Developing an index of socio-economic development consistent with Maqasid al-Shari'ah

Human development index (hdi) is the most widely used index for assessing the level of economic development; however,it does not account explicitly for environmental degradation,social infrastructure,income distribution and poverty. this study strives to assist in building a comprehensive index that covers these elements which are considered important for ensuring sustainable development and that are also reflective of the maqasid al-shari'ah. our findings represent striking differences between hdi and extended hdi (e-hdi) rankings as we studied the position of 108 countries divided into non-oic high-income countries (39 countries),non-oic middle-income countries (26 countries) and oic muslim countries (43 countries). among the 43 organization of islamic cooperation (oic) countries in our sample,16 oic countries improve their ranking in e-hdi as compared to hdi. interestingly,other than iraq,all of the oic countries which improve their ranking are relatively poorer and non-oil rich countries. strikingly,all 39 non-oic highincome countries in our sample go down in e-hdi ranking as compared to their respective rank in hdi. contrastingly,all non-oic middle-income countries except romania perform much better in e-hdi as compared to hdi. the top 19 countries in e-hdi all comprise of non-oic middle-income countries in our sample. it shows that the broad-based indicators that we have included to account for non-income development aspects consistent with maqasid al-shari'ah make a significant impact on the rankings.