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The purpose of this paper is to bring the attention of Muslim world toward uniformity of Shariah principles. The paper also presents different opinions of experts toward standardization. Selection criteria of four different Islamic market indices are compared. Some points like Halal business and debt ratio are common, while others are different.

The qualitative research method has been used in this research work and various types of documents and research articles were analyzed. The authors analyzed the data of four Islamic stock markets in the world. First, they write all the screening criteria of every Islamic stock market for selecting a company for their stock market. Afterwards, they make a table that presents the comparison of screening criteria of all Islamic market indices.

A Shariah Board of Islamic Market approves any company as being Islamic Shariah-compliant based on certain criteria. Different Islamic market indices use their own criteria for selecting the company. Every Islamic market index has its own rules and regulations of the Shariah Board. Sometimes these rules are contradictory with each other; for example, if KMI-30 Islamic index is not selecting one particular company due to higher debt ratio but Dow Jones Islamic market index selects that company because that company meets the criteria of the Dow Jones Islamic market index.

The main limitation is that there is no approach to regulators of the different Islamic market indices around the globe.

If Islamic indices work on the suggestions provided in this paper, standardized criteria will be available to all indices and, consequently, confidence of the investors and operational issues will be resolved. Investment will be increased.

The belief of non-Muslims will be strong that Islamic laws are the same any where. A shift from conventional finance to Islamic Finance will be sped up.

This research work is original and first attempt on the topic of standardization of screening criteria of Islamic stock markets around the globe.

This paper revolves around the usage of data analytics in the Qur’an and Hadith through a new text mining technique to answer the main research question of whether the activities and the data flows of the Murabaha financing contract is compatible with Sharia law. The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough and comprehensive database that will be used to examine existing practices in Islamic banks’ and improve compliancy with Islamic financial law (Sharia).

To design a Sharia-compliant Murabaha business process originated on text mining, the authors start by identifying the factors deemed necessary in their text mining techniques of both texts; using a four-step strategy to analyze those text mining analytics; then, they list the three basic approaches in text mining used for new knowledge discovery in databases: the co-occurrence approach based on the recursive co-occurrence algorithm; the machine learning or statistical-based; and the knowledge-based. They identify any variation and association between the Murabaha business processes produced using text mining against the one developed through data collection.

The main finding attained in this paper is to confirm the compatibility of all activities and the data flows in the Murabaha financing contract produced using data analytics of the Quran and Hadith texts against the Murabaha business process that was developed based on data collection. Another key finding is revealing some shortcomings regarding Islamic banks business process compliance with Sharia law.

Given Murabaha as the most popular mode of Islamic financing with more than 75% in total transactions, this research has managed to touch-base on an area that is interesting to the vast majority of those dealing with Islamic finance instruments. By reaching findings that could improve the existing Islamic Murabaha business process and concluding on Sharia compliance of the existing Murabaha business process, this research is quite relevant and could be used in practice as well as in influencing public policy. In fact, Islamic Sharia law experts, Islamic finance professionals and Islamic banks may find the results of this study very useful in improving at least one aspect of the Islamic finance transactions.

By using a novel, fresh text mining methods built on recursive occurrence of synonym words from the Qur’an and Hadith to enrich Islamic finance, this research study can claim to have been the first of its kind in using machine learning to mine the Quran, Hadith and in extracting valuable knowledge to support and consolidate the Islamic financial business processes and make them more compliant with the i.

This paper aims to illustrate theoretically and empirically the decision and result of strategic alliance between baitul maal wa tamwil (BMT) and Islamic banks as a relationship based on trust, mutual-trustworthiness and commitment. This paper also identifies the basic criteria for the resilience of a strategic alliance, the challenges and the barriers in a strategic relationship along with managerial and operational implications.

In this study, we have chosen to use the confirmatory approach through a structured questionnaire by means of field survey to 131 BMT spread throughout Central Java and Yogyakarta. From the total sample, 89 BMT fulfilled the sampling criteria, that is: has operated for a minimum of two years and does not experience any financial difficulties during those two years; has done a financing contract with an Islamic bank; channels some of its funds to micro, small and medium enterprises; and is in the form of a cooperative, and not a micro financial institute. Data treatment uses the method of listwise deletion. Data analysis uses equation model with the software LISREL version 8.80. To validate the result of data analysis, we have also run a focus group discussion with Directorate of Syariah Banking, Bank of Indonesia, and in-depth interviews with BMT parent cluster (Inkopsyah).

This research shows that commitment contributes positively in achieving the financial goals of an alliance. Coordination and initial agreement has a positive and significant influence in forming commitment from BMT and trust from Islamic banks. Other than coordination and initial agreement, the trust given by Islamic banks also came from the social capital owned by BMT.

The trust and commitment will assist the building of strategic alliance between Islamic banks and BMT. Apart from financial purposes, the alliance between the two will also encourage natural knowledge-sharing.

The purpose of this study is to present and test a conceptual framework that describes the Islamic religiosity parameters of riba, zakat and mafsadah and their influence on the adoption of firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices.

The study applied structural equation modelling to empirically test the proposed model on a sample of 109 Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms.

The study finds that the Islamic religiosity parameters of riba and mafsadah have a positive influence on the adoption of CSR practices, thus confirming the two study hypotheses. However, the authors did not find any significant influence of the zakat parameter on the adoption of firms’ CSR practices.

This study is limited to the Islamic religious concept and only surveyed one stakeholder group, i.e. firms’ managers in the Pakistani context. The authors recommend that future studies should look beyond a single religion with the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in a cross-country setting.

The findings possess important policy implication for regulators, stakeholders and practitioners, as the authors demonstrate that different parameters of religiosity are related to CSR practices and these parameters can be used as a substitute for and complement legal institutions in promoting and developing CSR practices.

The stakeholders’ particular investors and other market participants should be aware of the degree of religiousness and the CSR nexus, as surveyed manger responses in PSX listed firms indicate that better religious firms seem to place more emphasis on social responsibility obligations.

This study is among few studies that propose a comprehensive conceptual Islamic religiosity framework to evaluate the influence of a firm’s Islamic religiosity on CSR best practices. It differs from the past studies that were either on Islamic financial institutes or examined the religious influence on a firm’s economic behaviours.

It is believed that the core aim of Islamic institution is idiosyncratic from conventional business entities. Considering this presumption, this study aims to reveal the understandings of various stakeholders about objectives of Islamic banks.

The research endeavor is based on the findings of two distinctive studies, where Study 1 was aimed at investigating the communication of objectives through mission statements of Islamic banks and conventional banks with window operations. Here, mission statements were analyzed using content analysis and readability and understandability tests. Study 2, on the other hand, was aimed at investigating the understandings of various stakeholders, both internal (employees) and external (Muslim and non-Muslim customers of both Islamic and conventional banks, employees and management of conventional banks and business students). In total, 370 responses were received and analyzed in this study.

The findings (Study 1) unveil, the fact, that the mission statements of Islamic banks working in Pakistan are not good at communicating the corporate goals clearly. Out of ten banks investigated for Study 1, it is evident that only one bank (HBL, with window operations) was at par with readability threshold standards. Thus, it was imperative to share that mission statements of Islamic banks are difficult to read and comprehend. Study 2 adds further by revealing that most of the stakeholders are not clear about the objectives of these banks, while customers of conventional banks do not value the distinctive objectives of Islamic banks.

This study leaves a valuable message for the policy makers and top management of Islamic banks by focusing on the unattended part on their end, i.e. quality of mission statements and stakeholders’ perception about the objectives of their organization, thus highlighting the needs of greater emphasis on the communication flow to stakeholders, as the clarity of business purpose may change the way customers react toward the business and opt for banking – customer relation in future.

This study covers a multi-dimensional investigation of the understanding and communication of objectives of Islamic banks. There is dearth of literature focusing on the aspects of content analysis, mission statement readability and understandability and investigation of stakeholders’ perception in tandem.

The chapter aims to examine the challenges and the opportunities for the development of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia.

The chapter adopts library research to discuss the concept of Islamic stockbroking. It also employs a semi-structured interview with industry players to prognosticate the future development of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia.

The study concludes that the future of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia is very promising, triggered by drivers on both the supply side and the demand side. The large Muslim population, wealth and economic growth are among the key factors for the development of Islamic stockbroking from the demand side. On the other hand, the Shari’ah compliance of 89% of Malaysian stocks, Malaysia’s position as an Islamic finance hub and the natural progression of Islamic finance are all factors underpinning the future of Islamic stockbroking from the supply side. However, lack of qualified human resources, political inconsistency, information technology infrastructure, product innovation as well as public perception are obstacles to its development.

This chapter will add new literature in contemporary Islamic finance, as not many studies have been done on the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing body of work in the area of Islamic banking by investigating the regulatory accommodation process of Islamic banking in Italy.

The method used is essentially based upon an analysis of laws, regulations and jurisprudence/legal doctrine.

In Italy, where Muslim represent, from a religious point of view, the second largest immigrant community, no Shari’a-compliant institution has been authorised yet, but no legal obstacle is laid down.

The paper examines the accommodation process of Shari’a-compliant banking within the Italian system of banking and business law. Therefore, the paper is mainly based on the Italian jurisprudence/legal doctrine. Moreover, no comprehensive analysis of Islamic banking principles is provided.

The paper, investigating the accommodation process of Islamic banking in the Italian banking system, shows any legal and regulatory obstacles refraining Muslims living in Italy from living according to Islam and complying with the general regulation of undertakings.

Examination of the topic is originally undertaken because the investigation of Islamic banking in the Italian legal framework matches the business-based approach with the cultural-based approach as complementary analyses.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on Islamic finance vis-à-vis legal and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks in its transactions and judicial dispute resolution in Nigeria. This is with a view to putting forward direction for future studies on the duo of legal and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks and their impact in Islamic finance.

This review is designed as an exploratory study and qualitative methodology is used in examining relevant literature comprising of primary and secondary data while identifying legal risk and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks of Nigeria’s Islamic finance industry. Using the doctrinal approach together with content analysis, relevant Nigerian laws and judicial precedents applicable to Islamic finance practice and related publications were examined in determining the identified risks.

Undeveloped laws, the uncertainty of Sharīʿah governance and enforceability issues are identified as legal gaps for Islamic finance under the Nigerian legal system. The gaps are inimical to and undermine investor confidence in Nigeria’s Islamic finance industry. The review reveals the necessity of tailor-made Sharīʿah-based regulations in addition to corresponding governance and oversight for a legally safe and Sharīʿah-compliant Islamic finance practice. It brings to light the imperative for mitigating the legal and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks associated with Islamic finance operations as crucial for Islamic finance businesses, Islamic finance institutions and their sustainable development.

Based on content analysis, the review is wholly doctrinal and does not involve empirical data. Legal safety and Sharīʿah compliance are not to be compromised in Islamic finance operations. The review would assist relevant regulators and investors in Islamic financial enterprises to understand and determine the impact and potential ramifications of legal safety and Sharīʿah non-compliance on Islamic Finance Institutions.

This study provides an insight into the dimensions and ramifications of legal and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks of Nigeria’s Islamic finance industry. This study is premised on the imperative for research studies whose outcome would inform regulations that strike a balance between establishing Islamic financial institution/business and ensuring legal certainty and Sharīʿah compliance of their operations. This study paves way for this kind of research studies.

The findings and discussions provide a guide for regulators and researchers on the identification and mitigation of legal and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks in Islamic finance via a literature review. This study, the first of its kind in Nigeria, advances the idea that research into legal and Sharīʿah non-compliance risks of Islamic financial entities is key to mitigating the risks and fostering the entities and their businesses.

This study aims to gain the perception of Selangor’s disadvantaged women on the Sharīʿah (Islamic law) rules on two micro-equity financing instruments, namely, muḍārabah (profit sharing) and mushārakah (profit-and-loss sharing) (M&M).

A survey was carried out in the rural area of Selangor district in Malaysia by administering a self-generated structured questionnaire. A total of 330 completed questionnaires were retrieved from the members of an Islamic microfinance institution (IsMFI), namely, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM). The data were analysed by using structural equation modelling.

The female borrowers of AIM perceive the Sharīʿah rules of M&M requiring high moral and ethical values and diligent repayment performance. They are aware of some other underlying provisions such as business liquidation, share transfer, information discloser and business termination. The overall findings of this study suggest that the perceived Sharīʿah rules are akin to those that are commonly used in general partnership businesses between Muslims. It also indicates that disadvantaged entrepreneurs would accept the rules that are easy to comprehend as well as favourable to their interests. It further suggests that respondents’ experiences of microfinance and business operation do not have a significant influence on their perception of M&M instruments.

This study was limited to Selangor. So, the perception of Muslim women surveyed may not represent the views of all women in Malaysia. However, it can offer a primary understanding of the said issue.

The findings of this study can help IsMIFs take initiatives to offer M&M as micro-equity finance to poor women entrepreneurs.

So far, limited studies have been carried out on M&M-based microfinancing. This paper offers new insights presenting disadvantaged women entrepreneurs’ perception of these financing instruments.