Islamabad: (PR) Riphah Center of Islamic Business (RCIB), a constituent Institute of Riphah International University in collaboration with the Islamic Research and Training Institute, (IRTI) Islamic Development Bank (IDB), JEDDAH organized a one day International workshop to develop a “Framework for Surveys and Impact Analysis through Maqasid al-Shariah based Index of Socio-Economic Development”. It aimed at discussing the policy issues involved and mobilize quality policy oriented research in the field. The key objectives from the Workshop were to:
Clarify or expand the definition and conceptualization of Maqasid al-Shariah as measurable concept and suggest various indicators that tie with one or more objectives of the Shariah.
Designing specific survey instruments in order to develop indicators directly relevant to Maqasid al-Shariah. These can be survey questionnaires addressing all or few dimensions of Maqasid and presenting the results of a pilot survey on the basis of the designed survey.
Gauging the performance and impact of socio-economic polices in the light of fulfilment of Maqasid al-Shariah;
Combining subjective and objective measures and thresholds for deprivation evaluation.
Evaluate various indicators for measurement of the multi-dimensions of these Maqasid (e.g., how good the indicators as a proxy for the relevant dimension, to what extant there is cross-dimensional overlap etc).
Research Scholars from various Islamic countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, IRTI, IDB, Jeddah and Pakistan participated in the workshop and presented their papers. Three categories of papers on policy, economics and finance were discussed in five sessions.
Prof. Dr Anis Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of Riphah welcomed the audience and delivered a policy address on Maqasid al Shariah realization in Socio-Economic Development and need for their Measurement. He appreciated the efforts of the RCIB and Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) in organizing this workshop. It was followed by a presentation by Dr Salman Syed Ali, representative of IRTI, on guidelines for preparing the Maqasid al Shariah based Index Framework.
In the formal proceedings, thirteen papers were presented that discussed almost all areas of measuring socio-economic development as result of operations of different institutions including banking and finance, cooperatives, Zakat, income taxation and waqf. Prof Dr Sayed Tahir, Prof Dr Tahir Mansoori, Prof Dr Asad Zaman and Mr Muhammad Ayub chaired various sessions.
Participants also discussed that the subject matter of Maqasid al-Shariah could broadly be approached from various angles such as: its historical development, use in ijtihad, identification and classification of maqasid, approaches in identification of maqasid and the differences in those methods etc. Maqasid al-Shariah can also be approached from its applications to various contemporary issues, for example, application of Maqasid al-Shariah in medical ethics, application of law, etc.
At the end, Dr. Salman Syed Ali expressed gratitude to the researchers for their hard work and for participating in the Workshop discussions. He also thanked to the Riphah International University for collaboration for the Workshop. Dr. Khurram Khan, Chairman of the RCIB gave ‘Vote of Thanks” for the Audience and IRTI, IDB, Jeddah. He also read the ‘Resolution’ that called for strengthening the Working Group at IRTI to streamline and consolidate the work being done on developing the frameworks for measuring socio-economic development as a result of the operations and application of various Islamic institutions in the areas of banking, finance, markets, zakat, waqf, cooperatives, community based takaful, etc. The ‘Resolution’ was adopted unanimously.
