Introducing an Islamic Human Development Index (I-HDI) to Measure Development in OIC Countries

Human development and welfare of human being has a pivotal place in Islamic development concept. Majority of Islamic scholars come to the conclusion that the objective of the Shariah (Maqasid al-Shariah) is to promote well-being of all mankind, which lies in safeguarding faith, their human self, their intellect, their posterity and their wealth. Consequently, the human development in Islamic perspective must be based on Maqasid al Shariah. The existing Human Development Index (HDI) published by UNDP might be the most comprehensive indicator, but is not fully compatible and sufficient for measuring human development in Islamic perspective. The underlying theory and concept to develop HDI is not based on Maqasid al-Shariah. Measuring human development level of Muslim countries would be more appropriate by using a specific Islamic Human Development Index (IHDI). This paper is aimed to (i) construct a new measurement of human development under Islamic perspective, and then (ii) simulate this index to measure human development level in OIC countries The findings show that the rank composition between I-HDI and HDI is slightly different. On one hand, a number of countries enjoy a better rank in I-HDI compared with HDI. On the other hand, several countries suffer a marked deterioration of rank. The high score group in I-HDI is still dominated mostly by Middle East Countries and the bottom line is still dominated by African Countries. In general, the contribution of material welfare index (MWI) in the whole I-HDI is superior which indicate the importance of material resources