Master of Science in Islamic Finance

A study is made of the economic and financial crises of fifteenth-century Egypt, which was ruled by the Mamluk dynasty. During the fifteenth century, especially the first half, Egypt faced terrible economic crises caused sometimes by the ill-governance and corruption of rulers, and sometimes by natural catastrophes such as the flooding or drying up of the Nile, outbreaks of epidemics, crop diseases, etc. In many cases two or more factors existed simultaneously. Financial crises emanated mainly from monetary mismanagement.

Monetary policy influences the real economy through various channels, including bank lending. Currently, Malaysia is operating under dual banking systems: conventional and Islamic banking. The latter has the distinctive feature of interest-free. Hence, this study aims to empirically explore the relevance of Islamic banks’ financing in channeling the monetary policy effects to the real economy.

We investigate the differences in banks’ responses to monetary policy shocks across bank size, liquidity, and type, i.e., conventional versus Islamic, in Pakistan between 2002:III and 2010:I. We find that following a monetary contraction, small banks with liquid balance sheets cut their lending less than other small banks. In contrast large banks maintain their lending irrespective of their liquidity positions. Islamic banks, though similar in size to small banks, respond to monetary policy shocks as large banks.

The more recent literature on Islamic economics is largely about Islamic financial instruments and institutions. It might give the impression that the main difference between conventional and Islamic economics is in the instrumental part, rather than fundamental aspects. Islamic economics is not about the prohibition of certain goods and services. It is a vastly different economic system whose answers to the core economic questions vary significantly. As is currently done, mimicking conventional economics and finance is only creating Islamic economics and finance by name.

The sustainable development of Islamic economics as a discipline depends also on methodological development that provides a clear direction on how to appraise economic theories and provide evidence of its reliability. This paper attempts to study the methodology of Islamic economics in two ways: (1) by examining the works by scholars in their specific writings on this subject, and (2) by observing the writings on Islamic economics, banking and finance to see how Islamic economists develop their discipline.

There is substantial evidence that the development of the discipline of Islamic economics is currently in crisis. In this article we argue that the main reason for this is that most

With an exploration for a new application of Awqaf in a modern banking environment, Cash

This paper is an attempt to provide comprehensive comparison between Ethical Finance and Islamic Finance. Authors undertake an analysis of the content of balance sheet disclosures of two banks, namely Islmai Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) as an ideal Islamic Bankd and Triodos Bank as an ideal Ethical Bank. Furthermore, authors evaluate the similarities and divergences of business principles and practices of these banks, and provide policy recommendations.