfare of thehuman race.From the East, the book has already received and incorporated commentsand suggestions from a number of economists at the forefront ofresearch in Islamic economics, among them Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqui andProfessor Khurshid Ahmad. The latter economist has very succinctly summarizednot only his own views but also thm of other Islamic scholarswhen, in the foreword, he writes:Dr. Chapra has dealt with the subject as a trained social scientistand objective Islamic scholar. His grasp of the contemporarysystems and their problems is thorough and incisive, his presentationof Islamic economic order is concise and convincing. Hisbalanced critique of the western systems as well as that of thecontemporary Islamic society is presented in a style that isscholarly yet simple, clear and prescriptive. . . . Dr. Chapra hasclearly demonstrated that well being can not be attained throughthe pursuit of material possessions alone and that efficiency andequity can become operational concepts only if they are redefinedin the context of their linkage to moral values and socioeconomicstructures.”