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The purpose of this paper is to draw a map of the general features of epistemological and critical concerns in contemporary Islamic philosophy. This study will not be confined to the domain of academic philosophy or to those who are professionals in the field of philosophy.

The paper adopted the critical rational approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic philosophy in the Arab world. The scope will include scholars from different fields of epistemology who tried to present a “vision” of the attitude that should be adopted in facing the challenges of the age and the problems of the nation on the epistemological level or the political, economic and social levels.

There is a need for a philosophy of action and progress rather than a philosophy that is based on abstract ideas and theories and of words/rhetoric. The ethics required to accomplish this ought to identify the attributes of the citizen who can reach self-actualization through legitimate means based on a progress agenda with theoretical and philosophical foundations.

Because a critical rational approach can be dealt with from different perspectives, this paper will adopt the classification of the principal intellectual trends: the reformist, secular and liberal.

This paper covers a long time span to determine whether the philosophical projects have been effective.

This paper, which criticizes the philosophic projects that are theoretically unsound and that do not address real social problems (like poverty), argues the need for a philosophy of progress and action. This will lead to devising an agenda that addresses the challenges the society is facing and to finding alternative and creative solutions resulting in development.

An effective language policy is of central importance in any educational reform endeavour. As the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries seek to foster the conditions for the creation and maintenance of knowledge societies, this chapter sets out to examine how language policy can be viewed from a philosophical perspective with reference to Islamic epistemic, ontological and axiological norms. The chapter contends at the outset that Muslim students and academics can suffer from pragmatic failure and cognitive dissonance if an effective language policy is not implemented that takes into account their philosophical disposition. A way to mitigate against this cognitive dissonance is explored, which would result in a language policy predicated on Islamic philosophical norms. A language policy thus articulated is viewed as a necessary precursor to the development of a knowledge society in Islamic countries.

This paper addresses three interrelated objectives. The approach is philosophical and comparative. As far as possible the Islamic arguments of the paper are derived from the Quran.

The purpose of this paper is to survey the viewpoints of various stakeholder groups on the philosophy and objectives of Islamic banking, particularly in a dual banking environment, as in the case of Malaysia.

The paper presents primary data collected by self‐administered and postal questionnaires involving a sample of 1,500 respondents representing seven stakeholder groups, namely customers, depositors, local communities, Islamic banking managers, employees, banking regulatory officers and Shariah advisers. An exploratory factor analysis is employed to examine the respondents' perceptions towards various objectives of Islamic banking.

This paper reveals that respondents regard Islamic banking as an institution that should uphold social objectives and promote Islamic values towards their staffs, clients and the general public. Other factors perceived to be important include contributing to the social welfare of the community, promoting sustainable development projects and alleviating poverty.

The empirical evidence of this paper affects two aspects; first Islamic banks must not be solely profit‐driven entities; rather they must aim at promoting Islamic norms and values to achieve the economic objectives as prescribed by Shariah (Islamic Law). Second, true success for Islamic banking participants depends on the extent to which they can integrate social goals with the mechanics of financial innovation. This research will be of interest to both incumbent and potential entrants into this niche market.

The paper reports findings from the first nation‐wide survey of diverse stakeholder groups in the area of Islamic banking and finance.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methodology of integrated knowledge in Islamic economics and finance and seek to offer collective ijtihād as one way to find solutions to the existing problems in the field.

The study is based on the idea of multidisciplinarity or interdisciplinarity, which uses not only traditional sources of Islam and economics, such as uṣūl al-fiqh, fiqh mu’amalat, econometrics, statistics, microeconomics and macroeconomics but also looks into behavioural and natural sciences for inspiration and solutions. This paper is constructed using the methodology of “the two readings”, as promoted by the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and which combines the revealed and the existential sciences.

This paper proposes the collaborative multidisciplinary methodology as the main approach to studying the modern problems and challenges, as well as for finding solutions in the fields of Islamic economics and finance.

Studying and researching issues, particularly in the field of Islamic economics and finance, from an interdisciplinary perspective, effectively broadens practical applications and possibilities in Islamic finance.

This paper contributes to social sciences, especially the field of Islamic finance, and calls upon researchers to engage in multidisciplinary studies.