This book is the product of many years of research. We are greatly indebted to Allah the Most Gracious for making it possible for us to embark on this journey and complete it and to many people who have been kind in supporting us along the way. We are confident that we would not have been able to complete this project without such help.

To our beloved parents, no words of thanks will express our appreciation for your sacrifices, love, and encouragement. Karim is grateful to his parents, Dr. Abdel Megied Ginena and Dr. Fatma Taha, and Azhar is grateful to his late parents, Lieutenant Muhammad Hamid Khan and Maqber Jan, for their great contributions.

To our dear wives, Dr. Ladan Davallow Ghajar and Dr. Qurrat ul Ain Akram, thanks for your continuous love, support, and understanding.

To our teachers who have played an instrumental role in teaching us about this discipline, this project would have never come to existence had it not been for the knowledge that you imparted to us. Thank you for taking us on as your students. It is challenging task to list all the professors who have contributed to our educational journey, but we feel an obligation to thank the following Islamic transactional jurisprudence, economics, finance, accounting and sharī‘ah auditing professors: Dr. Ali Mohieldin Al-Qaradaghi, Dr. Ali Al-Mohammadi, Dr. Muhammad Shubair, Dr. Nazih Hammad, Dr. Monzer Kahf, Dr. Tariqullah Khan, Dr. Muhammad Omar, Dr. Rodney Wilson, Dr. Abdulbari Mashal, Dr. Mahmood Ahmed Ghazi, Dr. Sayed Tahir, Dr. Tahir Mansoori, Dr. Attique Zaffar, Dr. Abdul Rahman Yousri, and Dr. Muhammad Tahir Hakeem.

To our reviewers who carefully scrutinized portions of this manuscript, thank you for your time. You have played a critical role in improving this book. There are many of you, including some names that were mentioned earlier, but we would like to thank Dr. Mehmet Kirbasoglu, Dr. Robert Crane, Dr. Baber Johansen, Dr. Jasser Auda, Dr. Gudrun Krämer, Dr. Ayman Shabana, Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Dr. Zachary Wright, Dr. Haider Ala Hamoudi, Dr. Talal Abdulla Al-Emadi, Dr. Ehsan Feroz, Dr. Mohammad Abdolmohammadi, Dr. Shahul Hameed bin Mohamed Ibrahim, Dr. Christopher Leonard, Mr. Madzlan Hussain, Mr. Abdullahi Aweis, Ms. Ruqiyyah Nu'Man, Mr. Saqib Hafiz, Ms. Caroline Quinnell, and an anonymous reviewer.

We would also like to acknowledge the great support received from the Qatar Foundation and the Qatar Science Leadership Program, as well as Hamad Bin Khalifa University, its Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS), and its Center for Islamic Economics and Finance. In particular, thanks to Dr. Hatem El-Karanshawy, Dr. Muhammad Khalifa, and to colleagues Mr. Wijdan Tariq and Ms. Bahnaz Al-Qaradaghi. Thanks also to the library staff of QFIS and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar for their assistance.

Our acknowledgements would not be complete without expressing appreciation to our publishing team. Thanks to Gemma Valler and her team for their patience, cooperation and hard work. This has been a long journey and we are glad we finally made it together!

We hope we have not missed thanking anyone who assisted us along the way, but if we did, then please accept our sincere apologies.