01 Multiple choice — 40 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 — 12 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).
The instructor's slides group the same content into six conditions; answer with the notes' nine.
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).
7. Explain why incorporeal rights count as property (māl) in fiqh, and what that entitles their owners to do.
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In fiqh, property is defined as anything that possesses recognised value among people and may be lawfully utilised. That standard says nothing about being physical, so an intangible thing satisfying value plus permissible utility qualifies as māl.
Because incorporeal rights meet the standard, their owners may sell, buy, or lease them, and the rights are financial rights safeguarded by Shariah.
8. Compare copyright, patent, and trade name across what they protect, the owner's rights, and the number of Shariah reasons behind each.
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Copyright (1886) protects a creative work; the owner holds a literary right (permanent, non-transferable) and a financial right (temporary, inheritable); four Shariah reasons.
Patent (1791) protects an invention; the inventor may use it for a limited period and register it under his name; three Shariah reasons — it drops the 'urf reason (the slides show four; the exam follows the notes).
Trade name (1909) protects a business identity; the owner holds exclusive use and a transferable asset; four Shariah reasons, plus the condition that it not be based on cheating or gharar.
Only patent drops to three reasons; only trade name adds a condition.
9. Name the four kinds of invention certificate and explain which one is the odd one out.
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Full-Rights — strict qualifying conditions, complete legal protection. Limited — more lenient criteria, restricted protection. Additive — issued for improvements or modifications to an already-certified invention. Importation — for introducing a foreign-developed invention for the first time.
The importation certificate is the odd one out: it does not protect an invention at all. It is an exclusive commercial enterprise right for whoever first brings the foreign invention in, not protection for original inventorship.
10. State the three historical forms of collaborative insurance in Islam and the three modern systems.
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Historical (Z.K.S.): the People of Zakat — those in unpayable debt or extreme poverty helped through the alms of the wealthy; the Kinship system (Aqilah) — blood money for accidental homicide distributed among the killer's paternal male relatives; and Social solidarity — the Ash'arites pooling and equally redistributing their food when supplies ran low.
Modern (R.S.R.): the Retirement System (a monthly state pension at a set age or tenure, funded by salary deductions); the Social Security System (state cover for manual laborers against illness, disability, and old age, funded by deductions plus Zakat and treasury support); and Reciprocal Insurance (a non-profit mutual fund of member donations supporting any member in distress).
11. Give the three reasons commercial insurance is prohibited, and map each riba scenario to its payout.
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Excessive uncertainty (gharar): a deceptive contract with heavy uncertainty, and every compensation contract containing deception is corrupted — the Prophet ﷺ forbade the deceptive sale.
Elements of gambling: one party gains at the other's unearned expense on pure chance; an insured may pay one premium and collect a huge payout, or pay indefinitely and receive nothing, while the insurer assumes liability without having caused the damage.
Both forms of riba: if the company pays more than what was paid in, ribā al-fadl; if it pays back exactly what was paid, ribā al-nasī'ah; if it pays nothing because no risk occurred, it took the money illegitimately.
It is the combination of all three, not gharar alone.
12. Compare commercial and collaborative insurance across the five dimensions given in the lecture.
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Ruling: commercial is prohibited; collaborative is encouraged. Contract type: compensative versus donation. Target: profit versus collaboration and solidarity. Surplus: not recalled to participants versus recalled — it belongs to them. Structure: personal, an individual contract with a company, versus common, a shared pool for the group.
The pattern: commercial is individual and profit-facing; collaborative is shared and solidarity-facing.