Truth About Islamic Banking and Takaful - Part 2
By Shah Nawaz Khan
Islamic
Insurance
Ever since the insurance companies were established in
India early in 20th century a section of orthodox Muslims regarded insurance
as forbidden by Islam as they thought that elements of interest, wager and
avarice are involved in it. But enlightened Muslims like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan,
Sir Agha Khan and Allama Iqbal have regarded insurance as beneficial to the
society. Hakeemul Ummat Allama Iqbal was among the founders of Muslim
Insurance Company in Lahore before partition of India. Fatwa of Jame Azhar of
Cairo in favor of insurance was issued over 80 years ago.
Quite a few ulema have given fatwas
that Insurance is not prohibited But
there are fatwas declaring insurance as forbidden
and all of them are based on faulty understanding of insurance.
Takaful, is the term for the Islamic
alternative to insurance. It is based on the same concept as the old mutual
societies formed in England before Insurance business was developed. Its basic
concept is pecuniary protection against fortuitous financial losses by mutual
cooperation and the members undertake to indemnify the losses of members of
their group and establish a pool by small contributions as well as donations
when needed due to insufficiency of the money in the pool.
Some historians say that Arab traders used to
practice Takaful since before the dawn of Islam and mutual societies in Europe
were established on more or less on similar pattern. Some Islamic scholars
misconstrue Takaful as shared responsibility that was called the system of ‘Aaqilah’,
which was an arrangement of mutual help or indemnification in some tribes in 7th
century. In case of any calamity, every able member of the tribe used to
contribute something to meet the losses of the victims. Islam accepted this
principle of pooling money for indemnifying the fortuitous losses in case of
calamities or losses to trading caravans or ships by pirates.
Many companies in different conservative Islamic
countries have been writing Takaful business since last three decades or so.
To exploit the inclination of Muslims in interest free operations even in
Non-Muslim countries Takaful as well as Interest Free Banking Companies have
been established by Muslims as well as Non-Muslims.
Usually the contract of Takaful provides indemnity
of agreed amount in respect of pecuniary losses arising due to death,
disability and losses to the business or property due to perils like marine
accidents, fire, theft, earthquakes etc. The policyholders (Takaful member )
pay subscription to assist and indemnify each other and share the profits
earned from business conducted by the Company with the subscribed funds. But
no universally accepted standards appear to have been evolved how the groups
are formed based on varying values of the property or goods or earning
capacities and living standards of individuals. In books and articles about
Takaful, Arabic Terms are used instead of the English words. For instance
Maisir means any forms of business in which monetary gains come from mere
chance, speculation and conjecture and not from work or from genuine
business. Gharar means any major uncertainty about the subject matter
or rights.
The entrepreneur establishes a company as management of
takafol operations and enrolls the participants (policyholder/investors).
The contributions of the participants, which could be paid in
installments or lump sum, consist of two elements: (1) tabarru (contribution
for losses) and (2) investment part. The contract between the management
and participants specifies how the profit, or losses will be shared.
In many countries the generally accepted ration is 70% for
policyholders and 30% for the management
(entrepreneur) for the Family Business (life and health insurance) and
50%:50% for the General Business (non-life insurance). However the Insurance
Act in Pakistan had provided much higher ratio of surplus for the
policyholders and in case of State Life it has been 95% and only 5% as the
Government’s share for its operations under conventional business. At
present State Life and for that matter all the registered Insurance Companies
are not allowed to enter takaful market. See the Takaful
Rules, 2005 given below later in this article.
.
The sharing of profit takes place after all the
covered losses have been paid. The periods for which actuarial valuation of
Takafol business is carried out differs from country to country.
All commercial activities must adhere to Shari’ah and in most
countries a Sharia advisory board is formed.
Generally the Islamic insurance companies engage in the following type
of business:
Family or Personal Takafol Business (life
insurance)
General Takafol Business (non-life insurance)
The Personal Takafol Business includes various
types of insurance policies –life insurance, accident insurance, health and
disability insurance, mortgage life insurance and endowment insurance for
college education, marriage, and capital for starting business or to provide
provision for retirement. In most cases Whole life insurance is not favored
and the coverage period or maturity period ranges from ten to forty years. The
logic for excluding whole life insurance from Islamic view-point is not
understood. Perhaps the Arab Shariah scholars did not understand the concept
of periodic (usually biennial) actuarial valuations that could provide cash
dividends periodically..
In most Islamic countries, conventional Term Insurance is
considered Un-Islamic because the company does not pay anything to the
policyholders at the end of the contract.
General Takaful (non-life insurance) are contracts of
joint guarantee to provide property and liability coverage which include fire,
automobile accidents, personal accidents, public liability, fidelity losses,
machinery breakdowns, bonding, sprinkler leakage, worker’s compensation and
marine insurance. Many companies
do not cover theft, robbery and burglary losses.
Generally
Takafol installments paid by participants are deposited into two separate
accounts: (1) Participant’s Account (PA)
and (2) Participant’s Special Account (PSA)
PA is an investment account, and a substantial portion of
the installment is deposited into a PA account solely for the purpose of
savings and investment. The
balance of the installments is credited onto PSA or tabarru account, which
pays the covered losses. The
proportions of installments to be credited to the two different accounts are
determined by an actuary.
In some cases Takfol companies operate in much the same
way as the Mutual Insurance companies but interest is not employed in any
operation or investments and the products and the investments need to be
approved by Sharia ‘h Advisory Board. .
The first
Islamic insurance company is stated to have started in Sudan in 1979. Since
then, several other Muslim countries have started Islamic Insurance companies.
However, the progress is slow. In
many countries with a very large Muslim population, the people are more
enlightened than Sudanese and Saudis and do not regard conventional Insurance
against Islamic values. But new Takaful Operators hope to exploit the Muslims
sentiments and preference for the so- called Sharia’h compliant products and
provide service and protection as comparatively higher cost than conventional
insurance business.
Handling of Group
Life and Health Insurance Protection by Takaful operators appears to be in
formative stage.
No standard practices appear to have been developed to
deal with extra hazards and acceptance of sub-standard risks as member.
Generally the same underwriting principles are adopted as in conventional
business.
It is believed that the insurance market in Islamic
countries is expanding at a rapid rate with the resurgence of Islam, higher
literacy rate, rising income levels, and number of new insurance companies-
both domestic and multi-national- have entered the market and are doing
business on conventional pattern and the competition is stiff. The hype for buying ‘Halal’ or lawful insurance products
may help the expansion of Takoful business in orthodox Muslim communities.
As at September 20, 2007 the names of only two Takaful
(Non-Life) operators appeared in the list of Insurance Companies at the web
site of Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan. The ministry of commerce in
2005 had published the Takaful Rules, 2005.
That can viewed at the website of SECP.
Conclusions
The attitude of some Sharia’h scholars toward insurance
has been like the one about the shape of earth by Sheik Abdel-Aziz Ibn Baaz, a
member of Supreme religious authority, Saudi Arabia and author of a Muslim
religious edict, 1993: The following quote is attribute to him about the shape
of earth.
“The
earth is flat, and anyone who disputes this claim is an atheist who deserves
to be punished."
Islamic banking and Takaful are re-invention of wheels in
20th century due to bigotry but that can serve as tools to exploit
the sentiments of Muslims for staying away from interest bearing products and
speculation. The fact remains that Islamic moral standards can be applied to
conventional banking and insurance businesses and interest-free and
speculation-free operations are possible at comparative lower cost with better
benefits and greater flexibility, simplicity and clarity than the so-called
Sharia'h compliant financial products that are technically and operationally
deficient in many respects.
Orthodox Sharia’h scholars say that insurance is
forbidden because of elements of wager and speculation are involved that
promote avarice and mischief. They do not appreciate that the requirement of
insurable interest eliminates the element of wagering. The possibilities of
speculation, avarice and mischief exist in tafakul to greater extent. In
conventional insurance those are checked out by appraisal of moral hazard in
underwriting by the tested and proven methods. In order to protect the
interests of policyholders in tafakul business underwriting and regulatory
practices and laws would have to be kept under constant review. (End of the
Article)
Click here for Part 1
Shah Nawaz Khan has vast experience in marketing
and supervising life insurance sales force besides underwriting and
advertising and computer operations. He
retired as Executive Director of State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan
after serving the insurance industry for 40 years. He is now moderating two
Internet discussion forums. For
the past 15 years his articles have been appearing in Insurance Journal of
Pakistan. For details of many of his article please visit:http://www.netvert.biz/shah/articles.html
http://www.netvert.biz
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