The Qur’an makes a clear distinction between the perceptible world of experience and the unseen world of transcendental reality. Revelation is a means for God’s specially chosen messengers to receive divine messages; we may call it an exclusive channel of communication accessible to the prophets.
Islam advocates the incorporation of knowledge within a just and balanced value system where anything beneficial for one’s spiritual and worldly improvement is encouraged and advocated.
Such advancement of Muslim farming, according to Bolens, was owed to the adaptation of agrarian techniques to local needs, and to `a spectacular cultural union of scientific knowledge from the past and the present, from the Near East, the Maghreb, and Andalusia.
It is already known that institutions such as al-Qayrawan, al-Qarawiyyin and al-Azhar, above all, were amongst the first universities throughout history. Another great body of institutions initiated by the Muslims were the Madrasas, or colleges, of which Ibn Jubayr counted thirty on his visit to Baghdad.
The religion of Islam is the religion of benevolence to the people. Therefore the honorable Prophet Muhammad was the best practical example for serving people and meeting their needs. His sayings are full of examples of exhorting Muslims to serve one another and help others.
The greatest scientific contribution Muslims made to the world is the creation of mathematical science. Algebra, geometry, algorithm and arithmetic are at the heart of every scientific and social aspect of life. There is hardly a single device, business entity, industry, architecture built without the Arabic numerals, the decimal point, the sign and cosine, the ruler and the compass, all of which are Islamic inventions.
These are just few examples of the Prophet’s gentleness, mercy, and respect towards the elderly. These examples, and many others, translate the sublime Islamic code of ethics for treating the elderly and provide Muslims, generation after generation, with a practical model that they should follow.
The pioneers of Islamic economics asserted that an economy based on Islamic values and principles would produce a moral economic system serving the needs of not only Muslims but humanity at large. The economy would strive to fulfill the goals of Shari`ah and result in achieving a just and vibrant economy.
Reforming people and communities cannot be carried out randomly or haphazardly. Rather, a nation cannot be reborn or revived except through a very long process of genuine education or radical change that affects all its joints
For a transaction to be ethical, the overall goals of Shari`ah should also be fulfilled at the contract level. Other than avoiding riba and gharar, Monzer Kahf indicates that fulfilling maqasid (objectives) at the transaction level would involve satisfying the objectives, principles and values underscored in the Islamic laws of transactions.