Contracts and Deals in Islamic Finance: A User s Guide to Cash Flows, Balance Sheets, and Capital Structures

Acknowledgments

It is part of the traditions of Islam to acknowledge one's teachers. To honor this tradition I have to recognize the team at International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I thank Professor Yusuf Saleem for encouraging me to write my first paper on salaam, which was published in the ISRA Journal of 2014; Professor Ezamshah for his eloquent explanation of risk and how to price risk; Professor Rosly, who painstakingly answered every question I had; Professor Azam, who is as elegant as he is knowledgeable; Professor Razak for dropping the one pearl of wisdom that the rate of zakat should be the minimum profit rate applied to a credit financing contract; Professor Pisal for his humorous anecdotes; and last but not least, Professor Yusuf. I also thank Mohammad Ghaith Mahaini for urging me to write in the first place.

I would be doing an injustice if I did not extend a word of thanks to all my fellow students who tolerated me for a year, when I asked question after question, hogging the professor's attention. Izzaty, Nur Fatin, Tariq, and all the rest, thanks for putting up with me. I also congratulate INCEIF for providing students from all over the world a platform to study Islamic law and finance. Few places are left in the Muslim world where one can “argue” on shariah in a nondogmatic environment. Professor Ahsenne has to be congratulated on that.

The face of INCEIF for me has been Dr. Abbas Mirakhor, Dr. Al Habshi, and ...