In an Islamic economy, the financial sector functions to support the real sector. There are no interest rate based debt instruments. Financial assets are based on risk and return sharing and are contingent claims. Real as well as monetary forces determine the rate of return. As in traditional general equilibrium theory, there is a price system comprised of a real rate of return to capital and a price level of commodities that simultaneously clears asset and commodity markets. An Islamic financial system is shown to be stable, namely the economy evolves from short-term equilibrium to a stable long-term equilibrium.

Islamic finance provides financial products, which comply with Islamic law (Shariah), largerly to Muslim investors and some Islamic products have even attracted conventional investors and borrowers. Despite growing interest in Islamic finance, a full-fledged Islamic financial system has yet to be established and demonstrated as the viable financial system in even a single country ...

Two alternative explanations of the financial crisis have emerged. One relies on deviations from the efficient capital market hypothesis - emergence of bubbles and informational problems - to explain the causes of the crisis. An alternative explanation views financial crises as internally generated instability episodes that inevitably arise from the basic debt-credit interest rate relations. Based on a number of assumptions, theory has demonstrated the inherent stability of Islamic financial system. However, in practice the assumptions of theory are not met and, therefore, such stability cannot be taken for granted. For one thing, theory, inter alia, assumes a 100 percent reserve banking system. Moreover, Islam provides an institutional scaffolding (behavioral rules) as support for its economic and financial systems. This paper contends that the recent global financial crisis holds valuable lessons for the operation of existing Islamic finance. One such lesson is that in the absence of the institutional framework appropriate for its operation. Islamic finance requires a regulatory supervisory framework much stronger than exists in the dominant system. In particular, such a framework has to be unified, uniform, and multinational in its design and implementation. Such a regulatory-supervisory system is far more important to the Islamic Financial system in its present stage of evolution than in the dominant system because the reputational risks of failure of a few Islamic finance institutions anywhere can pose far greater systemic risk and reputational damage than similar failure in the dominant system.

Financial instability has been a recurrent phenomenon in contemporary economic history, affecting countries with varying intensity and resulting in massive unemployment and lost economic output. The financial crisis that broke out in August 2007 crippled the financial system of many advanced countries, and claimed as victims long-established banking and investment banking institutions that were deemed “too big too fail.” Capital markets were frozen, leading to stock market crashes worldwide, wiping out trillions of dollars in share values and in retirement investment accounts, and resulting in massive and persistent unemployment.

In this paper, the foundational rules governing human, economic and financial development in Islam, as understood from the Qur’ān and from the life and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), are summarized. These rules pave the path to development as the basis of institutional structure, which in turn, underpin the path of economic and social progress. The essential elements in the life of a Muslim - the unity of creation, freedom and freedom of choice, economic and human development, economic system and financial practice - are developed.