Towards A New Paradigm for Economics: by: Asad Zaman, Comment by: M. Fahim Khan نحو نموذج جديد للاقتصاد: بقلم: أسد زمان ، تعليق: محمد فهيم خان

Muslim economists should rightly believe that they need to develop their own framework for economic analysis of human behavior. This is needed not only to get more realistic insight into the economic behavior of man, but also to understand the divine commandments about the behavior and their role in improving economic conditions for the human existence in this world. Asad Zaman has, therefore, taken a step in the right direction, discussing an alternate microeconomic framework as a prelude to developing a new economic paradigm. But, do we have an alternate framework now, for our economic analysis? I can hardly be sure. Despite very thoughtful and rigorous arguments, Zaman, still could not distance himself much from the Neoclassical framework. His main emphasis, if I understand him correctly, is on adding ethical dimensions to the Neoclassical economic analysis. As he said, “there is no escaping the ethical dimensions”. This argument is strong on its own merit and several economists have rigorously argued that Islamic ethics has to be an integral part of the discipline of Islamic economics. But these arguments do not help us much in presenting Islamic economics as a distinct scientific paradigm. Marriage of ethics and Neoclassical Economics is only a marriage of convenience to get something to be called Islamic Economics but not a new paradigm in Economics --