اسلامک تورّق کریڈٹ کارڈ: ایک تحلیلی مطالعہ

Tawarruq Based Islamic Credit Card: An Analytical Study

Abstract

There is a fierce competition in the world of business and commerce. Financial and banking institutions are always trying to provide such unique facilities that no other institution has to attract customers. In this environment, where Islamic banks face the challenge of introducing new products, it is not less of a problem for them to replace the existing products of conventional interest based banks. It is imperative for Islamic banks to adhere to Shariah principles while structuring all their products. Currently, there are products of Islamic banks in the market which have been criticized by critical researchers for not considering the compatibility of Sharia principles. The main objective of this paper is to describe the structure of Islamic Twarruq based credit card and shed light on its Shariah compliance. The paper concludes that credit card cannot be issued in Islamic framework using organized Tawarruq. The paper also finds that the current fatwa on Islamic Tawarruq credit card only highlights the operational mode of the product. In this entire fatwa, no Shariah arguments have been given anywhere. The AAOIFI Shariah Standard No. 29 on Fatwa and its merits also obliges the Muftis of the Shariah Board to mention arguments in their Fatwas, and this matter becomes more important when the same Fatwa is approachable to other Muftis and researchers. The paper suggests that regulatory authorities should revise their Shariah governance framework and oblige the Shariah Board of Islamic banks to issue formal Shariah arguments with full references while issuing fatwas on the justification of products and services.