Let's Plug-In Education" is a proactive educational programme aimed at providing digital education to poor societies in the Muslim world deprived of access to libraries and proper educational institutions. In light of the urgent drive in increasing literacy, a concerted effort in providing the necessary educational exposure to these societies has become an imperative in the Muslim world. Possible initiatives include the building of telecommunications infrastructure in the affected community, provide cheap and affordable computers, and provide free digital educational content and certified online courses. If you are interested to take part in the "Let's Plug-In Education" programme, please register your interest online (Click here for online Let's Plug-In Education form)

Who should participate: • Telecommunications infrastructure providers
• Donor organizations
• Computer suppliers
• Universities or academic institutions that offer online courses

Banyak dari teori-teori ekonomi modern yang merupakan hasil curian dari pemikiran ekonomi Islam. Maka ekonom Islam tidak perlu terkesima dengan teori-teori ekonomi Barat. Beberapa institusi ekonomi yang ditiru oleh Barat dari dunia Islam antara lain syirkah (serikat dagang), suftaj (bills of exchange), hiwala (Letters of credit), darut Tiraz (pabrik yang didirikan dan dijalankan negara) di Spanyol, Sicilia. Palermo dan ma?una (sejenis private bank) dikenal di Barat sebagai Maona.

Raymond Lily (1223-1215) yang telah melakukan perjalanan ke negara-negara Arab mendirikan lima universitas yang mengajarkan bahasa Arab sehingga banyak yang kemudian menerjemahkan karya-karya ekonom Islam. Adapun karya-karya ekonom muslim yang diterjemahkan adalah al-kindi, al-farabi, Ibnu Sina, al-Ghazali, Ibnu Rusd, Khawarizmi, Ibnu Haitham, Ibnu Ha-zam, Jabir Ibnu Hayyan, Ibnu Bajja, ar-Razi.

Beberapa pemikiran ekonom Islam yang dicuri tanpa pernah disebut sumber kutipannya antara lain :

- Teori Pareto Optimum diambil dari kitab Nahjul Balaghah Imam Ali.

- Bar Habraeus, pendeta Syriac Jacobite Church menyalin beberapa bab Ihya Ulumuddin al-Ghazali.

- Gresham Law dan Oresme Treatise diambil dari kitab Ibnu Taimiyyah

- Bapak Ekonomi Barat,Adam Smith (1776 M), dengan bukunya The Wealth of Nation diduga banyak mendapat inspirasi dari buku al-Amwal-nya Abu Ubaid (838 M) yang dalam bahasa Inggrisnya adalah persis judul bukunya Adam Smith, The Wealth.

- Pendeta Gereja Spanyol Ordo Dominican Raymond Martini menyalin banyak bab dari Tahafut al Falasifa, Maqasid al-falasifa, al-Munqid, Mishkat al-Anwar, dan Ihya-nya al Ghazali. (AW)

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Islamic teaching does not allow a fixed return on capital, as charging and receiving interest (riba) is forbidden. As a Sharia’a compliant bank, all products and services of an Islamic Bank (IB) should avoid riba. The relationship between an IB and customer is based on sharing risk – and sharing the rewards from the financing and investments bank make on behalf of customers. The returns are based on the amount of profit realised from each transaction.

The main arrangements in Islamic Banking & Finance (IBF) are Musharaka, Mudaraba, Murabaha and Ijara. These in brief are detailed below.

Ijara
Ijara is a form of leasing. It involves a contract where the bank buys and then leases an item – perhaps a consumer durable, for example – to a customer for a specified rental over a specific period. The duration of the lease, as well as the basis for rental, are set and agreed in advance. IB retains ownership of the item throughout the arrangement and takes back the item at the end.

Ijara-wa-iktana
Ijara-wa-iktana is similar to Ijara, except that included in the contract is a promise from the customer to buy the equipment at the end of the lease period, at a pre-agreed price. Rentals paid during the period of the lease constitute part of the purchase price. Often, as a result, the final sale will be for a token sum.

Ijara with diminishing Musharaka
The principle of Ijara with diminishing Musharaka can be used for home-buying services. Diminishing Musharaka means that IB reduce its equity in an asset with any additional capital payment customer make, over and above rental payments. The customer ownership in the asset increases and IB's decreases by a similar amount each time customer make an additional capital payment. Ultimately, IB transfers ownership of the asset entirely over to the customer.

Mudaraba
Mudaraba refers to an investment on customer behalf by a more skilled person. It takes the form of a contract between two parties, one who provides the funds and the other who provides the expertise and who agree to the division of any profits made in advance. In other words, IB would make Sharia’a compliant investments and share the profits with the customer, in effect charging for the time and effort. If no profit is made, the loss is borne by the customer and IB takes no fee.

Mudarib
In a Mudaraba contract, the expert who manages the investment is known as a Mudarib.

Murabaha
Murabaha is a contract for purchase and resale and allows the customer to make purchases without having to take out a loan and pay interest. Islamic Bank purchases the goods for the customer, and re-sells them to the customer on a deferred basis, adding an agreed profit margin. The customer then pays the sale price for the goods over instalments, effectively obtaining credit without paying interest.

Musharaka
Musharaka means partnership. It involves customer placing their capital with another person and both sharing the risk and reward. The difference between Musharaka arrangements and normal banking is that customer can set any kind of profit sharing ratio, but losses must be proportionate to the amount invested.

Qard
A Qard is a loan, free of profit. The IB uses this arrangement for Current Accounts. In essence, it means that customer's Current Account is a loan to the bank, which is used by the bank for investment and other purposes. Obviously it has to be paid back to customer, in full, on demand.

Riba
Riba means interest, which is prohibited in Islamic law. Any risk-free or guaranteed interest on a loan is considered to be usury.

Wakala
Wakala is an agency contract, which usually includes in its terms a fee for the expertise of the agent. The IB may use it for customer's large Deposit accounts : customer own the capital invested and appoints the IB as their agent and pay a fee for banks expertise.

The transactions of an IB with a given customer shall be any one of the types mentioned above depending on the type of A/C and service availed/rendered. As regards the transactions on income generation side, i.e. investments/loans/etc made by the IB on behalf of its customer, the Shari'a Advisory Committee(SAC) come into picture. A good IB with a good SAC shall ensure that majority of investments/loans/etc of the IB do not involve Riba, which means that majority, if not all, are in equities not in debts & money market instruments ; and that investments/loans/etc are not in businesses & activities not permitted by Islaam like alkohol, gambling etc etc. The income of the Bank from these investments/loans/etc over a predecided period is then distributed proportionately among the customers based on the A/C types and services rendered as mentioned above. The Islamic Banks are for this very reason are also called as Non-interest based Participatory Banks.

The financial transactions of a conventional bank on both side, i.e. Customer side as well its Income/Investmnet side are almost totally based on riba.

As the IBs have evolved out of present all interest based sytem, the element of Riba can not be ruled out in the begining till the Bank becomes financially viable as these are business entities and not charity organizations. Thus minimum level of relaxation is to be kept in mind while commenting on any IB in its early, say 2 - 3, years of operations. The IB is an infant concept & model and needs support of all so that their business grow and they can get rid of Riba totally in the first year itself. Thus, in a crude way, we can say that like "Gestation period", wherein any Company becomes profitable, we can have "La'Riba Gestation period", wherein the IB becomes totally interest free and profitable as well. This quantification can become one of the yardsticks to compare various Islamic Banks. The accounting procedures and standard parameters for IBs are in evolutionary stages and are yet to be standardized.

As elaborated above the role of SAC is of very vital nature. We need to see the committee composition to make an opinion about the Bank as to how much it is "Islamic" i.e. Shari'a Compliant. The "Sharia" interpretation varies from one school of jurisprudance to another and from one country to another. It is sad but true. The concept of "Taqwa" is a good measure to judge the actions of an individual as well as a group and an organization. The "Shari'a" is the minimum Taqwa needed for any act to become "Islamic". All this applies to IBF also.

I am neither a Banker nor an expert on IBF. I wish some member who has first hand knowledge of the system replies as well on the query raised by the brother. These and other queries need full clarifications as with doubts no person shall like to become a customer of the IB. This in turn shall put strains on the IBs which may force them to revert back slowly slowly towards the Rib'a based system.