
Explore how Islamic finance uses asset-backed, profit-and-loss sharing models, avoids fixed interest, and adheres to ethical principles, contrasting with traditional lending.
Trace the evolution of Islamic finance from early caravan partnerships and forward contracts to a global system of Islamic banks, sukuk, and AAOIFI standards.
Explore how Islamic finance uses Sharia-based principles from Qur'an and Sunnah, interprets fatwas, and prohibits riba (usury) while embracing risk-sharing, avoiding gharar, derivatives, and non-compliant activities.
Explore mudarabah, a profit and loss sharing contract where Rabb al-mal funds the venture and the mudarib manages investments, with two-tier structure and profits shared per agreement.
Understand musharaka, a joint venture between an Islamic financial institution and the entrepreneur where profits and losses are shared proportionally to participation, with flexible management by all or one partner.
Murabaha, a cost-plus sale in Islamic banking, has the bank purchase and resell goods at a pre-agreed markup, under a three-party arrangement with fixed credit terms.
Learn ijara, where the bank buys and leases assets, with ijarah wa iqtina allowing eventual purchase at a set residual value. It contrasts with conventional mortgages.
Explore the Salam contract in Islamic finance, a forward sale with full upfront payment, delivery in the future, and strict specifications, including conditions for parallel Salam and risk management.
Explain how Sukuk, the Islamic equivalent of bonds, works as certificates of asset ownership that comply with Sharia and provide profit and risk sharing for investors.
Explore takaful as a Sharia-compliant insurance model, detailing tabarru donations, mutual funds, and its evolution from Arabic sea insurance to modern markets in Sudan, ASEAN, and Gulf.
Examine why conventional insurance clashes with shariah due to riba, gharar, and qimar, including premium payouts and uncertain profits, and contrast with takaful principles.
Explore how Takaful operates through Wakala, Mudaraba, and hybrid models, pooling contributions into Waqf, earning investment profits, and distributing surpluses to policyholders.
Compare takaful and conventional insurance, highlighting fund ownership, risk sharing, Shariah supervision, surplus distribution to participants, and islamic investment practices.
Islamic finance shares conventional banking goals but uses sales and profit‑loss sharing contracts instead of loan and interest agreements, and it has grown rapidly with global adoption by Western banks.
Apply Sharia screening to stock investing by evaluating business activity and financial ratios, avoiding interest, excessive debt, and prohibited sectors, with global indices guiding compliant stock selection.
Although Islamic finance is a relatively small player in global terms, most analysts agree that it has been growing in the last decades at a rate of between 15% and 20% and shows no sign of reducing in the short to medium term. This continued growth has been supported by the actions of many governments around the world, including the UK, Germany, the USA, and Luxembourg, not to say Dubai and Malaysia, keen to see the development of this alternative financial system.
Islamic finance is in some ways similar to the traditional financial system, yet it uses different mechanisms which in difficult financial times prove to be more viable in comparison to conventional banking.
Take this short course to learn the fundamental differences between the conventional banking and Islamic finance and get acquainted with the most common modes of Islamic financing in more detail.
Shall you have more questions, the Waqf Fund, co-author of the course, will be happy to answer in the comments section.
As all Udemy courses, Introduction to Islamic finance has also a 30-day no-questions refund policy, so you do not risk anything. After the completion of the course, students will receive Udemy certificate.
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April 2018.
Added a lecture on Islamic bonds - Sukuk. Global airlines such as Emirates and Etihad, to name but a few, have already attracted investments in billions US dollars via sukuk in the recent years as the market of sukuk continues to grow.
Added the final test to check what you have learned during the course.