Islamic Finance

Islamic finance has attracted, in the last decade, many economists, Islamic jurists, bankers, investors, entrepreneurs, governments, etc., leading them to engage with it at different levels. In the book under review, Tasnim Nazeer has attempted to provide a beginner’s guide to the Islamic financial industry. The author of the book is an award-winning journalist acclaimed by Al-Jazeera, BBC, Forbes, CNN and the Huffington Post for her publications on human rights, business and finance, Islam and world news. She claims in the blurb that ‘this book will equip reader with the knowledge they need to familiarise themselves with the main features and instruments of Islamic finance’. The book starts with a brief introduction to the Islamic financial paradigm, a historical overview of the industry and Shari[ah law. The introduction also gives an outline of her work detailed in the next nine chapters of the book. She tries to argue that ‘The global financial crisis of July 2007, which was the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, played a significant role in highlighting the potential of Islamic finance to an international audience’ (p. 1), to her, the speculative and interest-base practices of conventional banks led subsequently to financial chaos and the stock market downfall.