Page 158 - IANUS n. 26 - Fideiussioni omnibus e intesa antitrust: interferenze e rimedi
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VALENTINO CATTELAN





               finance  that  any  legitimate  profit  (kharaj)  has  to  derive  from  a  liability,  a
               responsibility, or an accountability (daman) of the economic actor for assuming a risk,
               through which he deserves God’s blessing (rizq) by following the right Path, Shari‘ah.
                  At this point, before interpreting how the principle al-kharaj bi-l-daman affects
               risk management in Islamic finance, a more in-depth investigation is needed with
               regard to Muslim anthropology. In my opinion, in fact, instead of looking at
               Islamic  finance  in  the  light  of  (conventional?)  ethical  investments,  a  more
               appropriate understanding of its logic can be derived from locating its rationales
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               within  the  Qur’anic  Creator  paradigm  that  shapes  the  life  of  every  Muslim.
               Accordingly,  the  conceptualization  of  risk  in  Islamic  finance  may  find  better
               interpretation in connecting rizq, as ‘God’s sustenance’, to what is deserved by the
               human being through becoming responsible for his action (daman as source of
               legitimate profit). In other terms, how God provides for human existence and how
               man, by becoming responsible for his actions, deserves God’s favour in Islam?
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                  As is well-known, Islam means ‘submission to God’: a submission of the believer
               (muslim),  which  is  complementary  to  God’s  absolute  omnipotence.  The  great
               theologian and legal scholar al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111), in his doctrinal work al-Iqtisad
               fi’l-I‘tiqad summarizes the nature of God’s creativeness in the sentence: «What He wills,
               is  and  what  He  does  not  will,  is  not»:   «This  extends  to  the  least,  seemingly
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               insignificant, occurrence: “… not even the casual glance of a spectator nor the stray
               thought in the mind come to be outside the sphere of His will”. Will is also expressed
               by the term mashi’ah, “volition”, and so it is that the word shay’, “thing”, deriving from
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               the same root, is sometimes glossed as “what has been willed [by God] to exist” ».
                  God’s perpetual creative power models all the reality («To Him is due the
               primal origin of the heavens and earth. When He decreeth a matter, He saith only
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               “Be,” and it is’»: Q. II:117),  as an element of His unquestionable perfection.
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               Indeed, «There are eight names for God, among the canonical ninety-nine, which
               direct our attention to Allah as the source of all that is: al-Badi’ (Absolute Cause),
               al-Bari’  (Producer),  al-Khaliq  (Creator),  al-Mubdi’  (Beginner),  al-Muqtadir  (All-




                  27  On the matter, please refer to NETTON,  Allah  transcendent:  studies  in  the  structure  and  semiotics
               of  Islamic  philosophy, theology and cosmology, London, 1989. See also CATTELAN, Islamic finance and
               ethical investments. Some points of reconsideration, in KHAN - PORZIO (eds.), Islamic banking and finance
               in the European Union. A Challenge, cit., 76-87; CATTELAN, Shari‘ah economics as autonomous paradigm:
               theoretical approach and operative outcomes, in Journal of Islamic Perspective on Science, Technology and
               Society, 1 (1), 2013, 3-11.
                  28  GIMARET, Théories de l’acte humain en théologie musulmane, Paris and Leuven, 1980.
                  29  ORMSBY, Theodicy  in  Islamic  thought.  The dispute  over  al-Ghazali’s  “Best  of  all  possible worlds”,
               Princeton, 1984, 192.
                  30  ID.
                  31  See also HOOVER, Perpetual creativity in the perfection of God: Ibn Taymiyya’s hadith commentary
               on  God’s creation of this world, in Journal of Islamic Studies, 15 (3), 2004, 287-329.
                  32  Corresponding texts in Q. III:47,59; VI:73; XVI:40; XXXVI:82; XL:68.

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