Shariah Compliance

The role of a Shariah Advisory Board

The shariah board is a key element of the structure of any Islamic financial institution, carrying the responsibility of ensuring that all products and services offered by that institution are fully compliant with the principles of shariah law. The role of the board also involves the reviewing and overseeing of all potential new product offerings.

With demand for shariah-compliant financial services growing at a faster rate than mainstream institutions, the board plays a vital role in helping to develop new procedures and products to adapt the company to industry trends and customer expectations.

Takaful Africa has obtained the knowledge and experience of an independent Shariah Advisory Board to ensure compliance on all of our products and procedures. “Products” shall include all products and services that are applicable to Islamic Shariah principles and rules.

Objective and Purpose

The Shariah Supervisor is an independent person specialising in Fiqh al Mua`malat (Islamic commercial jurisprudence). He is entrusted with the duty of directing, reviewing and supervising the activities of the financial institution in order to ensure that they are in compliance with Islamic Shariah rules and principles. The Fataawa (rulings) of the Shariah Supervisor shall be binding on the Company.

Shariah Board

The following distinguished individuals have been chosen
to supervise the Shariah aspects on our products and procedures:

Mufti Yusuf Suliman

Yusuf Suliman serves as Head of Shari’ah for Barclays Africa and Element Investment Managers. He was appointed as Acting Managing Director of Absa Islamic Banking in 2013. He serves on the Shari’ah Boards of the Bank of Maldives, Shari’ah Investments Ltd (Malawi) and Melville Douglas.

He is also a consultant to various Islamic Financial Institutions. He developed the Islamic Banking training material for all South African Banks, having been contracted by BANKSETA. He previously served on the Shari’ah Boards of the Momentum Investment Cluster including RMB and Advantage. He is one of few Scholars in SA accredited as Certified Shari’ah Advisor and Auditor by AAOIFI.

He also holds Certificates in Qadha (adjudication) from Jamiatul-Imaam, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Imarat Shari’ah, Patna, Bihar (India) and has completed Iftaa(issuance of verdicts) at Darul Uloom Zakariyya, Lenasia (South Africa)

Mufti Ahmed Suliman

Mufti Ahmed Suliman completed his Aalim and Mufti course at Darul Uloom Zakariyya. He then served Jamiatul Ulama (KZN) – Council of Muslim Theologians for three years as a member of the Fatwa and Judicial committee. Mufti Ahmed is well known amongst the scholars of the country for his services rendered in the field of Islamic Banking, Takaful and Investments. He has advised all of the big four big banks and Investec Bank in South Africa and other banks internationally (like Stanbic Nigeria, Stanbic Tanzania, Macquarie Singapore, Gulf African Bank Kenya, etc.) in developing Shari’ah compliant offerings. He also developed the Takaful model used in South Africa in 2003 by Takaful South Africa (now Takaful Africa). This model was the first of its kind to be used in the world and has now gained international recognition and is used by many takaful operators internationally.

Mufti Ahmed serves as the internal Shari’ah scholar to FNB Islamic Banking and is also a Shari’ah Supervisory Board member to a number of Islamic Unit trust and investment companies in and out of South Africa.

Mufti Zubair Bayat

Mufti Zubair Bayat is the director of DIRECT (Darul-Ihsan Research and Education Centre) and it is in this capacity that he serves as an adviser to numerous Islamic bodies.

Mufti Ashraf Qureshi

Mufti Ashraf is currently the head of the fatawa department at the institute of Islamic Studies in Springs and a lecturer at the same institution since 2008. He serves as a Shariah Board Member of various Islamic Finance Institutions including Absa Islamic Banking, Element Investment Managers, National Bank of Commerce (Tanzania) and 27 Four.

He holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts from the University of Karachi specialising in Higher Islamic Studies and has completed a course in the issuance of Islamic rulings and verdicts under the tutorship of Mufi Taqi Usmani.