Dars fī-Nawāzil Fiqh al-Mu‘āmalāt: A Short Report

On Tuesday, August 7, 2007 the Islamic Finance Project (IFP) sponsored a short course by Shaykh Nizam Yaquby (Niām Muammad āli Ya`qūbī) on Islamic financial law. The topic of the short course—which took place 9am-2pm in International Lewis Center, Seminar Room 301 at the Harvard Law School—was synthetic transactions (Arabic al-jam’ bayna l-‘uqūd, “combination of contracts”). Issues surrounding the legality of synthesizing financial transactions have been debated by Muslim jurists (fuqahā’, singular faqīh) throughout the history of Islamic law. Since shari‘a-compliant financial institutions (commonly referred to as “Islamic financial institutions”) typically use alternative financial instruments that are combinations of themselves composition of simpler contracts (such as sales and leases), the legality of synthesizing, i.e. combining, financial transactions is of profound significance in application of contemporary Islamic financial law.