Disrupting the epistemic closed loop: re-imagining knowledge production in Islamic finance

The failure of Islamic finance to realize its transformative potential in practice is rooted in the epistemological disembeddedness and technocratic reductionism propagated by the business academy. Through the lens of epistemic cultures, we interrogate how the knowledge production on Islamic finance is constrained by elite business scholarship. Despite a decade of development, the scholarship has yet to articulate a distinct theoretical grammar. This absence continues to limit the epistemic maturation of the field. We base this claim on a critical interpretive review of Islamic finance articles published in journals included in the UTD 24 and FT 50 rankings from 2014 to 2024. We urge business scholars to reposition themselves as critical innovators. To that end, we propose three interrelated orientations for epistemic renewal: holism, reflexivity and ethnographic apprehension, and prospective theorizing. We hope this paper marks a point of departure for future knowledge production in Islamic finance. In this spirit, we call upon doctoral candidates and established scholars within business schools to lead this paradigmatic shift in Islamic finance.