Islamic Finance

Banking and financial services conducted according to Islamic law, which forbids interest and requires risk to be shared. From institutional beginnings in the 1960s the sector has grown into a multi-trillion-dollar industry serving Muslim and non-Muslim customers alike.

Islamic banking represents a comprehensive approach to finance based on Sharia principles, emphasizing ethical finance, risk-sharing, and asset-backed transactions while prohibiting interest (riba), creating alternative mechanisms that influence global economies.

A Pakistani Hanafi jurist and writer on Islamic law, trained at Darul Uloom Karachi and in economics and law at Karachi and Punjab. He served on Pakistan's higher courts, completed the hadith commentary Fath al-Mulhim, and shaped the standards of modern Islamic finance.

Zakat is the obligatory charitable giving that constitutes the third pillar of Islam. A fixed percentage of wealth given annually to specified recipients, it purifies wealth, supports the needy, and embodies Islamic principles of economic justice.