Leslie Terebessy MA, MEd, BA (Hons) - University of Toronto
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Leslie Terebessy MA, MEd, BA (Hons)
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. I am currently working on papers on revelation, tradition and reason in Islam. I was Research Fellow for ten years at IAIS Malaysia, International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies. I was a lecturer for five years at USIM, Islamic Science University of Malaysia.
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Courses by Leslie Terebessy MA, MEd, BA (Hons)
Abrogation in Islam and Inter-faith Relations
This course is based on fifteen years of work in the Islamic sector. It explains that the theory ...
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This course is based on fifteen years of work in the Islamic sector. It explains that the theory of abrogation in Islam is an aberration. Accordingly, it has to be rejected. For it contributed not just the rise of "political Islam," another aberration. It also caused a misunderstanding of Islam by non-Muslims as well as by Muslims themselves. The teaching of abrogation represents a gross deformation of the teaching of revelation. It has been rejected by almost all contemporary commentators: Muhammad Asad, Muhammad Ghazali, Muhammad 'Abduh, Rashid Rida, Fazlur Rahman, Ismail Faruqi, and even Syed Qutb. It was also rejected by Abu Muslim al Isfahani, on the basis of three verses in the Quran, which state tat we will find "no change in the words of God." The allegation that a solitary verse, the ayah as-sayf or the "sword verse" abrogated a hundred and twenty "peace verses" is preposterous. It robs the religion of peace of its teaching of peace. It also reveals the extent to which "traditional" exegesis in Islam was compromised by political considerations. The teaching of abrogation was adopted in response to the deterioration of the knowledge of revelation resulting from the prohibition of reasoning. It was also formulated to provide a justification for the expansion of the empire, the "realm of peace" at the expense of "the realm of war." It justified the so-called aggressive jihad, in defiance of revelation, which provides no basis whatsoever for aggressive warfare.
6 video lessons
607 views
Videos by Leslie Terebessy MA, MEd, BA (Hons)
14:02
How Islam became political: Exegetes abrogate revelation
The sixth stage in the emergence of political Islam consisted of the elevation of exegetes above ...
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The sixth stage in the emergence of political Islam consisted of the elevation of exegetes above both revelation and tradition. This was expressed in the assertion that if any verse of the Quran or tradition should be in conflict with the rulings of the ulema, the verse or tradition in question should be considered "abrogated." In this way, the ulema ensured that they would have the final say on the teaching of revelation. In different words, they became the chief authority, surpassing even that of tradition and the Quran.
248 views
06:22
There is No Abrogation in Islam
Among the myths in Islam is the teaching of abrogation. People who rejected this problematic doct...
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Among the myths in Islam is the teaching of abrogation. People who rejected this problematic doctrine include Abu Muslim al-Isfahani, Muhammad Ghazali, Muhammad 'Abduh, Rashid Rida, and Muhammad Asad. The application of this theory grossly tainted the teaching of the Quran and enabled the emergence of "political Islam." It is time to set it aside.
1021 views
13:45
How Islam became political: Tradition "judges" revelation
In this video we take a look at how tradition went from being elevated above reason, first to bec...
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In this video we take a look at how tradition went from being elevated above reason, first to become an "equal" of revelation and then even to "judge" revelation. We explore a few problems to which the notion that tradition explains revelation better than reason is exposed. These include the designation of the words of persons who were not prophets as "revelation," the reversal of the traditional ranking between of revelation and reason, and the suggestion that human beings "explain" better than God.
122 views
14:55
How Islam Became Political: Tradition Becomes Revelation
This lecture explores the process by which tradition was elevated to tradition. Traditional exege...
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This lecture explores the process by which tradition was elevated to tradition. Traditional exegetes elevated tradition to the rank of revelation in the expectation that tradition would assist in "explaining" revelation. They designated tradition as "revelation" to protect themselves from the charge that they "judged" by what Allah did not reveal. For verses 44, 45 and 47 of chapter 5 of the Quran are explicit in saying that anyone who judges" by what Allah did not reveal is a zalim (wrongdoer), kafir (unbeliever) and a fasiq (a rebel). However, the elevation of tradition to revelation resulted in a few unforeseen and unwelcome consequences. Prominent among these was that the designation of tradition as revelation flouted tauhid and associated with God something for which He gave no authority. Secondly, the elevation of tradition to revelation could be perceived as an effort to "fabricate" revelation. Thirdly, it resulted in the amalgamation and confusion of tradition with revelation.
90 views
10:42
Quran Translations
This video refers to the upcoming book on translating the Quran. It surveys five translations, th...
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This video refers to the upcoming book on translating the Quran. It surveys five translations, those of Muhammad Asad, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Edip Yuksel, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall. It uses four criteria to measure faithful rendition of key terms: verses 7, 44, 46 and 67, all from chapter 3. Muhammad Asad and Yusuf Ali score a point out of four each, Yuksel and Qadri score two each, while Pickthall wins the contest with 3/4 points. To score a point, the translators were required to translate mutashabihat as "allegorical," (verse 7), fi ha huda wa nur using the present rather than the past tense, as "in it is light and guidance," (verses 44 and 46), and Muslim as "Muslim," (verse 67).
15 views
14:00
How Islam Became Political: Tradition abrogates revelation
This video explores the fourth stage of the transformation of Islam into Islamism or political Is...
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This video explores the fourth stage of the transformation of Islam into Islamism or political Islam. This stage consisted of further elevation of tradition in relation to revelation, to a position where tradition did not just become an "equal" or a "judge" of revelation, but even began to abrogate or override revelation. This was even more problematic than the previous two stages, in which tradition was first elevated to an "equal" and then to a "judge" of revelation. With abrogation, tradition acquired the capacity to "cancel" the word of God, to declare specific verse of the Quran "null and void." This was truly an astonishing development, as it appeared to disregard the traditional ranking of the sources of the sharia and violate the sovereignty of God. We wonder how the ulema could have supported such an egregious act. It would appear that the ulema that sanctioned this action abandoned not just revelation but even reason.
86 views
14:59
How Islam became political: Tradition supersedes revelation
This video explores how rulings based on traditions began not just to "abrogate" but even to repl...
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This video explores how rulings based on traditions began not just to "abrogate" but even to replace selected rulings of revelation. A case in point is the replacement of the punishment for adultery specified in revelation by punishment drawn from tradition. The Quran prescribes a hundred lashes, but the ahadith specify the death penalty. We see here a departure from the teaching of revelation in favour of tradition. It appears to be an instance of defiance of Allah, in favor of following the narrations of persons who were not even prophets. For the ahadith are not the exact or verbatim words of the prophet; rather they are paraphrases. The replacement of the punishment specified in revelation by punishment drawn from tradition is an example of the way jurists permitted the reports of persons – hearsay – to overrule the words of God. In that sense, the punishment by stoning for adultery in place of the lashing prescribed in the Quran amounts to a violation of the sovereignty of God.
7 views
28:03
Six waves that transformed the religion of peace into Islamism or political Islam
This clip takes us through six phases whereby the religion of peace was transformed into politica...
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This clip takes us through six phases whereby the religion of peace was transformed into political Islam. These stages encompass the subordination of reason to tradition, the elevation of tradition to revelation, the expectation that tradition would "judge" or explain revelation, the abrogation of revelation by tradition, the embedding of punishments based on traditions within the penal law, and a re-articulation of the meaning of jihad to justify territorial expansion by an emergent empire. The marginalization of reason was justified by recourse to a tradition according to which the prophet allegedly stated that, "whoever uses his reason to understand revelation is committing an act of disbelief." The elevation of tradition to revelation was justified by recourse to a hadith according to which the prophet allegedly said that "I was given the Quran and something equal to it, the traditions." The cumulative effect of these waves was the emergence of political if not militant Islam.
14 views
14:59
How Islam Became Political: the Subordination of Reason to Tradition
This video is the first in a series of six, exploring the question of how Islam became "political...
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This video is the first in a series of six, exploring the question of how Islam became "political," if not "militant." For it is evident that with the application of the teaching of abrogation, the understanding of Islam experienced a transformation. From being a "religion of peace," as presented in revelation, militant exegetes recast Islam as a "religion of war." They did it by "abrogating" no fewer that a hundred and twenty of the so-called peace verses by the "verse of the sword." The alleged abrogation of the peace verses required astonishing boldness if not hubris, as it amounted to a cynical and brazen tampering with the teaching of revelation, a re-interpretation aimed to justify the expansion – by means of aggressive jihad –of the "abode of peace" at the expense of the "abode of war" in the alleged "clash" between the "dar al-Islam" and the "dar al-harb," in an eerie foreshadowing of the alleged "clash of civilizations," propounded a millennium afterwards by Samuel Huntington.
54 views
14:25
Interest is Banned in Islam
It is not surprising to see non-Muslims having few issues with usury (interest). They have become...
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It is not surprising to see non-Muslims having few issues with usury (interest). They have become used to it. It is surprising, however, to see Muslims proclaim that “interest is a price like any other.” For we would expect that, as Muslims, they would be aware of differences between profit and usury. How could they miss the elephant in the room? It appears that the confusion of profit with usury was a result of faulty reasoning, of a “paralysis in the Muslim mind." The paralysis was the result of the equation of the use of reason to understand revelation with kufr. In what follows we explore the perceptions of Fazlur Rahman and Abdur Rab. These may be summed up in statements that “interest is a price like any other,” that “interest is not riba,” and that the abolition of interest would be “suicidal” for the economy. We maintain that, on the contrary, interest is not “like any other price," that interest is riba, and that it would be suicidal to retain the riba-based regime.
20 views
14:05
Plagiarism and Islam
This video is about the plague of plagiarism. It is so endemic that it could be seen as an academ...
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This video is about the plague of plagiarism. It is so endemic that it could be seen as an academic pandemic. How to separate the true from the fake, the authentic from the imposter?
18 views
Papers by Leslie Terebessy MA, MEd, BA (Hons)
Restoration of the Knowledge of Revelation" (12)
Muslims are experiencing difficulties because their knowledge of revelation has been eroded. It w...
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Muslims are experiencing difficulties because their knowledge of revelation has been eroded. It was eroded in particular by “traditional” exegesis. The methodology of exegesis was compromised or impaired by a few problematic assumptions and procedures. The assumptions encompass the denigration of reason, the designation of tradition as revelation, and the subordination of revelation to tradition. The denigration of reason found its expression in the perception that the utilization of reason in exegesis is a form of kufr. The assumption that tradition is revelation is reflected in the perception that tradition is “hidden” (batin) revelation. The subordination of revelation to tradition finds its expression in the perception that “tradition judges revelation” and that “revelation needs tradition more than tradition needs revelation.” The last two assumptions appear particularly irreverent as they seem to place the authority of tradition above that of revelation, which could be perceived as placing the prophet above Allah. The application of these assumptions produced misrepresentations of Islam, better known as “traditional” and “political” Islam. For the purpose of renewal, it is necessary to rediscover the true meaning and teaching of Islam that had been eclipsed or veiled by its “traditional” interpretations. For there is the risk that if this does not take place, there will be further emigration from Islam due to the unwarranted accretions that burdened it and make it appear “unjust” and even “extreme.” What is required, in different words, is a restoration of the knowledge of religion. With better knowledge of revelation, believers should be better guided. The Islamic religion requires a restoration. This may be achieved with the help of reason.
Whither Islamic Finance
What exactly makes Islamic finance different from conventional finance? Islamic finance avoids in...
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What exactly makes Islamic finance different from conventional finance? Islamic finance avoids interest. That is the “official” explanation of Islamic finance. But a closer inspection reveals a different reality.
For contracts are structured to incorporate profit and capital guarantees. “Profit” is determined in advance, as in a loan. It is calculated as a percentage of the sum “invested” (loaned), rather than the profit earned. Moreover, the capital “invested” is to be “returned,” akin to the way a borrowed amount is returned to a lender. “Profit” moreover is guaranteed.
How was this “miracle” possible? Enter Islamic financial engineering. It was enabled by the incorporation of “profit” and capital guarantees into the “investment” agreements. But the truth, as always, is less pleasant. While Islamic finance prevented interest from entering through the back door, by using profit and capital guarantees, it ushered it in through the front door.
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Islamic finance incorporates profit and capital guarantees, effectively converting them into interest, challenging the authenticity of its practices.
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Rehabilitation of Banking: Rescuing Islamic Finance
When Islamic finance first appeared in its modern form in the 1990s, expectations were high. It w...
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When Islamic finance first appeared in its modern form in the 1990s, expectations were high. It was hoped that Islamic finance would provide a more stable – and just – alternative to the conventional system, based on riba and characterised by roller-coaster rides of boom and bust. Islamic finance would avoid the pitfalls of conventional finance, among them the rise of large and growing levels of debt – public and private.
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Sukuk defaults were exacerbated by their debt-like structure, which made them susceptible to collapse during financial crises.
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Advancing Well-Being with Interest-Free Finance
Islam and Civilisational Renewal
, 2015
Towards the Harmonisation of Reason and Revelation in Education
Islam and Civilisational Renewal
, 2017
With the emergence of empiricism, a perception developed that rationality and faith are 'incompat...
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With the emergence of empiricism, a perception developed that rationality and faith are 'incompatible.' According to this view, religion is based on faith rather than knowledge. Attachment to faith is fundamentally arbitrary and lacks a rational foundation. In education, the 'separation' of reason from faith produces either graduates with knowledge for the purpose of employment but little spiritual awareness or persons with religious beliefs that have few marketable skills. What is required is balanced education, where instruction in revealed knowledge is provided together with training in present-day knowledge. To facilitate holistic education, it is necessary to recognise that faith and present-day knowledge complement rather than exclude each other. Present-day knowledge is used primarily for the purpose of employment. Revealed knowledge is intended for the purpose of guidance. The two are complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
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Revealed knowledge addresses moral questions beyond empirical limits, differentiating what is from what ought to be.
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Economic Benefits of Risk Sharing
Islam and Civilisational Renewal
, 2014
Discussions of the benefits of risk sharing tend to be confined to benefits at the company level....
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Discussions of the benefits of risk sharing tend to be confined to benefits at the company level. These include remaining debt-free and the fact that capital, unlike borrowed funds-apart from listing, legal and other fees-comes at zero cost. What tends to be overlooked is that the use of risk sharing also brings major benefits to society at the macroeconomic level. Specifically, it contributes to the realisation of the leading economic objectives of government stabilisation policies. These include an efficient allocation of resources, full employment, stable prices, robust growth, a more even distribution of wealth, and greater cyclical stability. Thus, channeling capital into investment by means of risk sharing in preference to borrowing at interest can significantly alleviate the macroeconomic problems currently plaguing most industrialised economies.
Muhammad Mumtaz Ali - Critical Thinking: An Islamic Perspective
Islam and Civilisational Renewal
, Jul 1, 2010
Critical Thinking: An Islamic Perspective, by Muhammad Mumtaz Ali, published by the Thinker’s Lib...
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Critical Thinking: An Islamic Perspective, by Muhammad Mumtaz Ali, published by the Thinker’s Library in 2008, explores “critical thinking” within the context of the Islamist revivalist movement. At 168 pages, the book consists of an Introduction and five chapters. Upon closer inspection, however, the book turns out to be more of a critique of ‘modernist,’ ‘moderate,’ and ‘liberalist’ Muslims than an inquiry into the meaning of critical thinking, from the Islamic perspective:
Use of Interest-rate Benchmarks for Predetermining Returns on Sukuk
"This paper explores the “benchmarking” profits on Islamic sukuk (certificates of investment) to ...
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"This paper explores the “benchmarking” profits on Islamic sukuk (certificates of investment) to interest rates. In contradistinction to bonds, Islamic sukuk pay profits rather than riba. Benchmarking, widespread in Islamic finance, is a process whereby the rate of profit paid to sukuk holders is similar to the rate of interest paid to bondholders. Benchmarking makes the rates of profits more or less equal to interest rates. This is achieved by linking profits to interest rates. The practice has become controversial in that it blurs, if it does not eliminate completely, the difference between profit and interest.
How Interest Reduces Welfare
"Factories are centres of production. Farms are where food is grown. Plantations provide commodit...
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"Factories are centres of production. Farms are where food is grown. Plantations provide commodities. Schools and universities provide educations services. Hospitals provide health services. Sports facilities and public parks provide training and recreational facilities. All industrial and agricultural centres of production contribute directly by producing real goods and products. Yet when one considers financial institutions, one is left wondering what it is that they produce, or what service that they provide, that actually contributes anything to meeting people’s needs for basic necessities in any tangible way. One cannot find anything. Thus, one legitimately wonders what can possibly justify the vast flow of resources to support the activities of these institutions. Even the object of trade is fuzzy.
Eradicating Inflation with an Interest-free Economy
"Borrowing at interest finances much spending, consumer, business and government. It allows peopl...
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"Borrowing at interest finances much spending, consumer, business and government. It allows people to spend – and live – beyond their means. Spending financed by borrowing increases aggregate demand. This causes inflation. When investment funds are obtained on the basis of profit and loss sharing, however, no interest needs to be paid for the use of capital. Thus, financing on the basis of profit and loss sharing does not add to the cost of production the way financing by borrowing at interest does. For this reason, financing on the basis of profit and loss sharing does not cause the prices of finished goods and services to increase the way financing at interest does.
Interest and Debt
"In principle, Islam permits lending and borrowing, whether of money or useful items. Lending is ...
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"In principle, Islam permits lending and borrowing, whether of money or useful items. Lending is a way of helping people in difficulty. Indeed, such lending is meritorious. However, all loans must be free of interest. To charge interest on a loan would violate the prohibition against riba. Indeed, asking to be rewarded for extending a loan – for helping someone in distress – can hardly appear as ethical, as the request to be rewarded for helping cancels, as it were, the character of the loan as a form of assistance.
Enhancing Welfare with Interest-free Finance
"Theories or analytical frameworks are used to analyse problems and recommend responses to them,...
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"Theories  or analytical frameworks are used to analyse problems and recommend responses to them, whether in the public sector or in business. For a theoretical model to be reliable, it needs to rest on solid foundations. These foundations typically take the form of a range of underlying assumptions about the way a particular system works and what may reasonably be expected from it.  If any of these fundamental assumptions turn out to be problematic, the theory is unlikely to serve as a reliable method for analysing and formulating responses to various problems as and when they arise. For a flawed model will provide flawed results. A flaw in an analytical framework may be compared to what Thomas Kuhn characterised as an "anomaly" his "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." A  paradigm that rests on a problematic assumption thus needs to be rehabilitated so that it may  provide its users with reliable knowledge. The reason for the failure of economics to generate effective responses to economic problems is that economics contains precisely such a flaw. This flaw is the assumption that interest as a reward for productive activity and allocating resources efficiently is no different from profit. A closer look, however, shows that precisely the reverse is true."
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Equity financing allocates resources more efficiently than loan financing, impacting both individual businesses and economic systems.
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How Interest-based Financing Impairs Stability
"Interest-based financing reduces economic stability. Evidence of instability caused by interest-...
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"Interest-based financing reduces economic stability. Evidence of instability caused by interest-based financing takes the form of the “boom and bust” or “business cycles,” in which periods of accelerating growth alternate with slow or negative growth and which characterise every economic system that utilises interest-based financing."
Exploring Islamic Finance
"This essay presents fifteen essays, that were published on the IAIS Website under Dirasat. They ...
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"This essay presents fifteen essays, that were published on the IAIS Website under Dirasat. They offer various insights into the workings of Islamic finance as well as a few criticisms of conventional finance."
Stabilising Business Cycles
"Economic instability invariably causes hardship and moreover reduces the efficiency, in one way ...
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"Economic instability invariably causes hardship and moreover reduces the efficiency, in one way or another, with which resources are allocated. A significant degree of instability, as is widely believed, is caused by fluctuations in aggregate demand. However, much instability is also caused by interest-based financing."
Reducing Unemployment with Profit and Loss Sharing
"A transition from interest-based financing to profit and loss sharing would bring various benefi...
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"A transition from interest-based financing to profit and loss sharing would bring various benefits to society, in particular over the longer term. Higher economic growth and employment would ease the hardship faced by many individuals and families. A result of a higher output, as well as the fact that there would no longer be any need to pass interest expenses on to consumers in the form of higher prices, inflation would decline. Due to lower inflation, the purchasing power of currency would become more stable. As a result of higher growth, lower prices, and less unemployment, the standard of living would rise. Due to the fact that more people would be employed, the benefits of economic growth would be more widely distributed, and a more balanced economic growth would be achieved. Social harmony would be enhanced. The eradication of inflation and unemployment would resolve the intractable problem of stagflation, or the simultaneous occurrence of inflation and unemployment, represented by the Phillips curve. As a result of higher sales, production, and employment levels, governments would collect higher taxes. At the same time, they would be able to reduce their expenses on account of not having to assist unemployed workers and businesses struggling to find ways to repay debt. Higher tax collection and reduced government spending would help reduce fiscal deficits as well as the national debt. The reason why many nations are mired in a recession is the large levels of debt they have to service. Debt servicing, whether by the public or the private sector, diverts substantial sums of money from spending in the real sector to repay all debt with interest. Belt tightening and austerity measure are common. The diversion of funds from the real economy to repay debt impedes economic growth by reducing spending in the real sector. This makes recessions in a number of countries worse than they need to be. Even developed nations are experiencing rising levels of poverty. The solution to the problems caused by debt financing is to phase out lending at interest and replace it with profit and loss sharing."
Interest Reduces Economic Activity
"Financing consumption, investment and government spending by borrowing at interest produces seve...
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"Financing consumption, investment and government spending by borrowing at interest produces several undesirable effects. The chief among these is that – contrary to popular perception – interest-based financing reduces economic growth in the long term. Economic growth requires spending because it is expenditure that drives production. Since one person’s expense constitutes another person’s income, a rise in expenditure translates into a rise in income. In this way the circulation of money by way of spending maintains and enhances economic growth."
Risk Sharing vs Risk Transfer (3)
"Risk management has developed into a complex science. Judging by the losses from the recent fina...
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"Risk management has developed into a complex science. Judging by the losses from the recent financial crisis, however, this science has shown itself to be less than reliable. The main reason is that conventional risk management rests on faulty foundations. The chief among these is the notion that the best way to manage risk is to transfer rather than to share it. Institutions such as Lehman Brothers, Northern Rock, and AIG were willing to bear risks. Yet when they had to deliver, they were unable to do so." (3 pages)
Art and Islam NST
"Art focuses upon the experience of the beautiful. It aims at excellence and perfection. Every wo...
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"Art focuses upon the experience of the beautiful. It aims at excellence and perfection. Every work of true art is unique. Art is striking. When a person reads a work of art, he or she feels that it speaks to the heart. It is for this reason that art is 'captivating.'”
Reforming Education with Student-centred Learning
"Much has been said about the importance of education and the knowledge-based society. Yet result...
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"Much has been said about the importance of education and the knowledge-based society. Yet results appear to be elusive. Despite significant expenditure on education, graduates seem to lack important skills. One is a lack of proficiency in English. Another is a limited ability to communicate. A lack of confidence also seems to be a problem. Why is this the case? One reason is the methodology of teaching/learning used. There is excessive focus on the teacher and not enough on the students. Learning is teacher-centred rather than student-centred."
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