Islamic economics and sustainable development: a systematic literature review

Abstract

This study systematically synthesises the Scopus-indexed literature at the intersection of Islamic economics and sustainable development in order to map publication trends, delineate the dominant thematic and conceptual domains, and identify research gaps that inform a forward-looking research agenda. The review was conducted using the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol and reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020. A structured Boolean search of Scopus returned 117 documents. After the removal of ineligible document types and non-English records, 71 journal articles and reviews were assessed for eligibility and quality; 20 studies satisfied all inclusion and quality criteria and were retained for qualitative synthesis. The corpus is recent and expanding: 80% of the included studies were published from 2022 onward, and 55% in 2025–2026. The literature is dominated by conceptual work (13 of 20 studies) and is concentrated in Muslim-majority Asia and the Gulf, though contributions from Thailand, China, and the United Kingdom signal growing internationalisation. Six interconnected thematic domains were identified: the maqāṣid al-sharīʿah as a foundational frame, Islamic finance and banking, financial inclusion, Islamic social finance (zakat and waqf), the halal industry and green economy, and ESG and sustainability reporting. By integrating a rigorous review protocol with an Islamic-economics lens, the study offers the first integrative map of this specific corpus and a structured agenda emphasising empirical, operational, and environmental research. The review is bounded by a single database, English-language coverage, and the specific search string employed.