Purpose This study aims to analyse the facts of the case in the judgement made by the High Court of Justice, England, UK, in the case of Dana Gas Public Joint Stock Company (PJSC) v. Dana Gas Sukuk Limited (Ltd.) and Ors. Design/methodology/approach This study uses descriptive and juristic analysis to explain the factual terms in the case of Dana Gas sukuk default. It also uses juristic opinions to analyse the underpinning argument in the Dana Gas court case between the decision of Sharjah Court, UAE, and the English Court, UK. Findings The study concluded that despite the position of Dana Gas PJSC that specific element of the muḍārabah sukuk is non-Sharī’ah-compliant, the English court decision which established the enforceability of the purchase undertaking seems to be fair based on the Islamic maxims such as “Difficult situation cannot violate the right of other” and “The conditional matters among Muslims are binding.” Research limitations/implications The impact of this study is that Dana Gas sukuk default has thought stakeholders of Sukuk investment lessons on the importance of documentation and consideration of tighter clauses to ensure its bindingness in the law court. Hence, this study is expected to be a contribution towards the call for standardization of the role of Sharī’ah scholars across the globe. Originality/value This study illustrates the fact in the case of Dana Gas sukuk default and analyses the court’s decision from a fiqh perspective.

This article aims to focus on legal maxims related to financial transactions to explore whether they offer any solutions for Muslims concerned with this dilemma, and to investigate how such legal maxims can be used to shape the way in which Muslims in the West perceive today's mortgage issues. Some questions raised are the following. When entering a mortgage contract, does a Muslim's intention change the ruling of the transaction under the pretext of the two maxims al-ʿumūr bi maqāṣ idihā ("matters considered according to intention") and hal al-ʿibrah fī l-ʿuqūd bi l-maqāṣ id wa l-maʿanī aw bi l-alfāẓ wa l-mabānī ("in contracts, is effect given to intention and the meaning or expression and form")? Can one be certain that mortgages are completely ḥ arām (unlawful) when considering the maxim al-yaqīn lā yazūl bi l-shakk ("certainty cannot be repelled by doubt")? What aspects of ḥ arām are found in mortgages and can they be marginalized by the maxim al-ḍ arūrāt tubīh al-maḥ ẓ ūrāt ("necessity makes the unlawful thing lawful")? If Islam allows bayʿ al-istiṣ nāʿ (contract for manufacture) on the basis of ʿurf (custom), can mortgages also be permitted under the maxim al-ʿādah muḥ akkamah ("custom is authoritative")?

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Islamic legal maxims promote the spirit of Islamic law through extrapolation of the texts. The legal maxim of al-ʿādah is one of the five basic legal maxims agreed upon among classical Muslim jurists. Despite the wide acceptability of custom in Islamic legal theory and its authoritativeness in application, one of the controversial issues surrounding the use of custom (al-ʿādah) is whether, by law, rulings can be changed over time when customs have changed. Thus, this article aims to examine the effect of custom in rulings related to ḥudūd and qiṣāṣ (fixed and retaliative punishments) in Islamic law and whether such rulings can be changed over time as custom changes and, if they can be changed, to what extent can such changes be made and to what effect do such changes affect the sanctity of the Qurʾān and Ḥadīth texts.

Mosque funds in Muslim countries where Tabarru‘āt (donations) operates should have had an enormous impact on Muslim empowerment and poverty alleviation. However, these funds appear to be managed ineffectively. In Malaysia, the setup of Tabung Masjid (TM) has not effectively achieved its goals partly due to a lack of awareness of the Islamic jurisprudential perspectives on TM funds or partly due to the uninformed ways in which these funds are managed. This paper assesses the ways in which funds generated from TM in Terengganu, Malaysia are being managed from the Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah perspective.