Book Review: Introduction to Financial Legal Maxims Written By: Ali Ahmad Nadvi

The book1 under review, written in Arabic under the title al-Madkhal ila Qawā‘īd al-Fiqh al-Mālī (Introduction to Financial Legal Maxims), is intended for postgraduate students and researchers specializing in Islamic finance. Its author, Sheikh Ali Ahmad Nadvi, is a renowned reference in the field. He was awarded King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) in Islamic studies in 2004. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Islamic University of al-Madinah al-Munawarah, and subsequently his Master and Ph.D. degrees from Umm al-Qura University in Makkah al-Mukarramah. Having served as an advisor to the Shari‘ah Committee of al-Rajhi Bank for fifteen years, besides chairing the legal rules section of the project on the Ma‘lamat al-Qawā‘īd al-Fiqhīyah (Encyclopedia of Legal Maxims) led by the International Islamic Fiqh Academy for five years. He joined the Islamic Economics Institute at King Abdulaziz University in 2011. Among his books that have been a resounding success are al-Qawā‘īd al-Fiqhīyah (The Legal Maxims), which is in its fifteenth edition, and Jamharat al-Qawā‘īd al-Fiqhīyah fi alMu‘āmalāt al-Mālīyyah (The Collection of the Legal Maxims in Financial Transactions) published in three volumes. The book has four sections. The first section includes twelve introductory parts, the second section focuses on five major rules (qawā‘īd kubra) with their contemporary applications, third and fourth sections address respectively the rules relating to prohibited (mahẓūrah) and permitted (mashrū‘ah) financial transactions.