The Real Challenge for Islamic Economics and Finance: Homo Economislamicus

Abstract

The rapid change in Information Technology, Blockchain, Industry 4.0, and Artificial Intelligence have not only changed the way business is done but also brought its own paradigm. The moving point for this research is the revisit of the human factor in Islamic Economics and Finance (IEF). For a perfect application of IEF—together with the availability of sharīʿah-compliant financial instruments, financial institutions and financial markets—the IEF literature requires the availability of homo Islamicus who will be on the demand or supply side of the financial activities. This “ethical” homo Islamicus needs to strictly follow Islamic ethics at the personal and professional corporate levels. Although we need such a perfect human being, economic activities are carried out by people having a perspective of homo economicus to some extent. Homo economicus is a concept that cannot be translated in real life. This research claims that modern human being is a combination of homo economicus and homo Islamicus, which can be branded as homo economislamicus. This perspective provides an improvement point that maximises the homo Islamicus perceptive in each piece of knowledge production and application in the market that will help a better practice of IEF. In order to increase the “Islamic” component of the applied finance, there should be greater awareness on the availability of homo economislamicus and consistency among knowledge-intention-application.