&It must enforce and abide by the laws, regulations, and standards of the
banking and financing system in the United States.
&It must be appealing to all users, regardless of their faith, skin color,
national origin, ethnicity, gender, or language.
&It must be convincing to the educated and sophisticated users, offering
a real economic advantage and benefit and not relying solely on the
reputation of a famous religious scholar’s endorsement.
BUILDING THE SHARI’AA-BASED FINANCE MODEL
After a thorough analysis of the Islamic finance models available on the
market and used mostly in the oil-rich Gulf countries and in Malaysia, it
was concluded that these ‘‘Shari’aa-compliant’’ models were in fact not
much different from those used by the conventional banking system. What
reinforced our conclusion was the ruling passed by the Office of the Comp-
troller of the Currency (OCC) in response to the application of the
New York branch of United Bank of Kuwait to allow ‘‘Islamic’’ banking
using the cost-plus (Murabaha) and lease-to-own models. The OCC con-
cluded that these products were the same as interest-based financing. This
fact made us conclude that we do notneed to obtain special government
approvals and exceptions that require a huge investment of time, money,
and effort. We felt that what is needed is a system that would truly imple-
ment the Judeo-Christian-Islamic values of Shari’aa to benefit all.
Many attempts were made to devise a model that would satisfy our
requirements. After a long search and extensive analysis, the effort focused
on an analogy to our community’s experience with the development of
marriage procedures and contracts in the United States. A marriage con-
tract is considered in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic system as the most sol-
emn, most binding, and ‘‘thickest’’ of all contracts (Qur’aan 4:21). Based
on our community’s earlier experience with the development of an Islamic
Shari’aa-based marriage system and procedures that utilize the civil mar-
riage contract, we can draw a wonderful parallel with our efforts to de-
velop a Shari’aa-based RF finance system. As is normally the case in
marriage, a standard process is used. In this process, a number of prepara-
tory steps must be followed before signing the standard civil marriage con-
tract. For example, the two families would meet and agree on the details
of the marriage agreement (e.g., the dowry), and the wedding details (e.g.,
the religious leader (the rabbi, priest, preacher, or imam) who will officiate
the wedding). Then, the couple to be wedded would apply for a standard
civil marriage license that has a space in it for a religious leader’s signature.
The religious leader would meet with the two families and the couple to be
RF Banking Model for the 21st Century 255