The Surprising Irrelevance of Islamic Bankruptcy

Abstract

By any standard of logic, the influence of the shari’a should be far more relevant in the area of bankruptcy than it is. Understanding the sources of the broad marginalization of shari’a as it relates to modern bankruptcy law in the Muslim world tells us much about the sharply limited legal scope of Islamic revivalism as concerns economic and commercial matters and perhaps even a little bit about Islamism’s limited legal ambitions more generally.

Keywords: shari'a, Islamic law, Islamic finance, bankruptcy, Islamic bankruptcy