Promoting Sustainable Development Through Islamic Social Finance

This chapter is about the role Islamic finance has been able to stay on the track of facing social–economical predicaments and on the way to sustainable development with the involvement of social prosperity. When trying to investigate the convergence between social finance and Islamic standards, what is argued is that a need for observing financial operations in the same way as prodevelopment theories arise. It is considered that in a holistic approach, which assumed a social justice as the basic ethic of the Islamic financial system, the final result tends to be more appropriate. One of the main elements that makes Islamic banking stand up in a high grade is maqasid al-Shari'ah due to its responsibility to assess social performance and apply new updated technologies for sustainable growth based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to that, the situation is critically observed and the gap between ambitions functions and the reality in Islamic banking and finance is also pointed out to find some reconciliation between aspirations and facts. While its ancient foundations did point to the prospect of Islamic banking to serve as a major contributor to the social and economic development, the industry players of today have now been preoccupied with the profit-making objectives and financial performance rather than social banking. This chapter focuses on the role of Islamic finance as a breakthrough force and shows the way that this influence could shape the discussions of financial systems, so that economics follow, and ethical principles and become factors for the national economy to grow more robustness.