Due to Shariah Governance regulations and the subsequent restrictions on the number of Shariah Committee memberships, many of the Senior Shariah Scholars of the Islamic finance industry have had to reduce the number of Shariah Committees that they are a member of. While the Senior Shariah Scholars must be given their due respect for driving the Islamic finance industry forward over the past few decades, there are many benefits from increased Shariah Governance regulations.
One of the benefits is that there is a growing trend in Gulf countries such as the UAE & KSA whereby Shariah Experts with previous or current experience working in the Shariah Departments of Islamic Financial Institutions are joining the Shariah Committees of other institutions (i.e. not the same institution that they work in).
This is viewed as a positive trend as such individuals in addition to their Shariah expertise, possess detailed knowledge of banking operations, documentation etc. from the many years of daily experience that they have dealing with Shariah issues.
Having such individuals on Shariah Committees greatly assists the other members of the Shariah Committee in having a complete picture of any Shariah issue presented to them before issuing any Shariah pronouncement. One of the current Shariah Board members of AAOIFI is our Sheikh Osaid Kailani, who is the Global Head of Shariah at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB).
This trend is only set to continue and increase in future as there is now a large talent pool of Shariah Experts in these countries who have the required Shariah knowledge in addition to valuable practical experience from decades working in various Shariah Departments of IFIs.
However, having such Shariah Experts sit on the Shariah Commitee of the same institution that they currently work in, is the subject of another debate all together as there are both pros and cons when it comes to this, that I will discuss in a future post inshaAllah.
