Abstract: Islamic finance as academic discipline evolved during the last two decades of the 20th century an attempt to look into the possibility of enterprise and investment upon the Islamic ideals. The discipline has taken a new direction as the experts are involved to concentrate over the subject along with fresh researches. The subject at once entered the academic arena due to its dynamic potential especially in the exigent financial scenario. Muslim intellectuals and the financial experts delved deep into the socio-economic themes of Quran and Sunnah and approached the presidencies from Fiqh al-Ma‘amalat (Financial jurisprudence) to reorient academic projects in this field. Consequently, the contemporary Muslim academia asserted for the immaculate content that explored the subject for larger community interest and welfare. Now, the subject has been recognized by the world academia and the researches done can explore and analyze the Islamic financial instruments and their workability in the present century. The academic institutions worldwide are involved in study and research as to identify this field with international academic standard. The present study therefore will highlight the academic dimensions of the discipline, will give a description of major academic institutions engaged in research and will examine the relevance of the subject in the present academic scenario.