ABSTRACT
It has been discussed before that research in Islamic economics and finance (IEF) could adopt the scientific methods developed by the conventional social scientists, but we should have some reservations to make adjustments where needed. Therefore, research in IEF in a world dominated by conventional economics and finance (CEF) will encounter various inevitable challenges. There are some fundamental challenges, such as the following. First, the ongoing discussions on the clash of the assumptions and methodology of mainstream economics with the classical methodology of Islamic sciences in various forms. Second, IEF was revived during the 1970s in the world of conventional economic and financial systems, so there is no real economy in the contemporary world that is enshrouded in Islamic principles. Third, Islamic economics as a discipline is still in the infancy stage, and it cannot be detached from conventional economics, since they share the same subject matter. Fourth, the sluggish progress of Islamic economics as a social science due to many dilemmas has made Islamic economics still a work in progress. Khan stated 11 dilemmas and suggested a possible way forward.
There are also some more technical challenges, such as the following. First, there are not many experts/scholars in each aspect of IEF, even in Muslim-majority countries, which constrain qualitative studies requiring a certain number of expert respondents. Second, there is a scarcity of quantitative periodic data of various financial institutions to begin quantitative studies, especially in Islamic social finance (such as, zakat, infaq, and waqf), as well as in Islamic microfinance, which means researchers could not use quantitative methods, or force researchers to collect primary data for their studies. Third, there are few previous studies on most topics/themes of IEF published in internationally indexed journals, which forces researchers to extend their research to provide scientific foundations of their studies. Fourth, there are even fewer previous frontier studies on each topic/theme of IEF published in internationally indexed journals, which also challenges researchers to use their creativity to conduct these studies.
