Mohammad Hashim Kamali

Who is Mohammad Hashim Kamali?

Mohammad Hashim Kamali is an Afghan Islamic scholar and former professor of law at the International Islamic University of Malaysia. He has taught Islamic law and jurisprudence there between 1985 and 2004.

Born in Afghanistan in 1944, he has degrees from University of Kabul and University of London.

He is the author of Islamic Commercial Law 2000, a study of the application of Shariah principles to some crucial financial instruments, options and futures contracts. He takes a much more permissive view of these instruments than do most Islamicists.

He wrote, for example, that many have "passed prohibitive judgments on futures and options" who have "not only failed to produce decisive evidence in support of their positions but have done so on the assumption that futures trading has no social utility and has no bearing on the welfare...of the people."

Among the scholars who pass the "prohibitive judgments" with which Kamali disagrees are Muhammad Akram Khan and Umar Chapra.

Mohammad Hashim Kamali served as Professor of Islamic law and jurisprudence at the International Islamic University Malaysia, and also as Dean of the International Institute of Islamic Thought & Civilisation from 1985-2007. He is currently the CEO & Chairman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia. He studied law at Kabul University and then served as Assistant Professor, and subsequently as Public Prosecutor with the Ministry of Justice, Afghanistan, 1965-1968. He completed his LL.M. in comparative law, and a PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern law at the University of London, 1969–1976.