Islamic Canon law encounters South African financing and banking institutions: Prospects and possibilities for Islamic economic empowerment and Black Economic Empowerment in a Democratic South Africa

Nathiera Abdullah assesses the possibility of introducing Shariah (i.e. Islamic Canon Law) compliant financing and banking products as possible vehicles of Islamic Economic Empowerment (IEE) for the purpose of promoting broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). Special attention is given to the contextual implementation of a three-tiered IEE paradigm or structure (viz. zakah, sadaqah and infaq fi sabil Allah) which could function as an innovative strategy, aimed at promoting the circulation of wealth and growth of potential income among a broader entrepreneurial constituency and the population at large. The immediate goals of IEE would be to assist in eradicating poverty, economic stagnation and unemployment, as well as to provide a specific model of socio-economic reconstruction and transformation. These goals can be achieved by calling upon all Muslims (and other interested parties) of means (i.e. financiers, bankers, investors, entrepreneurs, the employed) to embrace the Islamic da’wah mandate or vocation of being in solidarity with the rest of struggling humanity.