Islamic finance’s raison d’etre is to provide a Sharīʿah compliant alternative to the conventional finance system. That being the case, those who work in the industry need to have a basic understanding of Sharīʿah, particularly as it relates to financial dealings. Obviously, many of the most important works on fiqh al-muʿāmalāt have been composed in Arabic, but classical fiqh books deal with many details that are not relevant to the contemporary world, and many of them are not user-friendly. It would be of great benefit if someone would write a book that summarizes the Sharīʿah’s views on obligations and liabilities, which are the essential results of financial dealings. Especially if the author of such a book is well-grounded in fiqh; with a clear view of its broad patterns and able to cite examples as needed but without getting bogged down in the details found in fiqh books. It would be particularly helpful if he is also well acquainted with secular law, seeing that Islamic finance has to operate in legal systems that are based on or heavily influenced by common law or civil law. As it happens, someone has already written such a book. The author is the eminent Syrian scholar Muṣṭafā Aḥmad al-Zarqā (1904‒1999, rahimahullah), and the book is An Introduction to the General Theory of Obligations in Islamic Jurisprudence (Al-Madkhal ilā Naẓariyyat al-Iltizām al-ʿĀmmah f ī al-Fiqh al-Islāmī). The book systematically viii lays forth the Sharīʿah’s system for regulating the rights and responsibilities that arise from human dealings, particularly with regard to property. It enriches the discussion by comparing the Sharīʿah concepts with their parallels in secular law, which must deal with most of the same issues. An area that is particularly enriched by comparison of the two systems is the concept of persons subject to legal provisions, whether natural or legal persons.
A great deal of thought and expertise went into the translation of the book. A team of four experienced translators were chosen having considerable expertise in fiqh, uṣūl al-fiqh and disciplines related to Islamic finance. An initial list of key terms was extracted from the book, and provisional English equivalents were selected for them to help standardize the recurring Arabic expressions. Their translations were all edited by a native speaker of English, also having a background in fiqh, uṣūl al-fiqh and Islamic finance. The translation was compared with the original text for accuracy, and the writing style was standardised. The edited translation was reviewed by a team comprising ISRA’s senior researchers, and their comments and questions were hashed out in a marathon meeting with the senior editor. Further to ISRA’s effort in ensuring accuracy, the work was emailed to the author’s son, Prof. Dr. Anas al-Zarqā for the verification and validation of our work, and his feedback was incorporated. The final product was then reviewed by a team of Maybank’s Sharīʿah officers. Their comments and suggestions, mostly related to consistency of style, were then implemented by ISRA’s team. ix It must be noted here that some of the paragraphs in the original Arabic edition were written without any headings. For consistency purposes, this translation has inserted those headings, which represent key ideas of those paragraphs. This should serve as an easy reference to readers as those headings are also captured in the table of contents.
Wishing everyone an insightful reading!
