The Shari’ah not only considers the Islamic monetary standard as a medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value and a standard of deferred payment, but the Islamic functions of money also determine Shari’ah legal injunctions concerning zakat (poor tax), jizya (poll tax), kharaj (tax on conquered territory), diyyat (blood-money), sariqa (theft), mahar (dowry) and sarf (exchange). This study seeks to clarify the weight of the dinar and dirham, since they impart justice as part of Shari’ah law. Through library research and content analysis of literature from the hadith, scholars, mint-masters and writers, different regions had different weights and coin standards, which might imply differing opinions as to what constitutes a legal dinar and dirham. However, narrations have clarified the relationships between the Byzantine dinar and the mithqal of Persia, Makkah, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. Combined with additional numismatic and metrological analysis of surviving coins and glass weights, we discover that each mithqal, dirham, daniq, qirat, habbah and khardal are defined differently, but reflect the same standard of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) that was later externalized with the minting of the first Islamic dinars and dirhams by Caliph cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan, involving modern equivalents weights of 4.25g and 2.975g.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a real asset management investment appraisal of the performance of containerships as a primary segment within international shipping, to facilitate Islamic equity investment through a shipping fund. The objectives are to evaluate the risks and returns of shipping under the framework of Islamic equity finance, and to analyze the performance of investing in containerships over the long term, to appeal to retail and institutional clients of Malaysian asset management institutions. Design/methodology/approach: Accordingly, the methodology adopts an investment analysis of a full population of historical data over a period of 20 years, to evaluate performance involving a maritime return on investment (MROI), internal rate of return (IRR), net yield and standard deviation measures of risk and return. Findings: The findings reveal that while earnings are volatile in comparison to capital market expectations, unlevered, tax-free returns on containership investments outperform financial and other real assets. Research limitations/implications: Shipping is a strong growth industry with about 84 per cent of global trade carried out by the international shipping industry. The problem is that many Islamic asset management institutions and investors have essentially no exposure to Islamic investment in international shipping. Practical implications: However, shipping is a highly capital-intensive industry, and currently 75 per cent of ship lending has been conducted by European banks and financed on a conventional basis. Post-financial crisis, ship owners, ship lenders and shipyards have all been exposed to the impact of over-levered balance sheets and debt finance. There is a demand for alternative sources of finance. Social implications: By communicating risk and reward more effectively, retail and institutional investors, as well as Islamic finance institutions, will realize that the social benefit of equity finance on the basis of profit sharing is more efficient at allocating investible resources than debt finance at interest, thereby increasing investment and economic growth. Originality/value: The significance is that Islamic equity finance, rather than debt at the time-value of money, should enhance the development of international shipping.

This research aims to clarify the impact of monetary reform on retail banking, with the introduction of private crypto-currencies (CCs) and retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Given the exponential increase in private de-centralized CCs, involving stablecoins and non-backed digital assets, total crypto assets have now developed into a USD 1.04 trillion market capitalization. Governments and monetary authorities were initially reticent, but now a number of central banks are developing their own wholesale and retail CBDCs. By conducting library research, document and content analysis involving secondary data, this research confirms, involving central bank admission, that the current centralized monetary system allows commercial banks to lend the vast majority of deposit money into existence. However, the impact of private CCs and introduction of retail CBDCs will eliminate credit creation, thus rendering the commercial banking model obsolete. This will inevitably involve a structural change in the global financial system, with the separation of the public issuance of money and the private issuance of equity finance and investment. Ultimately, retail CBDCs will have to develop into public stablecoins that are pegged to intrinsic value to satisfy the store of value function of money and provide stability as the common denominator for all economic transactions.

This paper re-examines the role of trade and FDI inflows in accelerating the process of industrial growth involving countries belonging to the “Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)” region. Trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) have improved the growth performance of numerous economies and regions over the years. However, the specific role of both trade openness and FDI inflows in advancing the industrial growth process of economies has yet to be investigated in the case of economies belonging to ASEAN. This study analyzes data from 2000 to 2023 and employs several relevant econometric tools, including the “Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS)”, “Fixed Effects Filter (FEF)”, “Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS)” and “Two Stages Least Squares (TSLS)”, to assess the specific impact of both trade openness and FDI inflows on industrial growth. Our findings show that both trade openness and FDI have advanced the industrial growth of ASEAN member economies. In terms of relative importance, the impact of trade openness is higher as compared to FDI inflows on the industrial sector. Similarly, the results demonstrate that the industrial growth of ASEAN economies could be explained positively by increased domestic investment and government expenditures. Moreover, our results indicate that the inflation rate and the natural resource sector have adversely impacted industrial growth. Finally, the labor force has not had the desirable positive impact on the industrial progress of ASEAN economies. The obtained results are robust across alternative specifications and estimation techniques. Therefore, our results have important policy implications for ASEAN economies.

This paper aims to re-examine the significance of waqf and Western academic endowments, concerning issues and challenges related to their role in achieving sustainable growth for selected academic institutions. Specifically, the income generated from academic endowments is intended to finance the operating and/or capital requirements to ensure sustainable growth in teaching, research, and resources in line with the mission of an institution. By conducting library research including document and content analysis, derived from secondary data, this study seeks to analyze issues and challenges concerning academic endowment governance, performance and sustainable economic growth. Challenges are highlighted where academic institutions are experiencing reduced government financial support that threaten to constrain academic growth and development. Waqf academic endowments, whilst historically more successful, have more recently fallen behind their Western counterparts, even though Western endowments were derived from the waqf institution itself. Issues concerning governance models are highlighted concerning the need for independent professional management of waqf endowments and oversight, and an asset allocation model of sustainable income from Shari’ah compliant investments, in both public and private markets. Practical and social implications involve the application of best-practice standards in governance and asset management for waqf academic endowments to achieve sustainable growth for academic institutions.