My New Book On Islamic Banking
By
Zaharuddin Abd Rahman
www.zaharuddin.net
In the last decade, we have seen phenomenal and unprecedented growth in both practice of Islamic finance and literature on the topic, notwithstanding the fact, the understanding of such subject is still to be an alien theme within the consumers, especially for those who in the Muslim community. Islamic finance is supposed to be offered and served to the Muslim community as their priority, however in Malaysia, the statistic shows that the subscribers to the Islamic banking products are dominated by the non-Muslim clients. Why is this happened? It is because of the gap of knowledge of Islamic finance in Muslim community.
Many books which have been written in this subject typically found to be very technical with lot of jargons, inconceivable mathematical formulas, calculations and financial terminologies. Despite considerable researches and books published, they appeared to be written only to those who are already knowledgeable in the subject and restricted for those who involves in developing the banking products, or in other words, most of the books are for bankers and not an ordinary and a layman people. As a result, leaving lot of consumers especially Muslim in a confusion in regard to precisely defining an ‘Islamic banking' and its application. This has left lot of people, far behind from comprehending the true concept of Islamic banking and finance, their applications, features and how these Islamic products could benefits their financial life.
In addition to the above said facts, realizing the point that this subject is still a new knowledge, it has gained great attention from academicians, practitioners, students and consumers from various backgrounds to take serious concern on studying about the this new concept.
Shari'ah scholars are forcing themselves to become skilled at the topic. However, it is hardly to find a simple book which is able to describe the original Shari'ah contracts and followed by its contemporary applications in Islamic banking products. Furthermore, there are crucial needs for the Shari'ah scholars to understand the list of the contentious Shari'ah issues which may trigger to the non Shari'ah compliant status in the Islamic banking products.
In order to provide such book, in a very simple language and explanation, this book is one of my efforts to fill in the vacuum. In preparing this book, I have tried to extract quotations from the traditional books of Islamic jurisprudence, the modern Islamic finance and banking books as well as resolutions from various fiqh council especially from the Shari'ah standard developed by AAOIFI. The book will also provide readers with various types of generic diagrams of the products including selected issues on each product. There are also attempts to address some common questions regarding Islamic banking practices.
I hope that the work in hand will prove to be useful source material for understanding the principles, modus operandi and issues of Islamic finance. I wish to extend my appreciation to my wife, family and friends for their encouragement and moral support.
I pray to the Almighty Allah to accord His acceptance to this effort and small contribution to the society in disseminating the concept of Islamic banking and finance. I however must admit that while this book is the outcome of a proper research, errors nevertheless will exist and I ask for Allah forgiveness from all of my shortcomings.
Zaharuddin Abd Rahman
www.zaharuddin.net
23 Feb 2010
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