This volume offers an examination of the legal system of Saudi Arabia, not only for its own sake but also as a case study for insight into past and present Islamic legal systems.
CONCLUSION Through a series of case studies this book has essayed an
exploration of the Islamic legal system of Saudi Arabia, and by extension, of
Islamic legal systems generally. The chief purpose of the case studies has been
to work out, and then practice, categories of thought, lines of distinction, that align
better with observable phenomena than those that are usually imported by the
western legal scholar or social scientist. As was often observed, Saudi and
Islamic legal ...
Mirroring the expansion of wealth in the Middle East and Asia and a surge in Islamic self-identity, Islamic banking practices have either become the law of the land or coexist and compete with Western practices in at least six countries. A growing number of institutions and mutual funds (akin to Western ''socially responsible'' funds) have established Islamic investment and other practices to cater to this burgeoning market. Because of its prevalence, practitioners in every banking-related area must familiarize themselves with current Islamic finance practices in order to do business with Muslim clients and to engage in cross-border financing. Injunctions from the "Qur'an and the sayings of Prophet Muhammed have generated a web of interrelated norms which prohibit Islamic financiers from engaging in transactions that involve interest "(riba) and speculation "(gharar). "Islamic Law and Finance describes the dynamic set of Islamically-sanctioned ways financiers can transacat business.
But the Islamic banking and finance industry vehemently rejects such attempts,
since that industry is built, as noted above, on the idea of applying the classical law, not replacing it. THE CONTEXT FOR ISLAMIC LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS IN
ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE Modern Islamic Legal Institutions We noted
earlier that the Islamic legal system was dismantled during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and replaced by systems drawn mainly from the West.
