The Art of Islamic Banking and Finance: Tools and Techniques for Community-Based Banking

(Tina Meador) #1

religious knowledge was complemented by the Muslim and non-Muslim
professionals who worked in the riba-based conventional banks as bankers,
attorneys, and entrepreneurs. They were able to lay down the foundation of
what is now documented as a set of opinions that are based on Shari’aa.
Perhaps one of the more significant, pioneering, and influential efforts
was the annual symposium that was pioneered by Dallah Al Baraka^7 to
‘‘Islamize’’ different banking products and services. The annual symposium
pioneered by Dallah Al Baraka was by invitation only and was attended by
most of the recognized religious, banking, and Shari’aa experts in the world.
Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a visionary leader in the field of RF finance
and the founder of Dallah Al Baraka in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, must be rec-
ognized for the historic effort that laid the foundation for the growth and
globalization of RF banking and finance. Many of the tools, techniques,
edicts (fatwa), and research centers at Al Azhar Seminary, Al Azhar Univer-
sity in Cairo, and other universities in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Pakistan
that are available today were pioneered and generously financed by the im-
portant and historic effort of Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel. Most of the
invited scholars came from the Arabic-speaking world in Egypt, the Sudan,
Jordan, Syria, the Gulf oil-producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Ku-
wait. and Bahrain, and English speaking countries like Pakistan, India, and
Malaysia. These scholars have since served as active members of the Shar-
i’aa Boards—a new profession pioneered by Sheikh Saleh Kamel in most of
the Islamic banks around the world. As these scholars became involved,
their reputations increased and respect for them grew, from the wealthy
banks in the oil-producing nations of the Gulf to the masses at large (partic-
ularly in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent and Bahrain). Their services were
solicited by 40 to 70 different Islamic banks around the world. As a result, it
became both difficult and expensive—if not impossible—to obtain a famous
name (super star) religious scholar to sit on the Shari’aa Board of an Islamic
bank, to approve a product, or to issue a fatwa that would sanction and
legitimize the activities of a new Islamic bank or finance company.


Local Community Religious Leaders, or Imams The imams are the leaders
of the community masajid (mosques).Imammeansprayer leader, and in
particular the leader for Friday congregational prayers. Imams are also con-
sidered religious leaders who act as counsels for the community. Most of
them are qualified scholars in the Qur’aan and theHadeeth(pronounce-
ments and sayings of Prophet Muhammad [pp]), but few of them have a
good command of the details of Shari’aa, especially in topics having to do
with riba, business transactions, banking, and financing. They rely on the
easy way out by honestly stating that riba is haram and that they cannot
recommend a certain model because they are not familiar with the details.
Others rely on the opinion of the scholars discussed in the previous category.


236 THE ART OF ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE

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