Naẓarīyat al-Mukhāṭarah fī al-Iqtiṣād al-Islāmī

Abstract

“Risk” is one of the key concepts in understanding modern Islamic economics. Its importance does not only stem from its place in the classical fiqh, but also from its close relation to discussions in modern Islamic finance about permissible ḥalāl (gain) and ribā (usury). Risk has been seen as one of the key differences between ribā and non-ribā transactions and conventional finance and Islamic finance mechanisms. While modern economics aims to eliminate the risk entirely, principles of Islamic economics aim to establish a balance among parties through risk sharing. Because gaining money from money is ḥarām, the risk issue is more critical in debt-based finance. In this context, it’s a controversial issue among Islamic finance scholars that Islamic banks take several precautions to completely eliminate the risk from their transactions – although Islamic finance is known as a profit-loss-sharing system. Adnan ‘Uwaidah’s book Risk Theory in Islamic Economics, which is based on his doctoral dissertation, aims at theorizing risk in a legal and economic framework and explaining its functions. The book, which claims to be the first academic book about risk from the Islamic legal point of view, consists of an introduction and six main chapters. The author has a PhD from the Department of Islamic Economics and Islamic Banking at Yarmouk University in Jordan, which is one of the leading institutions in this field. He shows his mastery of the topic through his academic approach to the issue, use of legal terminology, and a vast bibliography that includes classical and modern resources ...