Sheikh Nizam Yaquby:
I have heard about the dichotomy of Shariah based and Shariah compliant products in many conferences. This is the same argument by those who talk about Maqasid al Shariah. These are vague terms that need to be defined precisely if you want a Shariah scholar to give a ruling. When you want to say that something is halal or haram you must have strong justification. You cannot just say this is based on my understanding of Maqasid al Shariah. There are some people who use this term in a dangerous way. When we aspire for certain things, when we say that certain things could be more advantageous, we cannot say that it is only compliant, not Shariah based. It has no meaning to me really.
Sheikh Dr Daud Bakar:
Upon the collapse of capitalism, there is a movement of socialism in the west. This has also influenced our Islamic economists. For example, many economists write about Islamic finance by saying that Islamic economics is the foundation of Islamic finance, which is wrong. It is the Shariah that is the foundation of Islamic finance. So this articulation of ideas in recent years should be taken as full of basirah (intention) because otherwise there will be a conflict between Shariah and the so called Islamic economics. We must go back to the revealed sources and not to the human theory of economics. This development is something worrying.
Sheikh Dr Mohamad Akram Laldin:
These two terms were popularized several years ago to differentiate between the products that originate from the conventional market, which are termed as Shariah compliant, and those which have no origin in the conventional market and therefore termed as Shariah based. What is important for Shariah products is that they comply with all the requirements of the Shariah.
As for the origin, some of the rulings in Islamic law have their origins before Islam and have been endorsed by Islam with certain modifications, such as the principle of Mudarabah which existed in pre Islamic times. So the bottom line is complying with the requirements of the Shariah as endorsed by the Shariah boards. This should not hinder the effort to invent in Islamic finance. All should work together in trying to come up with Islamic products that will benefit all the stakeholders.
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