In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful First praise is to Allah, the Almighty, on whom ultimately we depend for sustenance and guidance. Second, my sincere appreciation goes to my Course Director Mr.M.F.Burah, whose guidance, careful reading and constructive comments were valuable. His timely and efficient contribution helped me shape this into its final form and I express my sincerest appreciation for his assistance in any way that I may have asked. I am also deeply indebted to my Course Facilitators Moulavi Siraj Najubudeen, Mr.Fazly Marikar, Mr. Mirak Farook, Mr.Ali Wahid and Mr. Irshad Iqbal for their invaluable lectures and supervision through out of this study. I also wish to thank the College of Banking and Finance, its leadership and the staff for providing me with an academic base, which has enabled me to take up this study. Special thanks, tribute and appreciation to all those their names do not appear here who have contributed to the successful completion of this assignment. Finally, I’m forever indebted to my family who, understanding the importance of this work suffered my hectic working hours, To my parents ,my spouse, my sisters and my child Maryam.
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Introduction
Islamic finance – financial institutions and products designed to comply with the central tenets of Sharia (or Islamic law) – is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the global finance industry. Starting with the Dubai Islamic Bank in 1975 (and operations in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the Cayman Islands, Sudan, Lebanon, the Bahamas, Bosnia, Bahrain and Pakistan), the number of Islamic financial institutions worldwide now exceeds over three hundred, with operations in seventy-five countries and assets in excess of US$400 billion (El-Qorchi 2005).
Though initially concentrated in the Middle East (especially Bahrain) and South-East Asia (particularly Malaysia), Islamic finance