oa Sukuk in Islamic Finance: Case Study (Qatar Global Sukuk)

This paper aims to review some researches on sukuk, the difference between sukuk and bonds, sukuk kinds, the role of shari’ah supervisory, sukuk case study (Qatar Global Sukuk), many related issues and finally the future for the sukuk.

Sukuk represents the most innovative product of Islamic finance and one of the fastest growing sectors in Islamic finance. Sukuk can be structured based on the principles of contract of exchange such as (Ijarah, Murabahah, Istisna’) and contract of participation such as (Musharaka and Mudarabah). Sukuk structuring takes into account the removal of non shari’ah compliant features such as Gharar, Riba, and Gambling. In Islamic countries there is increasing demand for shari’ah complaint instruments as the rest of the countries as an alternative to conventional instruments. Sukuk market faces problems of it's early stage of development, some Muslim scholars have questioned it's level of compliance with the Shar’iah rules and the main criticism was from Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani, specially Sukuk Al Musharaka, Sukuk Al Mudaraba and Sukuk Al Istithmar. Therefore, the Shariah Board of (AAOIFI) issued it's resolutions in February 2008 to illustrate various areas in sukuk.

By comparision between sukuk and bonds we can realize that the sukuk represent the ownership stakes in well defined assets and the underlying contract for sukuk issuance is a permissible contract, there are 14 categories defined by AAOIFI, while bonds represent pure debt obligations and the core relationship is a loan of money, which implies a contract whose subject is purely earning money on money (riba)

In order to achieve the objective of a developed sukuk secondary market, there should be: greater cooperation among the industry players, better coordination to address the issue of Shari’ah harmonization, Greater participation from corporate sector and financing of Infrastructure projects, Key support by Regulatory bodies, Creation of International sukuk.