Participation Banking and Finance Working Group

The Participation Banking and Finance Working Group is an academic community aimed at examining the principles of interest-free finance and their applications within the contemporary financial system. Based on the contract and financing models developed within the framework of muamalat (commercial/civil transactions) in classical Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) literature, the group will address the theoretical foundations and current operations of instruments that form the basis of participation banking—such as murabaha, mudaraba, musharaka, ijara, and sukuk—and evaluate their place, usage behaviors, and impacts within the conventional banking sector.

The primary objective of the group is to determine the impact of the jurisprudential (fiqhi) heritage formed during the classical period on the institutional structures, products, and regulatory frameworks of today's finance sector. In this direction, it aims to both conduct an in-depth reading and analysis of traditional sources and evaluate contemporary participation finance practices, the criticisms directed at these practices, and developments in the field from an interdisciplinary perspective. Thus, the working group aims to develop theoretically and economically coherent answers to the conceptual and practical questions encountered in the field of interest-free finance.