Islamic Law, Islamic Finance, and Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

In essence, Islamic law (Maqasid al-Shariah) and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) initiated by the United Nations have the same goal: to achieve the perfection of a sustainable human life. Meanwhile, Islamic finance is regarded as an implementation of Islamic law, as many Islamic finance products and instruments are derived from Islamic law. Prior studies on Islamic law, Islamic finance, and SDGs tend to be scattered, and the role of Islamic finance in SDGs is still questionable. This paper uses a systematic literature review to investigate the intersection of Islamic finance, Islamic law, and SDGs. We selected papers that focused on Islamic finance as an inclusion criterion and excluded papers that only discussed Islamic countries as an exclusion criterion. We retrieved 65 papers and book chapters published from 2008 to 2022 from the Scopus database to analyze which parts of Islamic finance and law can contribute to the SDGs. We use thematic analysis for data synthesis by grouping findings into their relation to Islamic law using Al-Ghazali’s Framework of Maqashid Al-Shariah and SDGs from the UN, and then explaining the research results using a narrative method. Through this study, we found that Islamic finance supports the SDGs with the most significant contribution to humanity. In addition, it is essential to know that the support of the government, regulators, and related institutions is much needed to improve Islamic finance for the achievement of SDGs.