Waqf Fund hosts eighth Sharia Scholar session

Manama, Apr. 8 -- (BNA): The Waqf Fund, a Bahrain-based special fund to support Islamic finance training, education and research, hosted its eighth Sharia Scholar session with leading Islamic finance scholar Professor Dr. Akram Laldin from Malaysia. Dr. Laldin serves on several Sharia Boards including Bank Negara Malaysia's Sharia Advisory Council, AAOIFI and a number of Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia and globally. The topic under discussion was "The Challenges of Achieving Sharia Compliance in Islamic Finance". Internal Sharia Reviewers and Sharia Auditors from Bahrain based Islamic financial institutions attended the session, which was held at the Central Bank’s premises. Dr. Laldin made a presentation on the key challenges in Sharia compliance and narrated a number of real life cases from his experience as a Sharia Board member. This was followed by an interactive session during which the participants asked questions and gave their comments. Dr. Laldin started his talk by emphasizing that Sharia is the backbone of Islamic finance and therefore Sharia non-compliance poses a huge risk to the industry. He was of the opinion that while all the stakeholders have to play their respective roles, Sharia scholars have the biggest responsibility to ensure Sharia compliance in all aspects of the financial institution. He impressed upon Sharia scholars to be proactive in developing themselves through continuous training not just in Sharia but also other relevant areas such as economics, finance, banking, accounting, law, etc. in order to be able to give a religious verdict after full knowledge and understanding of the matter. He praised the role of the first generation of Sharia scholars in starting and then shaping the industry and stressed on preparing the second and third generation of scholars in order to ensure that the industry continues to progress. Dr. Laldin identified several key challenges in Sharia compliance. These include: Conventional mindset of key decision-makers and a lack of conviction and belief in what they are doing Not following the right process Copying conventional products without due consideration to Sharia Implementation challenges in the absence of understanding of Sharia Lack of understanding of Sharia by the auditors Advertising and promotion not in line with Sharia Restructuring products or transactions without ensuring Sharia compliance Absence of a Sharia compliant dispute mechanism Dr. Laldin narrated instances where a transaction was restructured without fulfilling Sharia conditions. He suggested that a Sharia compliant dispute resolution mechanism be devised at the global level with participation from all the countries active in Islamic finance. Earlier Khalid Hamad, Chairman of the Waqf Fund welcomed the guest scholar and the participants to the session. He stated that Bahrain has always demonstrated openness and cooperation in Islamic finance with other jurisdictions and such cooperative spirit is critical for the industry to keep its growth momentum. He emphasised on the importance of learning from leading Sharia scholars and urged the participants to attend Sharia scholar sessions regularly. Source: www.cbb.gov.bh.