This short book discusses an important issue of ownership in Zakat transfer. In traditional scholarship, it is considered a necessary condition that ownership per se must be transferred from the Zakat payer to the Zakat receiver for Zakat to be considered as paid. The argument for this viewpoint is that alphabet ‘Laam’ comes before the name of the recipient and one implication of this use of ‘Laam’ is ownership.
The global environment for international investment will remain challenging in 2024. Weakening growth prospects, economic fracturing trends, trade, geopolitical tensions, industrial policies, and supply chain diversification are reshaping FDI patterns, causing some multinational enterprises (MNEs) to adopt a cautious approach to overseas expansion. However, MNE profit levels remain high, financing conditions are easing, and increased Greenfield project announcements will positively affect FDI.
If we delve deeper to find distinction between the laws of nature and miracles, then actually there is only one difference. The events in natural law happen regularly and the events in miracles happen sometimes. There is not much difference in the actual reality of the events in both of them, but there is a difference in the number of occurrences.
According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Air pollution is responsible for approximately 3.7 million deaths a year. Going forward, cities will generate approximately 2.2 billion tones of solid waste per year by 2025 which could poison soil and waterways, kill plants, and harm humans and animals.
Globally, among the 2,957 sustainability reports subject to an independent assurance, 1,668 (56%) were partially or fully verified under limited assurance, while 405 (14%) were partially or fully verified under reasonable assurance. Globally, 70% of the companies by market capitalization disclosed a GHG emission reduction target and nearly half of them set 2030 as the target year.
Despite huge burden of taxes in this budget, 75% of all tax revenues will just go in paying interest on and instalments of previous debt. Last year, government spent around Rs 400 billion in PSDP. Spending every year in PSDP falls short of announcement. This Rs 400 billion is less than even 5% of what we will pay in debt servicing and less than 20% of what we will spend in defense.
Riba al-Fadl is described as an unlawful excess in the exchange of two counter-values where the excess is measurable through weight or measure. The concept is based on some Ahadith according to which if gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates, and salt are exchanged against themselves, they should be spot and be equal and specified. If these conditions are not found, this transaction will become Riba al-Fadl.
The central thesis of the book is that ethical principles of Islam can be condensed into four axioms through which all teachings emanate or can be explained. These axioms are: Unity, Equilibrium, Freedom and Responsibility.
Financing is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because it enables countries to invest in the infrastructure, programs, and services necessary to achieve the goals. Without sufficient financing, countries may struggle to make progress towards the SDGs. The United Nations estimates that achieving the SDGs will require an additional $2.5 trillion in annual investment until 2030. Due to misaligned incentives, both public and private actors still invest in brown activities and have not yet fully aligned their decision-making and financing with the SDGs.
It is also important to build trust with the customers and improve the complaint resolution system. Currently, Bank Mohtasib requires that customer should approach bank and wait for 45 days unless bank provides a letter to decline the complaint. The wait is too long, especially for micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs who do not have enough working capital if their incoming remittance is stuck for some reason.
Islamic Economics Project 