TOWARD AN ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY METHODOLOGY: RETHINKING THE ISLAMIZATION OF CAPITALISM

Abstract

Existing scholarship on the Islamization of capitalism (IoC) has extensively addressed its conceptual inconsistencies and institutional limitations; however, it has largely overlooked the deeper methodological flaws that underpin this project. This study seeks to fill this gap by critically examining the methodological foundations underpinning IoC. This study examines these methodological foundations by analyzing how the reform methodology—based on incorporating beneficial aspects of capitalism, pursuing Sharīʿah compliance, and adopting an issue-oriented approach—shapes the IoC project. Using a qualitative and critical method, the study reviews key contributions in Islamic economics and evaluates how reformism operates within the existing capitalist system. The findings show that adopting capitalist procedures carries the risk of Islam being absorbed into the capitalist system, that capitalist practices cannot be Islamized because they serve the liberal values that sustain capitalism, and that an issue-oriented approach ignores the need for a system-oriented perspective. In response, the study proposes an Islamic revolutionary methodology that does not work within the existing system but aims to develop parallel Islamic alternatives capable of transcending and ultimately replacing capitalism.