Part 5 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — Next Steps

Click here to see Part 1 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — The Need for Standardized Training

Click here to see Part 2 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — What Does Standardized and Accredited Training Mean in Islamic Finance?

Click here to see Part 3 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — Standardized AAOIFI Based Training Promotes Shariah Harmonization

Click here to see Part 4 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — Addressing Common Questions

Next Steps: Promoting Shariah Harmonization in Training and the Role of Academic and Professional Bodies

Face-to-face trainers, guidebook publishers, and online course providers now need to take a hard look at their content and decide whether they want to continue allocating resources to marketing and distribution, or finally step back and acknowledge that the market has changed, and so too have the needs of the customer. Bankers no longer want more theory and the confusion of multiple standards; they want to know the practical application of what is already widely accepted in the industry. Ethica recommends the following steps:

Step 1: Order AAOIFI’s latest “Shariah Standards.”

Step 2: Bring bankers and scholars together in order to create training content around these standards.

Step 3: Review and approve the certification examination by one or more third-party Islamic finance scholars who understand AAOIFI and confirm that the content, and certainly the examination, is consistent with these standards.

With common standards in training, the dividends to the industry are substantial. At the moment, Islamic finance faces a credibility problem. On the one hand, bankers are often not entirely convinced of their own products; not knowing the difference between what they used to execute as conventional bankers and what they now execute as Islamic bankers. And customers face a similar crisis of confidence as they grapple with how Islamic banking is any different from conventional banking. Some level of informational asymmetry is to be expected in a young, burgeoning sector. But trainers, who are the fountainheads of much of the information streaming out into the industry, have no excuse for falling prey to this asymmetry.

Even so, it is a time of optimism and opportunity. Never before has the industry had a critical mass of so many Islamic bankers. And never before have we had a set of so many heavily refined standards agreed upon by the majority of the industry’s scholars. And, most important, not once before have we had the opportunity to consolidate this critical mass into a standardized whole. With an entire industry working in unison towards a common purpose, Islamic finance will then truly embody the lofty ideals on which it was originated rather than be mired in the confusion that may one day hasten its undoing.

Click here to see Part 1 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — The Need for Standardized Training

Click here to see Part 2 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — What Does Standardized and Accredited Training Mean in Islamic Finance?

Click here to see Part 3 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — Standardized AAOIFI Based Training Promotes Shariah Harmonization

Click here to see Part 4 of 5: Fiqh or Fiction — Addressing Common Questions

Approved by Ethica’s Shariah Board. For the original article with footnotes, visit www.EthicaInstitute.com.

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