Islamic Finance

With the modern Islamic financial services industry enhancing its sophistication, an increasingly affluent Muslim-investor population has started to express its desire for more investment products that ..... to Islamic principles.

Coinciding with this surge in demand is the more significant role that Islamic finance plays in the global financial community; with respect to the breadth and range of products and services offered, the distinct line that once separated Islamic financial institutions from their conventional counterparts is ......

The basic principle of Islamic banking is the prohibition of riba (..... or interest); it also prohibits dealing in liquor, pork, gambling, pornography and anything else that Shari'a (Islamic law) deems haram (unlawful).

While permitting the individual the right to seek his economic well being, Islam makes a clear distinction between what is halal (lawful) and what is haram (forbidden) in pursuit of such economic activity; in ..... terms, Islam forbids all forms of economic activity that are morally or socially injurious.

While acknowledging the individual's right to ownership of legitimately acquired wealth, Islam makes it obligatory for the individual to spend his wealth judiciously and not to ..... it, keep it idle or to squander it.

While allowing an individual to retain any surplus wealth, Islam seeks to reduce the margin of the surplus for the well being of the community as a whole, in particular the ..... and deprived sections of society by participation in the process of zakat.

While making allowance for the ways of human nature and yet not yielding to the consequences of its worst propensities, Islam seeks to prevent the accumulation of wealth in a few hands to the ..... of society as a whole, by its laws of inheritance.

Viewed as a whole, the economic system ..... by Islam aims at social justice without inhibiting individual enterprise beyond the point where it becomes not only collectively injurious but also individually self-destructive.

It has been over two decades since Islamic banks first appeared as active players in the global financial market, and today Islamic banking and finance has become a force to be reckoned ......

Although the Middle East is still home to most of the world's 275-plus Islamic banks, a growing number of banks operating in the marketplace are ..... elsewhere.