01 Multiple choice — 20 questions
One attempt per option. A correct answer locks the question and explains itself; a wrong one only disables that option, so you can keep trying. The running score sits at the bottom of the page.
02 Written questions — 6 questions
Answer each in full before opening its model answer. The model answers are written at the length a full-mark response needs.
1. Define "Contemporary Financial Transactions" and name the four cases the definition covers.
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They are financial cases which emerged in the contemporary age — cases that changed in their rules because of progress or changed circumstances, and cases that bear new names, or consist of many old forms.
The four cases are: (1) cases unknown in earlier ages (corporate companies, banknotes); (2) rules updated due to progress or changed circumstances (the Property Registry Office replacing the handing over of the key); (3) new names for the same old ruling (bank interest is still riba); (4) transactions formulated from several old forms combined (murabaha, leasing contracts merging sale and rent).
2. List the four categories of transactions with one example each.
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Bargains — sale and leasing. Donations — grants, will, and endowment (waqf). Dropping — abolishing or ending a debt. Documentation — mortgage, bail (warranty), and draft (transfer of debt).
Dropping ends a right; documentation protects one.
3. State the four characteristics of transactions in Islamic jurisprudence, and give the evidence for the first one.
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(1) Based on general bases and principles rather than exhaustive detail; (2) the original rule is permissibility (al-ibāḥah); (3) based on reasons and benefits; (4) both flexible and constant.
Evidence for the first: An-Nisaa 4:29 (wealth is consumed only in lawful business by mutual consent); Al-Baqarah 2:275 ("Allah has permitted trade and has forbidden interest"); and the hadith narrated by Ibn Omar that the Prophet ﷺ prohibited the gharar sale — a transaction with no guarantee the seller can deliver, such as a runaway slave, fish still in the sea, or an unborn camel's fetus.
4. Explain the difference between the default ruling for acts of worship and for transactions, and why the difference exists.
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Acts of worship are restricted by default: nothing is added unless a text permits it, which prevents people inventing new religious practice. Transactions and contracts are permitted by default: nothing is forbidden unless a truthful, clear text prohibits it, so an absence of prohibiting evidence means the transaction is permissible.
This is what allows jurisprudents to accommodate newly emerged financial forms without needing a specific text for each one.
5. List the nine qualifications a researcher must meet before attempting ijtihad on an emerging financial issue.
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Comprehensive understanding of the Qur'an; comprehensive understanding of the Prophetic Hadith; knowledge of legal consensus (ijma'); deep mastery of the Arabic language; the skill of ijtihad itself; honesty in word and action; awareness of the higher objectives of religion (maqasid al-Shari'ah); the ability to elicit rulings from contemporary scholars' books; and an understanding of lived reality and its surrounding circumstances.
Group them as Q.H.I.A. (the knowledge base) plus S.H.M.R.U. (the practical qualities).
6. Draw the full classification of rights from the top down, ending in the three financial rights.
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Rights — an exclusive entitlement by which the Law establishes an authority or an obligation — divide into Political (organising governance; election and nomination) and Civil (establishing the individual's interests directly).
Civil rights divide into General (inherent personality rights: bodily safety, the inviolability of one's residence) and Private (arising from bonds between individuals).
Private rights divide into Family (custody, divorce) and Financial (rights that could be evaluated with money).
Financial rights are Personal (a relation between two people, like creditor and debtor), Material (direct authority over a physical thing — property), and Incorporeal (authority over something intangible — the rights of innovation).