Saudi Gazette report

MADINAH — Sheikh Abdullah Saleh Kamel, chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), underscored the need to exert efforts to find successful solutions to the current economic crises so as to provide stability, prosperity and justice to the entire mankind.

He made the remarks during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 43rd Al-Baraka Islamic Economics Symposium at Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz University in Madinah on Wednesday. Emir of Madinah Prince Faisal bin Salman graced the opening ceremony of the three-day symposium titled “Islamic economics and the genuineness of sustainability.”

Sheikh Kamel, who is also chairman of the Board of Trustees of Al-Baraka Islamic Economics Forum, said: “The crises created by humans have made our lives subject to indescribable difficulties and challenges that are increasing day by day. In this context, the symposium addresses these issues based on a comprehensive understanding of the components and principles of Islamic economics.”

Sheikh Kamel noted that crises have become part of the economic fabric and their news is familiar to the ear, so that the experts’ discourses focus on the solutions for the current crisis, and what is the next crisis. “This necessitates us to strive very diligently to search for real solutions that prevent crises from occurring in the first place, and to move from merely providing a permissible alternative for the Muslims searching for the halal, to presenting to all mankind successful solutions based on the Qur’anic principles and the Prophetic traditions. We have to provide for the humanity and the universe around us with all the components of solutions such as stability, security, prosperity and justice,” he said while noting “the crises have encompassed everything, including the human being to corrupt his spirit, mind, and body, and the environment with all its components — this pollution is difficult to remove, and the human-made crises have reached even the space around us.”

Sheikh Kamel said the symposium, which deals with these key topics year after year during its 42 previous sessions, stems from a comprehensive understanding of the components and principles of Islamic economics, which makes it combine throughout its history between sober originality and realistic modernity, all with a free scientific spirit, and an innovative thought that is alienated from stagnation.