RECENTLY, an important achievement was made by ICIFE in publishing its first book (in the domain of Islamic Economics), The Islamic Currency, authored by our own Assistant Secretary, Dr. Adam Abdullah from IIUM’s Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance (IIiBF) and supported by Y.Bhg Tan Sri Rais Yatim, the President of IIUM and Chairman of ICIFE’s International Advisory Board.
Apart from seeking to clarify the Islamic monetary standard, the book also analyzes 1,300 years of gold, silver and commodity price data in Egypt, Turkey, England, America and Malaysia, in order to measure actual monetary performance of various economies over the long term. The results confirm that fiat money is the worst performing monetary system and is little more than a wealth transfer mechanism. Hence, the author proposes an Islamic monetary theory of value and Islamic equation of exchange, together with a mechanism designed to return to a high value Islamic currency, in order to achieve low prices and sustainable economic growth.
Indeed, Dr. Adam’s book was externally reviewed and subsequently endorsed by one of the founding members of ICIFE and former Dean of IIiBF, Dato’ Prof. Dr. Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera, who said that, The Islamic Currency is “a brilliant work that analyses Islamic money using vast historical data and observation, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. This book is very timely noting the precarious situation the global monetary and financial system is in. It is a must read for every Shari’ah scholar, Islamic finance practitioner and student of Islamic Finance and should be made compulsory reading in Islamic Banking and Finance academic programmes”.
