From the Preface
“It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that perhaps no other issue in contemporary social thought possesses the centrality accorded the idea of development—social, cultural, economic, political, and technological. The importance of the question of how societies progress becomes even more acute if the idea of development is considered within the context of Justice—social, economic, and political. Within the dominant intellectual tradition, the history of the evolution of the idea of development has a rich pedigree. It at least dates back to the Scottish Enlightenment. Recently, Martha Nussbaum, and to some extent Amartya Sen, have drawn implications for contemporary thinking on development from Aristotlian analysis of human flourishing. The recent sharp focus of dominant thinking on human development has been necessitated by the alarming growth of poverty across the globe. World Bank estimates that nearly 80 percent of the world population (5.3 billion) live in low or middle income countries. Of this number, 20 percent (1.1 billion) live on incomes below the international poverty line (less than a dollar a day), many of them inescapably trapped in perpetual poverty.”
“This primary purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to Islam’s conception of development and to locate it within the general topography of the spectrum of dominant ideas in their historical perspective. The book attempts to present this topography in the first three chapters through a brief review of major conceptions of development within the context of “twists and turns” of their historical evolution. It is thought that such a brief coverage is important not only to provide a basis for comparison and contrast between the Islamic conception and the major ideas but also because heretofore these other conceptions have been the foundation of development policies and their implementation in Muslim countries.”
Contents, Publisher's Acknowledgment, and Author's Preface