Master of Science in Islamic Finance

This study aims to evaluate risk and return characteristics of Islamic funds in comparison with SRI and investigate the possible synergies between the two in the light of the SDGs. The study also compares the financial performance of Islamic funds with conventional funds and Islamic market benchmarks. The analysis was carried out using the absolute and risk-adjusted-performance evaluation techniques based on data collected from 11 countries distributed in four geographical regions.

Islamic finance is considered as an alternative moral and ethical based finance. Its principles, known as the “Islamic finance pillars” offer an alternative for investors seeking more ethical use of their funds. Since its early inception in 1970s, the industry developed significantly with an annual two-digit growth of 15 to 20% and an expansion beyond traditional markets. However, this growth has not benefited much to the social and environmental developments.

The climate change challenge and the growth of the Islamic finance industry, together with the increase in socially responsible investing, could position green sukuk as a key instrument for financing clean energy and resilient infrastructure projects as well as shorter-term energy efficiency projects.

Sharī‘ah covers all aspects of human dealings, including Islamic financial law and its Fiqh nominated contracts, essentially the basis for all Islamic banking and finance transactions.

It is commonly observed that the current methodology of product development in Islamic finance has failed to reflect the productive nature of Islamic economics. This is evidenced by a number of current products being substantially indistinguishable from their conventional counterparts according to the commonly-held views.

The paradigm of Islamic economics and finance is guided by the motivation of comprehensive human development (CHD) and its preservation as manifested in the objectives of Sharīʿah (maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah). However, the real world free-market economies are driven by the linear economy paradigm under the influence of Hotelling’s 1931 famous work concerning the economics of exploiting natural resources, in which, the ecological environment is not recognized as a resource. The global financial architecture is designed to protect and preserve the linear economic paradigm.

Undoubtedly, the emergence of cryptocurrencies has imposed the challenge of addressing their Shariah issues. These issues include the very permissibility of their issuance in view of the fact that they are not backed by real valuable assets or supervised by financial authorities, which makes their holders vulnerable to possible fraud and manipulative fluctuations in their values.