About Islamic Economics Thought Association.

ARTICLE ABOUT ISLAMIC ECONOMICS THOUGHT ASSOCIATION (IETA).
WRITTEN BY
YUSUF NASIR AHMAD

AND
EDITED BY Mr. YAHUZA SADIQ
17/02/2018.

    In The Name Of Allah The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful. Indeed all praise is due to Allah.
We praise Him and seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from our souls’ evils and our wrongdoings.
    He whom Allah guides, no one can misguide him, he whom He misguides no one can guide him.
In the gospel of Luke, chapter 24 verse 36, this greeting was used by Jesus himself:
“Shalom”
Shalom means peace be unto you.
In Islam we say Assalamualaikum Warahamatullahi Wa barakatuhu, May the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah (SWT), God Almighty be upon all of you.
  I, Yusuf Nasir Ahmad, the ASG of IETA, is standing before you to tell you about IETA.
  People, most especially the newly admitted students, maybe wondering what is IETA? What are they doing? When were they created? And why was it created?
    These four questions are very pivotal and that’s exactly the reason why I’m standing before you.
Bear in your mind these four questions again:
What is IETA?
When was it created?
Why was it created?
And what is the function of IETA?
These questions will be form the center stage of our discussion.
   Starting from the first question:
IETA is an abbreviation for Islamic Economic Thought Association. People, most especially the non Muslims, might be terrified by the word “Islam”. Islam is the Arabic word for “peace”.  Thus, one can say Peace Economics Thought Association if that will give him/her rest of mind and confidence.
   Coming to the second question:
When was it created?
      As far as Islamic Economics is concern, it has been in existence since time immemorial, this means it has been in actuality for centuries ago.
    In the context of A.B.U. Zaria, IETA came into existence in the quest for a prompt solution to the economic malady we found ourselves in the early 1990’s.
   The then Head of Department in the person of Prof. Mike Kwanashi, been a non Muslim, saw it as one of the best alternative in restructuring the collapsed economy, and thus contributed enormously in the establishment of the association. Thus, the association is 28 years old today.

     Coming to the third question:
Why was it created?
   Like we made mentioned earlier, Islamic Economics is a system for making the economy better and making everybody better-off.
  Various policies had been put to into place in order to get solutions to the dynamic economic problems we are facing as a nation today.
   IETA was primarily created with the sole aim of propagating the thought as well as implementing its measures in order to revive the collapsed economy.
  As expected of any rational association, IETA has its own Mission and Vision as follows:
Mission: “To harness the qualities and tenants of the doctrine of Islamic Economics so as to revolutionize the conventional economics in an effort to eliminate evident loopholes and proffer long lasting solutions.
The vision goes as follows too:
“To accomplish the task of establishing and solidify Islamic Economics as Foundation and cornerstone of our cognition of Economics and knowledge.”
The motto also goes as follow:
“Towards Economic Justice.”
   In a nutshell, I should stop here and proceed to the next question which is what?
The fourth question: What is the function of IETA?
The main function of Islamic Economics Thought Association is to promote Islamic economics. As an association it has charged itself with the responsibility of seeing to it that students are dedicated to achieving their goals with absolute commitment and precision, especially with the exemplary paradigms it has set up for newly admitted students and all other students.
   Here in A.B.U, Zaria, IETA is making available an avenue for organizing conferences which deals with paper presentation on Islamic Economics by renowned scholars in the field. It also encourages writings and publication of annual magazines in the field.
   Other activities of the association also include tutorials, annual debate and quiz competition and so on.
     These are all necessary activities that will make your living on campus a very rich one.  As for the tutorials, it will surely help you in your academic endeavor.
   Organization of the annual debate, quiz and competition gives the platform for inviting other universities to learn from them, socialize and interact with them. As the famous historian, Thomas Carlyle, said:
“If I have an apple and you also have apple and we both exchanged it, you will still have one apple and I will still have one apple. But if I have an idea and you also have an idea, and we both exchanged you will have two ideas and I will also have two as well.”
     The quiz and debate competition is an avenue for thousand ideas not only two, so you will be able to go home with millions of ideas.
Let me leave you with some exciting academic facts about Islamic economics.
As of 2008:
Eight magazines  "exclusively devoted to Islamic economics and finance"
484 research projects were conducted in various universities of ten countries including the US, the UK and Germany.
200 Ph.D. dissertations completed at different universities of the world, with literatures published in English, Arabic, Urdu, Bahasa Malaysia, Turkish and other regional languages.
Over 1500 conferences have been held on Islamic Economics
One school—the Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) -- has produced over 2000 graduates in 25 years as of 2009.
Before I leave, the fact that IETA is not a religious association can never be overemphasized.  Everyone is welcome to join. I’d like to thank you for the cooperation and support you’ve given IETA so far. Thank you.