Insurance in the Islamic Legal System : A Comparative Study of Insurance and Risk from a Tort and Contract Law Perspective.

My decision to embark on a research of insurance from a comparative law perspective was inspired by a desire to tackle one of the most controversial issues in Islamic legal studies. Several edicts have concluded that insurance is incompatible with Islamic ethos and legal precept, but the mere official recitation of these edicts, from time to time, did nothing to reinforce the proscriptive argument as much as telling about a potent and challenging counterview about insurance within mainstream Islamic thought. The subject of insurance was especially appealing to me when I realized that insurance is perceived in many legal systems not simply as a convenient contract but often as an indispensable institution mandated and enforced by law, where the denial of insurance coverage is many cases tantamount to discrimination and a denial of justice. Thus, if justice is the professed universal objective of all legal systems, how can we explain the simultaneous placement of insurance on the antithetical scales of justice, adamantly opposed and damned in one legal system while strictly imposed and demanded in another