Present day Islamic economics is about 60 years old and takes its foundation to be the Qur'an as well as the way (sunnat) of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Views of Muslim scholars vary considerably regarding Islamic economics, from considering it to be: a) branch of conventional mainstream economics; b) a discipline that is neither capitalist nor socialist; c) a discipline that is guided by Islamic law in all its aspects. There have not yet emerged concepts or principles that are widely accepted by Muslim scholars as the foundation of Islamic economics and finance. The main advance made so far has been in Islamic finance, a branch of Islamic economics, where a number of rules are commonly accepted. These are: a) the prohibition of riba (interest), rishwah (bribery, corruption) gharar (deception), jahl (profiting from others ignorance) and mysir (gambling and speculation) in all financial contracts; b) all investments must be made in the permissible sector of the real economy; with the investor sharing in the profit, loss and risks of the enterprise.
The global bond market is the main component of the capital market, being about three times larger than the global equity markets. In 2009, the global bond market (total outstanding debt) was estimated to be $82.2 trillion; the US dominated the bond market with th outstanding U.S. bond debt at approximately $35.2 trillion. Risk-free forward interest rates - and their realization by US Treasury bonds as the leading exemplar - have been studied extensively. The bond market considers US Treasury bonds as being risk-free instruments and consequently have the lowest yields.
