Sharia Board Rulings — Sales & Related Matters

• Only actual costs paid to third parties may be added to the cost of goods — never travel and inspection fees, nor the work of the bank's own staff, though such expenses may be reflected in the profit agreed with the customer.
• Registration fees and taxes may be financed only as an adjunct to financing the asset itself, and may not exceed 30% of its value.
• No arrangement fee or facility fee may be charged: neither the right to contract nor the bank's readiness to extend credit is a subject of exchange. A separate fee for the credit study is permitted, and the study belongs to the customer.
• Deferred murabaha may not be used for gold, silver or currency; diamonds, platinum and antique stones are permitted. Tobacco may not be financed; cosmetics may.
• The bank finances the goods themselves, never their monetary value.
• A customer who owns more than half of the supplier company may not be financed — the transaction would be a disguised ‘ina sale.

• The customer may be appointed as the bank's purchasing agent only where a genuine need exists, and the Board set eight conditions — documents in the bank's name, separation between supplier and agent, inspection before sale, proof of delivery, the bank's possession before the murabaha contract, and direct payment to the supplier.
• The bank may not offer the goods to the customer before it owns them, and an option clause with no fixed period voids both the clause and the contract.
• An early-settlement rebate may be granted but never promised in advance; where granted, it is borne by depositors and shareholders in proportion to their share of the investment pool.
• A defaulting debtor may be required to donate a sum to charity, and actual third-party collection costs may be recovered — but no flat penalty across all debtors, and no fee for the bank's own legal staff.
• Each murabaha is a separate debt: default on one does not accelerate the others unless expressly agreed.
• Creditworthy customers may be exempted from security within the limits of need, since over-extending that exemption would expose the bank as mudarib to a liability for negligence.

The full Arabic text of all fifty rulings in this document is published on the Arabic version of this page. The signed original is below.