Riba: Usury or Interest

Epistemological Integration: Essentials of an Islamic Methodology is a program which seeks to construct an intellectual framework for Islamic methodology with a view to realizing practical training in the thoughtful investigation of issues related to knowledge in various fields. The book’s title affirms the distinctive types of integration that characterize Islamic methodology, including integration of sources, means, and schools of thought, as well as existing realities with desired ideals etc. This is fully consistent with human nature, as variety is fundamental to the functions people perform and skills they master. The work essentially makes the case that fundamental to any Muslim recovery is laying the foundations of sound thinking and values that integrate the two main sources of knowledge: Revelation and Reality (that is the created worlds both physical, societal and psychological) under the umbrella of Tawhid. Islamic methodology adopts that and extends human hopes to integrate efforts so that humanity can realistically achieve prosperity on earth and earn eternal happiness in the afterlife.

This book aims to cover the fundamental aspects of pharmaceutical manufacturing from the Islamic worldview to inspire students that whatever they do including very mundane routine work such as checking pH can be an ‘ibādah – if they work within the sphere of Islamic teachings and in shā’ Allah all the time and effort will be rewarded by Allah SWT. The first chapter describes the Islamic perspectives towards the safeguarding of life vis-à-vis the use of medicines or pharmaceuticals and can be considered as an overview for the Islamic manufacturing practices. Although this book is about the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, other industries may benefit from the discourse and examples given. As much as possible, processes and regulations are described in the book so that it covers the syllabus of industrial pharmacy for undergraduate use and still can be referred for postgraduate studies.

This valuable work presents Ibn Taimiyah’s thoughts on the concept of Islamic economics, the state in the economy, on public finance, money, interest, prices, partnership, and profit-sharing, and offers a comparison of his ideas with those of some medieval scholars in Europe, along with a study of his influence on Islamic thinkers in later periods.