Naẓarīyat al-Mukhāṭarah fī al-Iqtiṣād al-Islāmī

“Risk” is one of the key concepts in understanding modern Islamic economics.Its importance does not only stem from its place in the classicalfiqh, but also from its close relation to discussions in modern Islamic financeabout permissible ḥalāl (gain) and ribā (usury). Risk has been seenas one of the key differences between ribā and non-ribā transactions andconventional finance and Islamic finance mechanisms. While modern economicsaims to eliminate the risk entirely, principles of Islamic economicsaim to establish a balance among parties through risk sharing. Becausegaining money from money is ḥarām, the risk issue is more critical in debt-based finance. In this context, it’s a controversial issue among Islamic finance scholars that Islamic banks take several precautions to completelyeliminate the risk from their transactions – although Islamic finance isknown as a profit-loss-sharing system.Adnan ‘Uwaidah’s book Risk Theory in Islamic Economics, which isbased on his doctoral dissertation, aims at theorizing risk in a legal andeconomic framework and explaining its functions. The book, which claimsto be the first academic book about risk from the Islamic legal point ofview, consists of an introduction and six main chapters. The author has a PhD from the Department of Islamic Economics and Islamic Banking atYarmouk University in Jordan, which is one of the leading institutions in this field. He shows his mastery of the topic through his academic approachto the issue, use of legal terminology, and a vast bibliography that includesclassical and modern resources ...