Islamic Social Finance
Entrepreneurship, Cooperation and the Sharing Economy
Islamic Business and Finance Series

The current dynamics of world economy show remarkable changes in the socio-economics of credit provision and entrepreneurship. If the emergence of the sharing economy is fostering innovative models of collaborative agency, networking and venture business, economic actors are also looking for a more sustainable development, able to foster profitability as well as community welfare. This book investigates Islamic social finance as a paramount example of this economy under change, where the balance between economic efficiency and social impact is contributing to the transformation of the market from an exchange- to a community-oriented institution.

The collected essays analyse the social dimension of entrepreneurship from an Islamic perspective, highlighting the extent to which the rationales of "sharing," distribution and cooperation, affect the conceptualization of the market in Islam as a place of "shared prosperity." Moving from the conceptual "roots" of this paradigm to its operative "branches," the contributing authors also connect the most recent trends in the financial market to Shari?ah-based strategies for community welfare, hence exploring the applications of Islamic social finance from the sharing economy, FinTech and crowdfunding to microcredit, waqf, zakat, sukuk and green investments.

An illuminating reference for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers dealing with the challenges of a global market where not only is diversity being perceived as a value to be fostered, but also as an important opportunity for a more inclusive economy for everybody.

1 Introduction. Islamic social finance and the importance of roots Part I – Islam, shared prosperity and the market as socio-economic community 2 From the ontology of tawhid to Islamic social finance: conceptualization and application 3 A critical appraisal of Islamic finance in the light of maqasid al-Shari‘ah 4Collaborative governance, social capital and the Islamic economic organization 5 Experiences in Translation: Islamic finance and the sharing economy Part II – Social impact entrepreneurship: instruments and cases 6 A new form of global asset-backed debt market through sukuk 7Islamic entrepreneurship and the fundraising challenge: unlocking capital via crowdfunding in the sharing economy 8 Islamic FinTech and the paradigm shift in the financial landscape 9 Islamic green finance: a new path to environment protection and sustainable development 10 Salam finance: securing the purpose of microfinancing 11 Waqf based takaful model: a challenge for entrepreneurship 12 Zakat: its micro-entrepreneurship model and socio-humanitarian impact

Valentino Cattelan specializes in Islamic law, economics and finance, and his research activity covers aspects of legal pluralism, property rights theory, history of capitalism, law of Islamic finance, comparative law and social finance.