Islamic Banking, Moral Order and a Just Social Order

Authors

  • Ahmad Mansur UIN Surabaya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21111/iej.v9i2.10550

Abstract

Moral order is nothing more than natural order in which all living beings are bound to each other. All-natural beings or (nature) other than human beings have no choice and are not free to choose and to do whatever they want to, but to obey the law of their beings, their natural beings and natural law, they cannot do otherwise. They have to submit their beings (to act in accordance to their natural instincts) to the natural law or to divine pattern and divine will. God is not responsible for human acts, as human beings are endowed by free-will, intellectual reasoning and are capable not only of recognizing good and evil acts, but also of legislating good laws to regulate their lives in accordance to natural law, divine pattern and divine will.This paper will discuss Islamic banking in which its existence cannot be separated from the religion of Islam. It has to act and to submit to the natural law or to divine pattern and divine will. Its operation and practice should meet the legality of Islamic law, even it must go beyond that by putting more emphasis on morality and virtue ethics. It should not merely be driven by instrumental reason (rationality), or determined by criteria of calculating the most economical application means such as of maximum efficiency, cost-benefit analysis, and maximum profit as its measure of success. Islamic banking has to think that its existence is part of larger order that is a cosmic order, a great chain of beings, in which the act of one being definitely affects other beings. So, there is no other way for Islamic banking, but to be ethical banking to submit itself to moral order and natural order to help support the realization of a just social order. A just social order means moral order in which without it, it leads to chaos, as the survival of society or nation is really dependant on morality and virtue ethics. Keywords: Islamic Banking, Natural Order and Moral order, a Just Social Order

References

Quasem, Muhammad Abul. (1975) The Ethics of Al-Ghazali: A Composite Ethics in Islam. Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Ali, Abdu Seid. (2019). Zamir Iqbal and Abbas Mirakhor. Ethical Dimensions of Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice. Turkish Journal of Islamic Economics. 6. 113-118. 10.26414/A060. See at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332096912_Zamir_Iqbal_and_Abbas_Mirakhor_Ethical_Dimensions_of_Islamic_Finance_Theory_and_Practice

El-Sheikh, Salah (2008). The Moral Economy of Classical Islam: A FiqhiConomic Model, in the Journal of The Muslim World. Pages: 116-144 Wiley Online Library.

Etzioni, Amitai. (1988). The Moral Dimension: Toward a new economics. New York: Free Press.

Fazl-Ur-Rahman Ansari, Muhammad. (2008). The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society volume One. Karachi: Elite publisher Ltd.

Fisher, Collin , & Lovell, A. (2009). Business ethics and values: Individual, corporate and international perspectives (3rd ed.). Harlow: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.

Geertz, Clifford (1960a). Religion of Java. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Gilson, Etienne (1938). Reason and revelation in the middle ages (The Richards lectures in the university of Virginia [1937]). New York: C. Scribner’s sons. See also this website.

https://archive.org/stream/ReasonAndRevelationInTheMiddleAges/ReasonAndRevelationInTheMiddleAges_djvu.txt

Gilson, Etienne (1966). Reason and revelation in the middle ages ([Repr] ed.). New York: Scribner

Hasan, Zubair (2016). Nature and significance of Islamic economics, in Journal of Economic and Social Thought. INCEIF: The Global University of Islamic Finance Kuala Lumpur

Izutsu, Toshihiko. (2002a). God and Man in the Qurʹan: Semantics of the Qurʹanic Weltanschauung (New ed.). Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust.

Izutsu, Toshihiko. (2002b). Ethico-religious Concepts in the Qurʹān. Montreal Que.: McGill-Queen's University Press. (2002).

Kalin, Ibrahim (2011). The Reason and Rationality in the Quran. This paper was presented during the second seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum at the Baptism site, hosted by the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan in November 21-23, 2011. The Forum is one of the fruits of the ‘A Common Word' initiative, which was launched in 2007 and which seeks to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue (see http://ACommonWord.com). The article was first published as a booklet in MABDA N° 12, English Monograph Series -ISBN: 978-9957-428-48-8. © 2012 The Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Amman, Jordan

Kant, Immanuel. [1785]. (1998). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (New York: Cambridge University Press), see also Kant, I. (1785) Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, 1993 edn. Trans. Ellington J W. Hackett: Indianapolis, IN

Kant, Immanuel (1998). Critique of Pure Reason. Translated & edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Klamer, A. (2016). Doing the Right Thing: A value Based Economy. London:Ubiquity Press

Mansur, A (2021). Islamic banking in the framework of a socio-economic moral order: Theoretical foundations: Critical analysis and ethical approach to a value-based economy”. Doctoral Dissertation: Erasmus University Rotterdam

Nussbaum, M. C. (1999). Virtue Ethics: A Misleading Category? The Journal of Ethics, 3(3), 163–201. doi:10.1023/A:1009877217694

Nussbaum, M. C. (2001). Upheavals of thought: The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Reinhart, A. Kevin (1983). Islamic Law as Islamic Ethics, in Journal of Religious Ethics. 11(2):186 – 203

Taylor, Charles. (1991). The Ethics of Authenticity. Harvard University Press.

VanDrunen, David. (2013). Wisdom and the Natural Moral Order: The Contribution of Proverbs to a Christian Theology of Natural Law, in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Volume 33, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2013, pp. 153-168

Downloads

Published

2023-12-12

Issue

Section

Articles