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In early Islamic economics, five different dimensions of analysis are broadly identified. First, economic issues have been discussed by Mufassirin in the light of the Holy Quran. For instance, discussions on the prohibition of usury and the encouragement of economic activities for human welfare. Second; economic issues have been discussed in the light of Fiqh. For example the legal aspects of Mudharibah and Musharikah have been dealt within this discipline in great detail. Third; economic matters have been discussed by Muslims in the light of ethical system of Islam for moral development. The works of Ulama, Sufis, Muslim philosophers and reformers come under this category. Fourthly, some good pieces of works, related to economics have been written by some great scholars of Islam in response to the needs of their times while holding important government offices. The works related to public finance, public revenues, land tax, public expenditure fall under this category. The book Kitab al Kharaj by Imam Abu Yusuf is one such example. Finally some Islamic Scholars and philosophers have provided objective analysis in the field of economics. The analysis made by Imam Ghazzali, Ibn Taimiyah, Ibn Khaldun and lately by Shah Waliullah Dehlwi fall under this category.

Al-Ghazzālī's last work on speculative theology—Iljām al-ʿawām ʿan ʿilm al-kalām ("Saving Muslims from Speculative Theology")—reflects a significant departure from the Ashʿarī school of thought and arrival at the ‘way of the salaf ' (madhhab al-salaf). This so-called salafī path espoused in Iljām is indicative of the theological approach of Traditionalists, especially Ḥanbalīs, which vehemently rejected Kalām and allegorical interpretations of divine attributes. In Iljām, his opponents are not so much the Muʿtazilīs as they are the Ḥashwī anthropomorphists. Although he still recognized Kalām as a scholastic discipline that basically met the goal of protecting the Sunnī creed and defending it against heresies, he was convinced that its method ultimately failed to delineate a decisive hermeneutic path to intimately knowing God and His attributes. This paper briefly examines al-Ghazzālī's Iljām, its key theological constructs, its relative importance within the Sunnī corpus on Kalām, and the scholarly debate over the meaning of the ‘Way of the Salaf.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]