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Our Meaningless Modern Lives: Part 1

Introductory essay explores loss of meaning in our modern lives.

The Most Valuable Kind of Knowledge These lectures aim to provide the reader with knowledge. But what is knowledge? Our lives consist of a small number of infinitely precious moments. What makes it worthwhile to invest these moments in the acquisition of knowledge? Is it the kind of knowledge that can teach us how to lead better lives—how to make the most of the few moments that we have? This…

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Nurturing Prosperity: What Development Economists Can Learn from Mothers

Introduction: Expanding on the “infant industry” metaphor, this article explores the lessons that development economists could learn from the way mothers nurture and encourage the growth of their children. While traditional views focus on penalties and corrections, this motherhood approach emphasizes encouragement and building on inherent strengths. This simple yet powerful metaphor sets the…

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Nurturing Prosperity: What Development Economists Can Learn from Mothers

Introduction: Expanding on the “infant industry” metaphor, this article explores the lessons that development economists could learn from the way mothers nurture and encourage the growth of their children. While traditional views focus on penalties and corrections, this motherhood approach emphasizes encouragement and building on inherent strengths. This simple yet powerful metaphor sets the…

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Israr Ahmad on Revival of Islam

Islamic Renaissance seeks to rejuvenate Islamic ideals, practices, and societal structures. Dr. Israr Ahmad’s monograph, “Islamic Renaissance: The Real Task Ahead,” delves into why many Islamic revival movements have fallen short and how to correct these missteps for a true renaissance. In particular, Dr Israr Ahmad argues that the real task facing the Islamic Civilization is to meet the…

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Enlightenment Epistemology and the Climate Crisis

Enlightenment epistemology led to the detachment we feel from other living creatures and the environment. It is this change in ways of knowing the world that is ultimately responsible for the climate crisis

Introduction At first glance, it appears that industrialization, with its rampant overproduction and overconsumption, stands as the primary antagonist in our climate crisis narrative. However, this surface-level perception overlooks a more profound shift that lies beneath: an epistemological revolution birthed in the European Enlightenment. This era marked a pivotal transition in our…

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#Climate Crisis #Emotional Intelligence in Science #Enlightenment Philosophy #Environmental Ethics #Epistemological Shift #Holistic Knowledge

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Decolonization of Education: An Islamic Perspective

A talk on above topic was delivered at Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad, on 23rd Feb 2024. The ZOOM video of the talk, in urdu, is given here: Decolonization of Education. The original slides for the talk were re-recorded in English, and this video is linked below. It is followed by a writeup which is loosely based on the talk, but goes beyond it, and also provides links and references to…

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Transformative Teaching: Changing the Lives of Our Students

Our Prophet Mohammed ﷺ was a model for excellence in every dimension. His teachings transformed ignorant and backward Bedouin into world leaders. As teachers, can we follow in his footsteps? Can we teach in way that transforms the lives of our students, and gives them the vision to change the world? The models of education which we have borrowed from the West are not capable of doing so. In…

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Epistemological Roots of the Climate Crisis

This post is based on a talk prepared for a National Conference on SDGs: Catalysts for Economic Transformation in Pakistan on Feb 29-Mar 1, organized by the Economics Department of University of Lahore. The original talk, in the video below, has been revised and updated: At first glance, industrialization seems the primary culprit of our climate crisis, driving rampant overproduction and…

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Educational Planning at Akhuwat University

It is a simple fact that the education we provide to our children shapes the future of the nation. From personal observation over twenty-five years, I can testify that our educational processes destroy the potential of our students, instead of building it. Furthermore, this problem can easily be remedied by adopting Islamic models of education, instead of mindless imitation of Western models…

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Islamic Pedagogy

I’ve spent my whole life in academic institutions, first as a student then as a teacher. I taught for 15 years in the USA, 6 in turkey and 25 years in Pakistan. In this talk, I would like to draw some lessons from these life experiences. An Urdu version of the talk is: Islamic Styles of Pedagogy (urdu). The English video below is followed by a writeup: Our religion teaches us that each life is…

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Nominal Versus Real Models

Modern economics uses “scientific” methodology, under the assumption that economic laws are invariant across time, space, and society. In previous posts, we saw how this leads to loss of precious insights about money gained from historical experiences (Monetary Economies: A Historical Perspective, Lessons from Monetary History: The Quality-Quantity Pendulum). In this post, we will discuss the…

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Nominal Versus Real Models

Modern economics uses “scientific” methodology, under the assumption that economic laws are invariant across time, space, and society. In previous posts, we saw how this leads to loss of precious insights about money gained from historical experiences (Monetary Economies: A Historical Perspective, Lessons from Monetary History: The Quality-Quantity Pendulum). In this post, we will discuss the…

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Monetary Economies: A Historical Perspective

{bit/ly/ME01} A Monetary Economy is one in which the use of money is essential to the functioning of the economy. That is, without money, people would starve, and massive amounts of economic misery would result. Since monetary economies have dominated the world for centuries, this seems to us like a natural state of affairs. However, a study of history reveals that monetary economies came into…

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Basics of Monetary Economies

I am planning to write a textbook on monetary economies. I will draft it section by section and chapter by chapter, and put down the drafts here for feedback and comments. The first section is given below – it is an introduction to the topic, and provides some motivation for the study, as well as hints of the methodology to be adopted. Introduction & Motivation A Monetary Economy is one in…

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The Opposition between Capitalism and Islam

The surprising title is due to the fact that Capitalism is the religion of worship of wealth, so Islam (not Islamic Economics) is the right contrast. Max Weber characterized capitalism as the pursuit of wealth for its own sake, without regards to any benefits obtained from this wealth. For more details see: The Religion of Economics. To understand why capitalism is a religion, we need to study…

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From Numbers to Merit: Escaping the Quantification Quagmire in Higher Education

Some time ago, HEC introduced quantification of research output, and made a certain number of publications necessary for hiring and promotions. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. Why? Because without any measurable standards for hiring and promotions, these decisions were being made subjectively. The feeling was that there is massive corruption in the process – people hire unqualified…

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Epistemology & Loss of Meaning

I recently gave a talk to students of Modern Money and Economics of Sustainability at Torrens University. The Video-Talk is linked here: “Reversing the Great Transformation“. I have also written up some notes about this talk which clarify some points only sketched briefly in the talk, and provide links to more detailed discussions. The following writeup provides some details and background…

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