Dr. M. Chabra

Annisa Nurul Hidayah

NIM 4.42.16.0.04 / PS-1A

Nationality: Saudi Arabia

Dr. Muhammed Chabra was born in Pakistan in 1933 and received his bachelor and master’s degrees at Karachi University and Ph.D. at Minnesota University. He worked at the Institute of Development Economics and the Islamic Research Institute in Pakistan, then as a research assistant at Minnesota, and associate professor of economics at Wisconsin and Kentucky Universities, before becoming Consultant to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Organization for 34 years during which he was granted Saudi citizenship.

An accomplished scholar of Islamic economics, Chapra made seminal contributions to Islamic economics and finance over the past several decades. He published around 15 books and monographs and more than 90 articles and book reviews. One of his groundbreaking contributions is his book Towards a Just Monetary System (1985). Reviewing that book in the Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, Professor R. Wilson of the University of Durham described it as “the most lucid presentation yet of the monetary theory of Islam.” Chapra had since written other books, including: Islam and the Economic Challenge, which was described by the prominent American economist, K. Boulding, as “a brilliant analysis of the virtues and the defects of capitalism, socialism and the welfare state, and an important contribution to the understanding of Islam by both Muslims and non-Muslims.” In 2002, he published The Future of Economics: An Islamic Perspective followed in 2005 by Objectives of Islamic Economic Order: An Introduction in Economics and Islamic Financing both of which have also been well received. In 2008, he published a book on Islamic Civilization, the reasons for its deterioration and the need for reform. Chapra’s books were translated into many languages and are taught in universities worldwide. He delivered numerous invited lectures and participated in hundreds of conferences worldwide.

Dr. Chapra is currently Research Advisor at the Islamic Research and Training Institute of the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah. He is a member of the Royal Economic Society (London), American Economic Association, Saudi Economic Association and the Islamic Economic Association. He is also a member of the editorial boards of a number of prestigious international journals of economics. In addition to the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies, he received several other awards and honors.