Experts urge commitment to controls of Islamic financial industry

Speakers at the Fifth Shura Fiqh Conference highlighted the need to preserve the parameters of Islamic financial industry as per the correct understanding of 'fiqh,' or Islamic jurisprudence. Addressing the final session of the conference on Tuesday, Dr. Yusuf Al-Shebeili said "the provisions of Sharia (Islamic law) and fiqh set clear-cut controls, rules and criteria for the modern Islamic financial and banking industry; one of most important rules in this regard is to plug the pretext for suspicious unlawful practices," he said. "This rule provides basis for a set of provisions that govern the Islamic financial industry and determine what is right or wrong, favorable or unfavorable, and so on" Al-Shebeili explained. In their presentations to the conference, Dr. Sayyed Al-Tabtabaei, Dr. Mohammad aZarqa and Dr. Hussein Hassan set forth the applications of the rule of plugging the pretexts or excuses on financial and banking transactions. The papers of the three experts explained in detail the viability of the Sharia-compliant practices in the steadily-growing Islamic financial and banking industry. The two-day gathering, organized by the Shura Sharia Consultancy, brought together prominent financial experts from Kuwait, the Arab region and beyond.