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Reflections about fostering moral and spiritual qualities are the key point of view when considering the essence of religious beliefs in the theories about moral foundations. As a part of the spiritual values aimed at instructing human beings, mainly Muslims, tawakkul (trust in God) and tawhid (belief to God) are to be enhanced to situate the core religious foundation as the basic element for life at individual and social levels in the Muslim communities. This paper aims to critically examine tawakkul and tawhid to strengthening divine values as a foundation of self-regulation in religiosity.

This paper aims to critically examine tawakkul and tawhid to strengthening divine values as a foundation of self-regulation in religiosity. The literature review from referred journals was conducted using keywords on divine values, self-regulation in religiosity and tawakkul and tawhid. In order to obtain such literature, the critical analysis was conducted by organising substantive keywords. Then, extraction of data with deep literature analysis was carried out to interpret the findings. The key elements were analysed and synthesised into a new interpretation, conceptualisation and modelling of conceptualising tawakkul and tawhid concerns for sustainability of divine values for self-regulation in religiosity.

The finding reveals that the significance of conceptualising tawakkul and tawhid refers to as sustainability of divine involvement, as an emotionally religious commitment and as a consciously held religious discipline. Primarily, as the religious principle founded on a basic element transferred into individual and social levels, Islamic insights from tawakkul and tawhid offer valuable considerations for the understanding and amelioration of development by contributing a model that bases the “mental” and “spiritual” elements on a religious foundation, as an ultimate component for faith, a religious commitment and a belief in an authoritarian God to foster moral and spiritual qualities amidst the society.

Regulating tawakkul and tawhid to enhance dynamically constructive system for moral personality through critical examination as a foundation for religious-based self-regulation offers valuable considerations for the understanding and amelioration of development. Critical examination of tawakkul and tawhid as a foundation for religious self-regulation is considerably engaged to enhance the understanding and amelioration of development. It does so by contributing a model that bases mental and spiritual elements on a religious foundation, as an ultimate component for faith, religious commitment and belief in an authoritarian God to foster moral and spiritual qualities among human beings.

The purpose of this paper is to critique the philosophical underpinnings of the growing field of Islamic economics.

A critical and comparative review of Islamic economics texts written by key proponents during the last eight decades is undertaken. The origins of this nascent science are traced and factors that gave impetus to its development examined. The different characterisations of the discipline as it has developed within the broader socio‐political context are contrasted.

The proponents of Islamic economics have had little success in shaping a distinctive paradigm for their discipline, beyond arguing that it is underpinned by a strong moral ethic. By and large, its epistemological roots have remained firmly within the framework of rationalism/empiricism and methodological individualism. Consequently, Islamic economics has not been able to shed its neoclassical moorings, the very paradigm it originally set out to replace. Several of the contradictions apparent in the discipline are discussed. Islamic economists, recognising that their mission has remained unfulfilled, have variously suggested different approaches to regenerate the process and chart the way forward. These propositions are examined and evaluated.

If Islamic economics is to fulfil its raison d'être, that is, articulate a coherent theoretical paradigm and demonstrate its relevance to the real economy, its proponents must resolve its theoretical and practical difficulties by clarifying its Weltanschauung and developing an appropriate content and form.

This study evaluates how the discipline has developed and exposes its inherent contradictions. These inconsistencies are identified and explained at the foundational level, highlighting where and why they have occurred.

Studies Ghazzali’s and Kant’s metaphysical epistemologies in comparative perspectives to bring out their consequences on the central issue of unification of knowledge. Addresses the problem posed by either of these epistemologies towards unifying knowledge. Shows the central issue of reality as a universal is to be premissed in unification, which is in turn explained to be the direct function of interaction and creative evolution from lower to higher levels of certainty. Shows the unification epistemology to be uniquely premissed in the Qur’anic roots of Oneness of God. Explains this concept substantively in analytical terms. Thus the concept of unification of knowledge means the circular continuity by evolution of the interactions and integration that occur by linkages between the purely a priori and the purely a posteriori domains. This is also meant to convey the phenomenon of epistemic‐ontic continuity of the process towards comprehension and the resulting materiality of forms that subsequently reinforce newer levels of comprehensions. Unification takes place in the plane of such interlinkages, complementarity and convergence or integration. Invokes the problem of unification of knowledge in the contrasting modes of all the three cases, namely Ghazzali, Kant and the unification epistemology, to address the issues of moral market transformation taken up in the midst of human sustainability. Discusses some contemporary issues relating to globalization, economic interlinkages and evolution for world development, in light of the topic of moral market transformation and sustainability. Studies both of these analytically in the unification epistemology paradigm in contrast to the consequences implicative of Ghazzali’s and Kant’s epistemologies.

This paper aims to undertake a critical evaluation of the purpose and objective of Islamic Law, namely, maqasid as-shari’ah, as it has evolved in Islamic scholastic experience. But, the greater philosophy and potential of maqasid as-shari’ah within the great design of the monotheistic law, sunnat-Allah, is explained. Such explanation is carried out in the light of the core of Islamic epistemology that directly induces Islamic Law.

This critical evaluation is pursued in the light of the epistemological worldview and its methodical formalism of unity of knowledge contra a differentiated and conflicting view of human experience in rationalism. The episteme of unity of knowledge is Tawhid as the law of everything in the precept of unity as understood by the monotheistic law, sunnat-Allah. In the light of the extendibility of maqasid as-shari’ah across the relationally unifying domain of sunnat-Allah, the potentiality of shari’ah in terms of res extensa (epistemic extension) and res cogitans (cognitive capacity) is discussed.

Various occidental thoughts in this quest for extendibility of the epistemic totality are critically examined by the Tawhidi monotheistic law. The universality of the Tawhidi law of monotheism in respect of its characteristics of res extensa and res cogitans is studied to bring out the potentiality of maqasid as-shari’ah. Thereby, the new vision of inter-systemic extensions across diverse domains of intellection interactively unified together is formalized. This formalism goes beyond the existing limits of maqasid as-shari’ah confined as it is to worldly socioeconomic affairs (muamalat).

A much broader investigation is opened up by this paper that can be extended by academic work.

The practical support of the criticism against both the idea of shari’ah-compliance and the incomplete implication of maqasid as-shari’ah as presently understood among Islamic scholars is carried out by a detailed empirical work. The extension to the choice of a new financial instrument of Foreign Trade Financing Certificate is introduced.

The critical discussion launched in reference to the wider meaning, objective and purpose of maqasid as-shari’ah under the epistemology of the Tawhidi methodological worldview results in the substantive understanding of maslaha, well-being. Maslaha as well-being forms the ultimate index of socio-scientific valuation under maqasid as-shari’ah in the light of the Tawhidi epistemological worldview. Thereby, the perspective of socioeconomic development, and more extensively socio-scientific intellection, is brought out as extensively participatory evolutionary process under the principle of unity of knowledge (Tawhidi episteme). Brief examples are invoked to establish this fact. An example of measured multidimensional well-being (maslaha) as the final index of participatory organic relations that maqasid as-shari’ah ought to project in reference to Tawhidi methodological worldview is represented.

This is a distinctively original paper in an area that has not been investigated thus far. Besides, much scope for further intellectual investigation is opened up.

Pure economic theory ignores ethical values but in Islamic society these are seen as essentially recreated entities of the social order. Islam presents its worldview not as a pluralistic value but as one that calls for the organisation of social and economic order around its well‐defined precepts, principles and instruments. The relationships between these are explained both philosophically and logically. Islamic social choice formation using syllogistic deductionism is demonstrated.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: how do we derive a systemic understanding of community, business and microenterprise linkages in the light of the cardinal episteme of Islamic belief, Tawhid?

The worldview of unity of the divine laws termed in the Qur'an as Tawhid (oneness of God or equivalently oneness of the divine laws and also unity of knowledge) is explained in the form of a general socioeconomic paradigm. This worldview is then used to address the complementary relationships between microenterprises and their embedded social environment comprising community and business.

The participatory development interrelationships explained by means of circular causation between the variables representing community, business and microenterprise comprise a specific example of application of the Islamic episteme of unity of knowledge to entities that exist in embedded learning systems. Such learning systems are governed by the episteme of unity of knowledge as explicated by the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Prophetic guidance). These together form the foundation of every Islamic methodological inquiry and application. Examples of microenterprises are Pasar Pagi (morning markets) and Pasar Malam (night markets) in Indonesia. Other comparative examples are given.

This paper shows how participatory development and sustainability‐by learning paradigms arise uniquely from the epistemic foundations of unity of knowledge (Tawhid). The productive transformation of microenterprise groupings through their complementary relationships with community and business is shown to invoke the Tawhidi epistemic worldview. The result of such complementary social embedding is expected to result in enhanced organization and productivity of microenterprises. The paper offers policy prescriptions for such participatory development change.

Given the fact that the Islamic economic paradigm differs from the secular capitalist paradigm in terms of its emphasis on morality and spirituality, the author thinks that the current Human Development Index (HDI) does not capture human development from an Islamic perspective. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a paradigmatic, theoretical, and conceptual model for the suggested Islamic HDI (iHDI) and second, to present several proxy variables for multi-dimensional iHDI and test the proposed index through empirical data for ten Muslim countries.

The author developed eight-dimensional composite iHDIs based on the understanding of human nature from the Tawhidi anthropology. These dimensions included physical, reasoning, spiritual, ethical, animal, social, deciding, and oppressive selves. The author measured them using nine different indices, three of which came from the conventional HDI (cHDI). The author then compared the rankings of those Muslim countries in iHDI to those in cHDI.

The iHDI rankings for all Muslim countries except two differed from those in cHDI. The difference was more substantial for countries with higher economic development. Thus, improved cHDI rankings for Muslim countries based on their economic development do not necessarily mean that they move toward ideal human development. This finding confirms the need for an alternative human development indexing approach from an Islamic perspective.

The paper is likely to initiate movement to develop an alternative HDI from Islamic perspective.

The paper findings have important policy implications for Muslim countries.

It is the first empirical paper showing how to develop an alternative HDI from an Islamic perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to critique Gödel's and Tarski's axiomatic approach in their theorems of incompleteness of the arithmetical system.

Mathematical theory of self‐referencing is contrasted and an original contribution made by an extension of the same theorem beyond Godel and Tarski, showing how the Islamic epistemology contributes to establishing new thought in mathematical logic with unity of the divine law.

The paper finds that behind the critique of the axioms of provability and non‐provability, decidability and undecidability, lies the morally valid episteme of all socio‐scientific systems and that this is as true of social systems as it is of the hard‐core sciences.

The paper has the potential for extension to applications, which has not been included.

The paper contributes to new and original thinking in the area of mathematical logic of self‐referencing theorem in the framework of unity of the divine law as the episteme of “everything”.

Oneness is the prime attribute of God. Divine oneness is the singular moral foundation of “everything” invoking socio-scientific intellection in the Islamic worldview. In this ontological sense, this concept of conscious oneness means that the ultimate and indivisible absoluteness and completeness of creatorship, knowledge, will and power over all things, rest with God alone.¹ Because God's oneness belongs to the domain of purity (Ikhlas), removed from the material and cognized worlds, it marks the topological domain of the fullness and purity of the knowledge stock. It exogenously by itself creates, governs, and acts upon the created universes of all kinds, abstract, and evident. By itself, the precept of oneness of God is not causally affected by anything. It creates all but is never created of itself, or by any other.²

This paper aims to explore the root cause of growing gap in Islamic moral ideals and practices by examining paradigmatic foundation and moral axioms of Islamic business ethics. It compares and contrasts Tawhidi and secular paradigms in terms of their moral axioms and ethical mandates.

The paper first presents the paradigmatic foundation of Islamic ethics, namely, ihsan ethics. Second, it compares Tawhidi paradigm of Islam with secular paradigm in respect to their ontological, axiological, anthropological and teleological differences. Third, it links to Islamic moral axioms to the relevant paradigmatic pillars. Fourth, it defines “ihsan ethics” based on Tawhidi paradigm and moral axioms. Finally, it sheds some light on the gap between moral ideals and realities through the theory of ihsan ethics.

The paper attempts to provide strong conceptual and theoretical tools to understand ethical problems in the Muslim societies. The paper makes a strong case that Muslim minds shall be de-secularized to perceive the reality, truth and telos within Tawhidi worldview. As Muslims reach the level of ihsan by perceiving transcendental reality, they are likely to practice what they preach.

The paper proposes “ihsan ethics” based on Tawhidi worldview and Islamic moral axioms.