"[This is] a subject of such relevance and importance that one wonders why nobody else dealt with it in book form before."—Dr. Wilfried Hofmann
Muslim civilization has experienced a decline during the last five centuries after previously having undergone a long period of prosperity and comprehensive development. This raises a number of questions such as what factors enable Muslims to become successful during the earlier centuries of Islam and what led them to their present weak position. Is Islam responsible for this decline or are there some other factors which come into play? M. Umer Chapra provides an authoritative diagnosis and prescription to reverse this decline.
M. Umer Chapra is a research advisor at the Islamic Research and Training Institute of the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, and author of The Future of Economics and Islam and the Economic Challenge.
Dr. M. Umer Chapra is currently serving as Research Advisor at the Islamic Research & Training Institute (IRTI) of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). Before joining IRTI in 1999, he worked as Senior Economic Advisor at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) from where he retired after a long service of 35 years. Dr. Chapra also taught in the United States at the Universities of Wisconsin and Kentucky and worked in Pakistan at the Institute of Development Economics and the Islamic Research Institute. He has made seminal contributions to Islamic Economics and Finance over more than three decades.He has authored 16 books and monographs and more than 100 papers and book reviews. Some of his books, monographs and papers have been translated into a number of languages, including Arabic, Bangla, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Malay, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu. Consequently, he has received a number of awards, including the Islamic Development Bank Award for Islamic Economics, and the King Faisal International Award for Islamic Studies, both in 1989. In Fifty-two years of his professional life,he served 2 years in Pakistan, 6 years in the U.S.A. and 44 years in Saudi Arabia.He has worked in Institutes like University of Minnesota,University of Wisconsin, Platteville,Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Karachi ,the Central Institute of Islamic Research, Karachi,University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky.Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Islamic Research and Training Institute of the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah . His most outstanding contributions have been the four books indicated below; 1. Towards a Just Monetary System (1985) 2. Islam and the Economic Challenge (1992) 3. The Future of Economics: An Islamic Perspective (2000) 4. Muslim Civilization: The Causes of Decline and the Need for Reform (2008).