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Heaven's Bankers
Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- CHF 2.50
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- CHF 2.50
Publisher Description
A trillion dollar financial industry is revolutionising the global economy. Governments and corporations across the Islamic world are increasingly turning to finance that complies with Sharia law in order to fund economic growth. Even in the West, Islamic finance is rapidly becoming an important alternative source of funding at a time when the conventional finance industry is reeling from the effects of the financial crisis.
From its origins in the seventh century, Islamic finance has sought to develop core ethical principles that are based in the foundations of Islam and Shari’a. By engaging critically with the complexities of international finance, it has evolved and adapted into a world emerging from the economic and moral aftermath of a global financial crisis. But with an increasing Western interest, is it able to remain true to the principles of its faith? Can it maintain its ideals of social justice? Or is Islamic finance guilty of the very dangers it seeks to avoid?
In Heaven’s Bankers, Harris Irfan, one of the world’s leading Islamic finance bankers, gives unparalleled insight into the heart of this secretive industry. From his personal experience of working with leading bankers, scholars and lawyers, he debunks the myths of Islamic banking, analyses its greatest deals and looks to the future of a system that has reprioritised the very nature of money itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Irfan, a banker who has worked for the Barclays Group and Deutsche Bank, gives a primer on Islamic finance and its vexed relation to the global economy. As he discusses, Sharia law's injunction against usury and its emphasis on social justice has long kept Islamic finance separate from Western banking structures, which are seen to rely on debt and aggressive pursuit of growth. The rise in wealth in Muslim nations, however, caused major banks to begin pursuing Sharia-compliant investment vehicles in the early 2000s. Irfan outlines his experience re-envisioning Western-style banking services for the Islamic financial market, beginning with his time at Deutsche Bank in 2006. He describes how respected Muslim scholars were enlisted to lend credibility to the project, even as traditional Sharia-derived principles were bent almost to the breaking point. Irfan gradually became disenchanted, concluding that Western financial mechanisms are inherently incompatible with Islamic law. The amount of detail here requires both a keen interest and at least a passing familiarity with the terminology used. That said, this is an intriguing look at the possibilities for modern financial instruments that aren't traditionally Western in design.