Islamic Social Finance and UN Sustainable Development Goal Education: An Integrative Approach

This study sheds light on the novel intersections between Islamic Social Finance (ISF) and UN Sustainable Development Goal Education (SDGED). It offers a localized maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa [higher purposes of Sharī’a]-based approach to the secular and universalized UN Sustainable Development Goal Education (SDGED) Framework. The article contends that approaches which utilize Islamic pedagogical principles and values are better suited for meeting SDGED’s goals in Muslim-majority countries. In building the ISF–SDGED framework, the study offers numerous examples that illustrate how ISF institutions and the SDGED agendas intersect. After retracing Islam’s long standing historical relations with social or ethical finance, the article shows how ISF specifically resonates with SDGED. The article finds that ISF can readily facilitate in meeting SDGED, especially in Muslim-majority countries, and concludes that multilevel collaboration between international organizations, intermediate-level collaborators and local stakeholders is the only way for the SDGED to be successfully realized.