Who will pay the Zakat on Arbun? The person who has paid OR The person who recieved the amount of Arbun OR There will be no Zakat on Arbun

The person who received the Arbun should pay Zakat on this amount because this amount will be his property in any case. Meanwhile the person who paid the Arbun will lose the Arbun amount in all cases.

Posted on November 22, 2010

Answered by Dr. Muhammad Amin Qattan

I would like to know if is permissible to invest in mutual funds such as the Dow Jones Islamic Index. All the companies that they invest in have halal activities; however, the companies are involved in riba such as borrowing money from the bond market. The index has certain ratios to determine what an acceptable level of debt is. In addition, can you please provide advice to those who are interested in a career in Islamic Finance. What Islamic banks can one work for and feel confident that their transactions are compliant with Shari’ah. I understand that you produced a report on banks in Saudi Arabia and I was wondering if it was available in English.

Dow Jones has a prominent Shari’ah Scholars. They put standards for all their Islamic Indices. You have the option to follow their standards or any other Shari’ah board standards.

Generally speaking, all Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia have Shari’ah board and the revise the banks’ operations. They have their own fatwas and we respect all their ijtihad (self exertion).

Posted on August 5, 2010

Answered by Dr. Muhammad Amin Qattan

can you please tell me in simple wordings the Principle of Takaful to share with non-muslims who understand conventional insurance.

Takaful - Islamic insurance - is founded on the cooperative principle and on the principle of separation between the funds and operations of shareholders, thus passing the ownership of the Takaful (Insurance) fund and operations to the policyholders.

The premiums collected from the policyholders are considered as donations and they constitute the Takaful fund from which all claims are...

Posted on April 28, 2010

Answered by Dr. Muhammad Amin Qattan

After conduting some research on Islamic Insurance including referring to AAOFI Standards No.26 on Islamic Insurance and IFSB Guidelines on Isurance, I have come a conclusion in my opinion that a window is not appropraite for a conventional insurance company to offer Takaful Products & Services. In the case of a bank, the segregation of funds & accounts is possible, and liabilities \"could\" be limited to the amonut/fund invested by the shareholders depending on the type of the contracts the shareholders have entered with the Investment Account Holders and other depositors. Can you Minhaj kindly advise on this matter?

We have two terms to accept Islamic window in insurance company:

1- To have separate financial accounts and this is technically possible. And

2- To have Shari’ah board to control the window operation.

All other terms and conditions are not in contradictions.

Posted on March 10, 2010

Answered by Dr. Muhammad Amin Qattan