CIS Faculty

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.

The theme of this editorial is inspired by the passing of a dear friend, Sulayman Nyang, whose life epitomized the nexus between scholarship and social engagement. Dr. Nyang’s life and career follows a long-held Islamic tradition stretching over a millennium. I would like to begin my reflections by citing the tradition of social engagement and social responsibility within Islamic scholarship, and then briefly examine how that tradition was upheld by Dr. Nyang and offer a synopsis of his thoughts and actions. © Author

Because of their opaque nature, SMEs are overly reliant on bank lending. Therefore, we examine whether banks' credit supply to SMEs are affected by their financial conditions. To this end, we employ a Granger causality analysis to examine whether there is an indication of a significant direction of determination between SME lending and non-performing SME loans. The results reveal no bidirectional relationship between SME lending and NPL for the entire banking sector.

This chapter sheds light on the contribution that al-Harith b. Asad al-Muhasibi may have played at the critical historical juncture for the development of Sufism by situating him in this critical milieu. It is noteworthy that the conceptualisations of “ascetics” and mystics” do not fit very comfortably with several figures of early Sufism.

In this paper I examine the uses of the concept of minority by contemporary

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.

Financial intermediation is the core of the banking business, as its role is to mediate between the owners of surplus funds and those in need of finance, sharing the generated profit with the funds' owners. However, financial intermediation does involve some economic risks in terms of concentration of debt in financial institutions and the possibility of the inability of financed clients to repay their debts. When this happens, financial crises are inevitable, as it occurred in 2008.