The purpose of this study is to examine the compliance of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Sukuk with Maqasid Al-Shari’ah (objectives of Islamic law) in relation to human development and well-being. The paper provides a theoretical model explaining how Sukuk can achieve Maqasid Al-Shari’ah by assessing the role of Sukuk in the circulation, development, and preservation of wealth to attain social justice. This study employs a qualitative methodology using an empirical case study. The primary data are collected through elite semi-structured interviews. The secondary data are obtained using a content analysis method from Sukuk’s Principle Terms and Conditions, Information Memorandum and IDB’s annual reports for the period 2007–2017 to explain the structures and features of the Sukuk and examine their compliance with the developed model. The findings indicate that the Medium Term Note (MTN) Sukuk program positively serves the elements of hifth al-mal (safeguarding wealth), showing a direct relationship between the shift of wealth among parties and the compliance of Maqasid Al-Shari’ah. This implies that the investments made by Sukuk would benefit everyone, including individuals, institutions, societies, and the whole country, to achieve human well-being and sustainable development. Nonetheless, the analysis suggests that Shari’ah supervisory boards need to focus more on the substance when structuring Sukuk to help Islamic finance benefit in terms of moving towards the achievement of Maqasid Al-Shari’ah.

This study investigates the contributions of five key sectors—insurance, materials, utilities, real estate, and transport—to the financial markets of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from 2004 to 2023. Grounded in the Sectoral Linkage Theory and Endogenous Growth Theory, the study employs a Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (Panel ARDL) model to examine both short-term and long-term sectoral impacts on financial market resilience. The findings reveal that the insurance and transport sectors offer short-term market stimulation, but lack persistent effects. Conversely, the materials, utilities, and real estate sectors exhibit strong, long-run contributions to financial stability and economic diversification. These results highlight the asymmetric impact of sectoral dynamics on market performance in resource-rich contexts. This research contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on sectoral interdependence in oil-dependent economies and highlights the importance of structural diversification for sustainable financial resilience. The study provides actionable insights for policymakers and investors seeking to enhance market resilience and reduce reliance on hydrocarbon revenues through targeted sectoral development.

This paper examines the influence of capitalism and globalisation on the role of Shariah-Compliant Investment Funds (SCIFs) in promoting social justice in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) using content analysis method. This is to analyse the Terms and Conditions (T&C) of SCIFs as they appear in Tadawul (Saudi stock market) in 2019 and compared with the findings in 2013. This research critically evaluates the findings of the content analysis through aspects of globalization and insights from the literature review. The content analysis shows that SCIFs in KSA are disjointed and decoupled from Islamic principles and do not fulfil the ideal social justice role in society.

This study explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on stock market efficiency in nine Asian emerging markets—China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand—between 2019 and 2021. We use daily index data to apply the wild bootstrap automatic variance ratio (WBAVR) and automatic portmanteau (AQ) tests within a rolling-window framework to measure the extent and duration of efficiency changes during the crisis. We document heterogeneous departures from efficiency, with severe and persistent inefficiency in the Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, episodic deterioration in Indonesia, mixed evidence in China, and negligible or reversed disruption in India, Pakistan, and Taiwan. Panel regressions reveal that efficiency deterioration is associated with containment policy stringency and exchange rate depreciation, while rising cumulative case counts are associated with higher efficiency, consistent with adaptive investor behavior as the pandemic progressed. We conclude that weak-form efficiency is a time-varying and a policy-sensitive property in emerging markets, and our findings offer practical insights for investors and policymakers operating in these environments during systemic crises.

Given the limited environmental, social, and governance disclosure (ESGD) among Palestinian firms, this study’s purpose is to explore potential connections between diversity of board gender and nationality, as well as representation of non-executive directors, environmental, social, and governance factors and aggregate ESG disclosure. The study focuses on industrial companies listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX), employing random-effects panel-data regression with firm-clustered robust standard errors on a balanced panel of 11 industrial companies, all listed on PEX from 2018 to 2024. The results show that ESGD is positively associated with female directors, foreign directors, and non-executive directors and provide support for agency theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory. This study furthers the literature via empirical evidence (from a conflict-affected emerging market) on the impact of board gender diversity, nationality diversity, and non-executive directors on ESGD. The study recommends that policymakers and stakeholders promote board independence and diversity of gender and nationality, with a view to enhancing ESG disclosure in Palestine.