To achieve to a higher standard of effectiveness...

To achieve to a higher standard of effectiveness, there furthermore needs to be a worldview that connects and gathers together all components such as ethical, political, cultural and economic subsystems in a coherent comprehensive system. Besides, it should be capable to synthesize the different economic perspectives.

I argue that the Islamic worldview as translated briefly in this article is potentially able to provide a firm consistency between all subsystems through which we can simultaneously expect an adequate effective demand in the aggregate good market, high marginal propensity to save, and strong motive power in the supply side. In addition, it is capable enough to motivate society to increase the stock of human capital, social capital, as well as strong infrastructure necessary for development.

Hence, Islamic piety not only is consistent with wealth creation but also drives society to the highest and loftiest quality of life possible full of respect and human dignity. This argument never denies some realized facts concerning Muslim countries. There is no doubt that the economic performance of Muslim countries is quite weak.

Their economies mostly rely on oil, mining, raw materials, tourism, agricultural products and from nationals living abroad who transfer money to relatives living in these countries. Their residents usually suffer from the lack of a strong welfare state, weakness of public goods as well as poverty. It seems that their economic reform programs have already failed or have not yet started.

Although a small minority of these countries - like Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore - can be considered as Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs), the importance of the Muslims’ role in their economies is only trifle. In my opinion, no society – whether it is the modern, secular state or the traditional, religious one – embodies Islamic teachings enough.

Therefore, although these miserable situations have been derived from our religious culture or understandings of our religion, there is nothing in Islam, in a pure sense, that causes these consequences. Instead, there are many Islamic teachings that can potentially motivate us to strengthen our economic performance and actively create wealth.

That is, Islamic teachings change our worldview evolutionally toward a moral consciousness about humankind, affect our social views, and can create a more just society, but they are not prescriptions for certain, specific state actions.