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The present study aims to examine the effects of the Islamic sacred months, namely, Muḥarram, Rajab, Dhu al-Qaʿdah and Dhu al-Ḥijjah, on stock prices on the Iran and Iraq Stock Exchanges.

Using the infrastructure models of the capital market, the daily stock prices were calculated for the sacred and non-sacred months. As the data of this study are non-stationary, the AMIRA time-series model was used for better understanding of the model or future projections. The dependent variables of this study are the daily stock indexes for Iranian and Iraqi Stock Exchanges, and independent ones are the sacred and non-sacred months of a lunar year. Data were gathered daily from the financial statements of Iranian and Iraqi Stock Exchanges websites. To test the hypotheses under study, a five-year period from 2012 to 2016 was considered for both Iraqi and Iranian Stock Exchanges, which corresponds with the lunar calendar from 1433-1437AH.

The obtained results indicated that there is no significant difference in stock prices between the sacred months of Muḥarram, Rajab, Dhu al-Qaʿdah and Dhu al-Ḥijjah and other non-sacred months. However, the stock price in the Iranian Stock Exchange has a significant difference in Rajab and Dhu al-Qaʿdah with other non-sacred months.

The results of this study will reveal more than ever the role of Islamic sacred months for society and users of financial statements to make better financial decisions especially in Islamic emerging markets.

Governing principles of the world countries' current foreign policies are based on nationalism and in the realization of this aspiration, human rights in other countries are less considered and demands of national interests on other issues are surpassed. Islam, in principle, is opposite to this approach. However, national interests are important in Islam, but Islam does not try to achieve this target at the price of destruction of other countries and rights violations of their peoples. The interests of Islam's government are based on expediency of humankind as a whole and in its foreign policy should be arranged in a way to fulfil this target. In this regards this paper aims to introduce the basic principles of foreign policy in Islam based on the Sufi standpoint.

Islam aims to improve humanities based on moralities and spiritualities. Some principles for reaching this goal based on Islamic Sufism standpoints are provided.

The paper reveals 32 principles.

Comparative research in other religions' Gnosticism will be helpful.

These principles can be used for applied debates in the field and ended with new international regulations.

Delicateness, truthfulness, and righteousness of Islamic Sufism may turn the attentions of scholars and researchers to this viewpoint, and a new set of regulations to be codified.

Political scientists have not touched the topic from a Sufi point of view. This paper brings this approach to a new challenging arena for those who are engaged in it.

This paper aims to investigate the general rules of diplomacy and the manner of the Islamic government's behavior with other nations and governments from the viewpoint of Sufi mystics. The aim of diplomacy in Islam is not only summarized in getting benefits for her country. The aim of diplomacy in Islam is to develop human transcendence by divine teachings and is superior to just material benefits and privileges exchange. Basically, the Islam's government does not look at the other countries as a source of exploitation but as a brother or neighbor attempting to organize relations. In the current system of international relations in the world, so much attention has been paid to material benefits; but ethics and spiritualities are ignored.

Islamic diplomacy with the aim of improving moralities and spiritualities attempts to create relations with other countries. Some principles for reaching this goal based on Islamic Sufism standpoints are provided.

A total of 23 principles are introduced.

Comparative research in other religions' Gnosticism will be helpful.

These principles can be used for applied debates in the field and be ended to new international regulations.

Delicateness, truthfulness, and righteousness of Islamic Sufism, may turn the attentions of scholars and researchers to this viewpoint, and a new set of regulations to be codified.

Political scientists have not touched the topic from a Sufi point of view. This paper brings this approach to a new challenging arena for those who are engaged in it.

The purpose of this paper is to theorize and empirically investigate the formation of consumer’s consumption ritual experiences and discourses associated with Feast of Sacrifice.

The authors have approached the data from assemblage theory perspective. By use of ethnographic participant observation and in-depth interviews, seven themes are uncovered and discussed: meaning of Qurban, preparation of the ritual, Qurban choice, meat, Qurban ritual, marketplace and framing of discourses.

This study provides a theoretical development in which it depicts that assemblage theory can be used in the context of religious rituals such as the Feast of Sacrifice. This suggests that parts forming the social phenomena include different meanings and functions in different assemblages to the ritual, which has a structure with a particular process, roles and content scenario. This implies that even the most structured social phenomena as religious rituals can be accepted as social assemblage where every individual experiences his/her own ritual with the parts that have ever-changing material and expressive roles.

This study will contribute to the literature on religious rituals and practices through viewing ritual as an assemblage including material and expressive features as well as human and non-human actors. Besides, this study aims to find out whether there is a constant consumer and the concept of ritual by focusing on buying experiences of consumer in Feast of Sacrifice in Turkey.

Studies on Islamic calendar anomalies in financial markets tend to apply quantitative analysis to historic share prices. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research investigating whether the participants of such markets are aware of these anomalies and whether these anomalies affect their investment practice. Or is it a case that these practitioners are completely unaware of the anomalies present in these markets and are missing out on profitable opportunities? The purpose of this paper is to analyse the views of influential participants within the Pakistani Stock Market.

The study documents the findings for 19 face-to-face semi-structured interviews conducted with brokers, regulators and high-net-worth individual investors in Karachi.

The paper’s major findings indicate that the participants believed that anomalies were present in the stock market and market participants were actively attempting to exploit these anomalies for abnormal gains. Interviewees suggested that predictable patterns can be identified in certain Islamic months (Muharram, Safar, Ramadan and Zil Hajj). The most common pattern highlighted by the interviews related to the month of Ramadan. Furthermore, interviewees mentioned the influence of the “Memon” community in the Pakistani Stock Market. Respondents also suggested that investor sentiment played an important role in influencing the stock market prices and trading patterns.

Because all the prior studies investigating Islamic calendar anomalies in Muslim-majority countries adopted quantitative method using secondary data, the current investigation is of particular value, as it focuses on the qualitative analyses and reports the views of market participants. This allows to fully explore the topic under investigation and to draw robust conclusions.

Muslim’s hope that the holy month of Ramadan will create something more valuable for them. Through fasting and good actions, they can get rewarded twice than they normally can achieve. With this motivation, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the holy month of Ramadan effect on the returns and volatility of the Shariah index in India.

Using the ordinary least square methods, this paper examines the impact of Ramadan effect on the returns of the Shariah index in India. This paper further investigates the impact of the holy month of Ramadan effect on the volatility of the Shariah index by applying GARCH-modified models. This paper categorizes the Ramadan days into three parts, namely God’s Mercy, God’s Forgiveness and Emancipation from hellfire to examine the relationship between the Ramadan effect and the returns and volatility of the Shariah index in India.

The results show that the returns during the month of Ramadan as a whole are statistically significant. The results further motivate that its last ten days have high influences than other days over the period. Finally, the study examines the Ramadan effect on volatility by applying GARCH modified models and finds an evidence of Ramadan effect during the first ten days of Ramadan month.

The positive impact of Ramadan increases on the days associated with higher worship intensity. The study provides an important information to the ethical investors to invest in the Shariah stocks during Ramadan days. This information is very useful for the investors to get an abnormal return during the Ramadan days.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavior of the stock market returns in the different days of the week and different months of the year in accordance with the Islamic calendar. Further, the study estimates the risk-adjusted returns to test the performance of the indices during the Ramadan and non-Ramadan days. Finally, the study investigates the impact of Ramadan on the returns and the volatility of the stock market indices in India.

Initially, the study applies the Ordinary Least Square method to test the day-of-the-week and the month-of-the-year effect of the common and Shariah indices. Next, the study employs the risk-adjusted measurement to examine the underperformance and over-performance of the indices for both the periods. Finally, the study estimates the GARCH (1,1) and GJR-GARCH (1,1) models to observe the impact of Ramadan on the returns and the volatility of the Shariah indices in India.

The study finds that an average return of the indices during the Ramadan days are higher than non-Ramadan days. Further, the average returns of the Shariah indices are significantly higher on Wednesday than other days of the week. In addition, the highest and significant mean returns and mean risk-adjusted returns of the indices during the Ramadan days are observed. Finally, the study finds an evidence of the Ramadan effect on the returns and volatility of the indices in India.

The study observes evidence that the Ramadan effect influences the Shariah indices, but not the common indices in the stock market of the non-Muslim countries. It indicates that the Ramadan creates the positive mood and emotions in the investors buying and selling activities. The study suggests that investors can buy the shares before Ramadan period and sell them during the Ramadan days to get an abnormal return in the emerging markets.

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of mushārakah mutanāqisah (MM; diminishing partnership) technique and its potentials for Islamic financial institutions.

Based on an extensive literature review, this paper aims to highlight, explain and discuss the basic principles underlying implementation of MM and its distinctive features when compared to other modes of finance.

Islamic banks, throughout the years, developed several modes of finance which are more or less similar to their conventional counterparts. In fact, al‐Bay^c bithaman al‐ājil (BBA) and murābahah are the two instruments most commonly used by Islamic banks and financial institutions. Investment and financing through the profit and loss sharing instruments is almost nonexistent within the Islamic financial system. MM technique is an alternative financial instrument available for Islamic banks. It is a relatively new and very little used product available for Islamic banks. The paper claims that MM is more in line with Shari'ah teachings and as such should be used more by Islamic financial institutions. The study indicates that MM possibly has a comparative advantage for both financier and the customer when compared with conventional loans and BBA.

As a relatively new and untested mode of finance, the paper offers a theoretical overview only. Further studies should discuss more practical issues that keep banks away from utilizing MM more efficiently.

The comprehensive overview of the MM and underlying issue discussed in this paper is a very good foundation for further studies on the topic. It gives a clear theoretical base for practical implementation of MM.

Since the 1986 initiation of Vietnam’s Đổi Mới economic policies designed to increase national Gross Domestic Product and increase international market competitiveness, the country has undergone drastic changes in infrastructure, industrialization levels, market practices and standards of living. These changes are creating an abundance of unprecedented transformations among the many ethnic minority groups, who are used as a source of tourism revenue due to their unique cultural customs, clothing, and languages that differ from Vietnam’s majority ethnic group, the Kinh. Yet, while these groups are being exoticized for their rich cultural history and practices, they are simultaneously being required to discard many traditional livelihood methods and practices in order to keep up with the swiftly changing economy and social space. Despite these ethnic minority communities being presented as the main attraction in many areas, unequal economic and social distribution compared to areas mainly composed of Kinh can be seen. Similar findings have been discovered across other ethnically diverse areas of the country. Despite flourishing tourism to the region and steady rates of regional growth in gross domestic product, a gender analysis reveals the inequalities that undergird the system. This chapter confirms the impact of tourism on development when gender is not mainstreamed into development planning and implementation.

Although religiosity and advertising messages have been extensively examined in the existing literature separately, studies which correlatively examine both these aspects are very limited. This paper aims to reveal the influence of the widely used religious messages on consumer attitudes and of purchase intentions on subjects with different levels of religiosity.

In this study, four different printed advertising messages with and without religious messages were developed for two different products. In this respect, the consumer attitudes toward advertisements and the degree to which purchase intention changed were measured.

The attitude and purchase intention toward the advertisements with religious messages was found to have a higher mean value compared to the advertisements without religious messages, and a statistically significant difference was found between the two. The highly religious participants’ attitudes and purchasing intention toward the advertisements with religious messages differed as compared to the participants with low levels of religiosity.

Indeed, it was observed that the attitude toward different advertising messages and purchase intention differed regarding the level of religiosity. In the last section of the study, the influence of the level of religiosity on purchasing intention and consumer attitudes has been discussed with academic and practical results.

This study has also extended the practical implications of social judgment theory, which suggests that the further the consumers’ initial position to the new message the less is the acceptance of that message, and it contributes to its methodological and theoretical development. Whether a religious advertisement message is considered more or less acceptable depends on the level of religiosity and the positioning strategy adopted in the advertisement. In the present study, it is observed that as the level of religiosity increases, purchase intention and the attitude towards the advertisement with religious message increase in permissible(halal) goods. However, when prohibited (haram) services are considered, an increase in the subjects' level of religiosity brings about a decrease in the purchase intention and the attitude towards the advertisement with religious message. Therefore, this study validates social judgment theory.

A significant implication for the marketing practitioners is that religiosity could be one of the criteria in segmenting market. A religiously prohibited product might gradually feel more irritating as the intensity of religious message increases in an advertisement. Thus, it is an important consideration for an organization offering faith-based products in mono-religious societies. Clearly, marketers need to be very careful when they use religious symbols in the secular marketplace, which raises the question – What factors underlie a positive response to religious message use in advertisement?

Religion was a taboo subject in society in the recent past; it has not been comprehensively investigated in marketing literature; moreover, it is evident that this situation continues to exist at present. It can, therefore, be said that the efforts to conceptualize religion’s influence on marketing and consumer behavior have been scarce.