Proposal for the Delineation of Functions and Liabilities of a Sharia Board

What is Islamic banking? It may be astonishing to ask this question at a symposium devoted to it. Yet, one might argue that this indeed could be the best framework for this. Islamic banking is undoubtedly a system of banking, and must be consistent with the fiqh al muaamalat. This compliance is therefore of the very nature of Islamic banking. But who guarantees this compliance ? There is nothing to prevent the supplier who proposes a product from ensuring that it is compliant. However, what may be problematic is the value of its guarantee of conformity: the person who develops the product guarantees its quality . In short, he is judge of his own work. The question here is that of the credibility of such a guarantee. In practice, it is customary to dissociate the two aspects, and to entrust the verification to a sharia board. An operation in Islamic banking would therefore be a financial transaction in compliance with fiqh al muaamalat, such compliance having been verified and guaranteed by a sharia board. One immediately perceives the importance of the role of this actor (the sharia board) in Islamic banking. What then is a sharia board? It is most certainly a body vested with a certain mission! This answer is not satisfactory. Moreover, the poor execution of its mission by a sharia board would lead to it being held liable, which means that one ought to specify, even delineate the extent of this liability. The question then is twofold: what do we mean when we refer to sharia boards (I), and what is the liability of a sharia board (II).