Secondary markets are vital for the development of Islamic capital markets (ICMs) (Aziz, 2007). They facilitate the reselling of securities among investors, thus adding liquidity to these instruments (Mishkin, 2004: 26-27). Besides this basic role, secondary markets assist in reducing average cost of capital; bringing about a rational representation of the pricing of securities in primary as well as secondary markets; facilitating the exchange of investment risks; evaluating the performance of private and public sector, and mitigating information asymmetry (Ahmed, 1995; Al-Eshkar, 1995; El-Gari, 1993; Mishkin, 2004). However, secondary market trading of Islamic securities involves various issues. One of the greatest concerns is the lack of standardization, or at least harmonization, of ICM products. There are also conflicting resolutions, standards and individual fatwas (Islamic legal opinions) on the tradability of Islamic securities within the industry. It is feared that this creates confusion in the industry and may hinder the overall development of the ICM (Cox, 2005; Shaharuddin et al., 2012). Given the importance and concerns regarding the ICM, this study aims at investigating the vital issue of tradability of Islamic securities from the fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) perspective.

As the Islamic finance industry continues to gain popularity in the financial sphere, the number of faithful investors who are interested in Shari'ah-compliant avenues for their investments also continues to increase. One of the most important of these is the equity market. However, it is evident in today's world that it is hard to find a joint stock company whose activities are completely compliant to Shari'ah principles and rulings. As a share of a company represents all the activities and underlying assets of the company, the Shari'ah noncompliance issue can emerge in the share. While the primary activities of a company are Shari'ah-compliant, its peripheral activities may be impermissible from the Shari'ah viewpoint. Meanwhile, the assets of the company can also be in the form of cash, debt, goods, usufruct or rights, which can raise the issue of trading ribawi (interest-based) items. Thus, the study addresses the issue of Shari'ah compliance and tradability of shares that represent a mixture of halal (permissible in Islamic law) and haram (impermissible in Islamic law) activities and assets.

Shari'ah has specific rules for dealing in each class of assets and activities; i.e., cash, debt, goods, usufruct, and those classified as either halal (permissible) or haram (impermissible). These rulings can be easily applied when such an asset or activity is an independent subject matter of a transaction. However, the issue becomes complicated when an asset or activity is mixed with others and the combination is represented as a single subject matter. A fine example of this situation is shares of a joint stock company. A company share represents all the activities and underlying assets of that company. Some of the activities and assets of that company may be Shari'ah non-compliant while some may be Shari'ah compliant. Such assets can be in any form; i.e., cash, debt, goods, usufruct or rights. There are two main issues that need to be dealt with in considering a company's shares: (1) when it represents a mixture of halal and haram activities and assets, and (2) when it represents a mixture of ribawi and non-ribawi assets.

Due to the fact that Islamic financial securities may consist of ribawi (cash and debt) underlying assets, it is crucially important to discern whether or not the trading of these securities is subject to the Shari'ah rules for bay' al-sarf and bay' al-dayn. If they do not then what criterion is pertinent to their secondary trading; and on what jurisprudential basis? In answer to that question, the current scholarly views and suggested Shari'ah criteria for tradability of Islamic securities are not only diverse, but also at times incongruous with one another. Based on the qualitative approach of text analysis and semi-structured-interviews, this study critically analyse this issue ...

The book presents the various aspects of the theory of Islamic capital markets (ICM) and its operations by starting with the simplest ideas and moving on to the complex applied issues. The topics covered include: an overview of ICM and its development; Shari'ah principles, contracts and issues; regulatory and governance frameworks; risk management, accounting and taxation issues; details on different segments of the ICM, including sukuk, Shari'ah-compliant stocks, Islamic fund management, Islamic private equity and venture capital, Islamic derivatives and Islamic structures investment products; and future directions for the ICM.