Unity of Ownership in the Islamic Framework and its Implications for the Financial Markets (Money and Capital)

Abstract

The Unity of Ownership is one of the critical issues in the field of Islamic banking and finance that may have some considerable implications for the money and capital markets. Thus, this study, while explaining the unity of ownership concept and offering a jurisprudential analysis of it, tries to answer its basic question: “What are the effects of the Unity of Ownership between the partners of contracts on the money and capital markets?” Using an analytical-descriptive approach, this paper aims to prove the hypothesis that “the Unity of Ownership will prevent the enforcement of some conventional rules of the Islamic contracts”. The results show that Unity of Ownership carries some specific implications for the financial market relations. As an example, we can refer to the financial transactions by the government, Central Bank and state banks being exempted from the forbidden riba; the secondary market would not be applicable to treasury bills for the government’s debts to the Central Bank and state banks; and in the capital market, if the issuer and seller of debt sukuks are the same, the issued sukuks for financing the purchase of commodities by the intermediary company will face transactional challenges and lose their jurisprudential legitimacy.

Keywords

• unity of ownership
• money market
• capital market
• riba jel classification: d53
• e52