01 Multiple choice — 30 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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).
5. Trace a single thread through the whole course: how does the fiqh definition of property (māl) connect Lecture 1's characteristics to Lecture 3's incorporeal rights?
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Lecture 1 establishes that transactions rest on general bases and principles rather than exhaustive detail, that permissibility is their original rule, and that their rulings are based on reasons and benefits. Those three characteristics together mean a jurisprudent does not need a text naming a new instrument in order to rule on it.
Lecture 3 then applies exactly that machinery. Property (māl) is defined by a principle — recognised value among people plus lawful utility — not by an enumerated list of physical objects. Because the standard is a principle, an intangible creation satisfies it, so copyright, patent, and trade name are property, may be sold, bought, or leased, and are financial rights safeguarded by Shariah.
6. A student answers that commercial insurance is prohibited "because of gharar." Correct and complete the answer.
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Gharar is only one of three reasons. The full answer is gharar, gambling, and riba (G.G.R.).
Gharar: the contract carries heavy uncertainty and deception, and every compensation contract containing deception is corrupted. Gambling: one party gains at the other's unearned expense on pure chance — an insured may pay one premium and collect a large payout, or pay indefinitely and receive nothing. Riba: both forms, depending on the payout — more than paid in is ribā al-fadl, exactly what was paid is ribā al-nasī'ah, and nothing paid means the company took the money illegitimately.