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Seyed Abbas Mousavian

From Encyclopedia of Contemporary Jurisprudence
Author: Reza Shams
NameSeyed Abbas Mousavian
Age1339 SH
PositionAuthority on Islamic banking, member of the Board of Trustees of Imam Sadiq University (a)
NationalityIranian
Works in contemporary jurisprudenceInterest-Free Banking: From Theory to Practice • Islamic Capital Market • Other books by Mousavian
  • Abstract

Seyed Abbas Mousavian (1339 SH–1399 SH/2020 AD) was a Shia economist, a theorist on Islamic banking, and a member of the Jurisprudential Council of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mousavian is regarded as influential figure in financial laws regulations of Iran.

He authored numerous scholarly works on Islamic banking and Islamic financial instruments, including the books Foundations of Islamic Finance, Islamic Capital Market, Stock Speculation from the Perspective of the Sharia, Jurisprudential Foundations of the Money and Capital Markets, Islamic Banking: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Experiences, and Islamic Financial Instruments (Sukuk).

Mousavian’s views on Islamic banking include: 1. The use of exchange-based contracts (banking contracts with fixed returns) and their important role in Islamic banking; 2. The superiority of the Islam-centered method over the jurisprudence-centered method in Islamic banking; 3. The permissibility of the penalty for delayed repayment of loan installments.

According to Mousavian, there are three conception in Islamic economics: the “Islamic economic system,” the “Islamic financial system,” and “economic jurisprudence.” The objective of the Islamic economic system is to establish public welfare. He regarded the Islamic financial system as a subsystem of the Islamic economic system whose purpose is financing (through the creation of Islamic financial instruments) and reducing the risk involved in transactions. In his view, economic jurisprudence is responsible for deducing prescriptive rulings (such as the ruling on usury) or declaratory rulings (such as the transfer of ownership) concerning financial and economic conduct and relations.

Abbas Mousavian recognized certain financial instruments as Islamic financial instruments, including certain types of qard al-hasan securities, murabaha securities, and lease securities. He regarded these securities as appropriate alternatives to bonds and preferred shares which are generally based on interest (usury).

With the aim of making and using Islamic financial instruments, Mousavian maintained that matters such as the conformity of securities with the standards of the Sharia and Imami jurisprudence, the accounting issues related to securities, the micro- and macroeconomic effects, and the risk involved in trading securities must be considered. He also paid attention to the legitimacy and acceptability of financial instruments at the international and interdenominational levels.

Introduction

Seyed Abbas Mousavian was a graduate of the Qom Seminary, an expert in economic jurisprudence, and a theorist on Islamic banking and finance. On the occasion of Mousavian’s death, jurists such as Seyed Ali Khamenei, Sadeq Amoli Larijani, Alireza Arafi, Ahmad Moballeghi, and Ali Akbar Rashad praised his knowledge of economic jurisprudence in their messages.[1] According to Mohammad Javad Tavakkoli, associate professor in the Department of Economics at the Imam Khomeini Institute, Mousavian adopted an applied approach to issues of Islamic economics and influenced the procedure of certain laws in this field. Some areas influenced by him are as follows:

  1. The Banking System reform Plan; influential in the Fifth Development Plan Law.
  2. The lease securities or sukuk plan for the Securities and Exchange Organization; it prepared the ground for the issuance of banking sukuk under the Fifth Development Plan Law.
  3. The design of various forms of sukuk for the securities exchange and the amendment of certain laws governing this exchange.[2]

Mousavian produced more than one hundred works in the field of Islamic economics, both individually and collaboratively.[3] His individually authored works include the books Islamic Banking: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Experiences, Islamic Financial Instruments (Sukuk), and Islamic Capital Market.[4] Mousavian received several awards, including the World Award for Islamic Humanities and the Sadr world Award.[5]

Mousavian held numerous executive positions and responsibilities, including:

Biography

Seyed Abbas Mousavian was born on 2. Khordad 1339 SH (23. may 1960) in Ajabshir in East Azerbaijan Province.[7] In 1360 SH, amid Cultural Revolution in Iran, he withdrew from university and began studying religious sciences at the Qom Seminary.[8] He was studying advanced courses in Fiqh and Usul al-Fiqh for ten years (1368-1378 SH).[9] In 1384 SH, Mousavian defended his Level Four seminary dissertation in economic jurisprudence, entitled “The Jurisprudential Rulings of Securities.”[10] In addition to his seminary studies, he pursued a master's degree in theoretical economics at Shahid Beheshti University.[11]

General Foundations in Islamic Economic Research

Some of Seyed Abbas Mousavian’s foundational views concerning Islamic economics are as follows:

Distinction between the Islamic Economic System, the Islamic Financial System, and Economic Fiqh

According to Mousavian, there are three distinct concepts in Islamic economics literature: “Islamic economic system,” “Islamic financial system,” and “economic Fiqh.”

  • Islamic economic system is a system intended to establish public welfare on the basis of Islamic principles. According to Mousavian, to achieve public welfare as its ultimate objective, the Islamic economic system requires three intermediate objectives: economic justice, economic security, and economic growth and development.[12]
  • Islamic financial system is a subsystem of the Islamic economic system responsible for financing (through the creation of Islamic financial instruments) and reducing the risk involved in transactions.[13]
  • Economic Fiqh explains the rulings governing property and the related issues in the three fields of production, distribution, and consumption; this discipline includes deducing prescriptive rulings (such as the ruling on Riba) or declaratory rulings (such as the transfer of property) on financial and economic conduct and relations.[14]

On this basis, in the book Foundations of Islamic Finance, Mousavian establishes four key fundamental components for Islamic economic system and its associated subsystems:

  1. Islamic doctrinal and theological foundations, including fundamental Islamic worldviews concerning God, existence (being), humanity, and society.
  2. divine traditions that affect positively or negatively on human societies, based on felicity and proximity to God or wretchedness and remoteness from Him; such as the effect of taqwa (piety) and shokr (praise to God) on the economic life of Islamic societies.[15]
  3. Economic ethics, defined in three areas: the relationship between human being and God, the relationship between human being and property, and the relationship between human being and other human beings. The bases of this moral system are immaterial causality and divine traditions that affect on the livelihood of individuals and society through immaterial means Immeasurable in material terms. Ethical economic conduct (regardless of the legal framework and principles) contributes to the overarching objectives of the Islamic economic system. These aim and result functions and outcomes such as poverty alleviation, development, security, and economic justice.[16] According to Mousavian, the recommended rulings fall under the category of economic ethics, though they are discussed in Fiqh.[17]
  4. Economic Fiqh, which encompasses rulings governing conduct and relationships concerning property in the three areas of production, distribution, and consumption. These rulings direct individuals’ economic activities toward the objectives of the Islamic economic system. [18]

Foundations of Financial Instruments (Sukuk or Securities) According to Mousavian

Mousavian identified several key factors essential for the development and implementation of Islamic financial instruments:

  1. Financial instruments must be defined and regulated in terms of standards of the Sharia and Imami jurisprudence.[19]
  2. Beyond religious criteria and legal requirements and frameworks, factors such as accounting issues and trading risks must also be evaluated.[20]
  3. Legitimacy and acceptability of these financial instruments, internationally and interdenominationally, are important and must be considered in such a way that these instruments are recognized as internationally legitimate and acceptable.[21]
  4. The economic foundations of financial instruments must be taken into account. These are not the principles and criteria Sharia has prescribed for transactions. For example, in addition to the religious conditions and rulings governing leases, lease securities must be complied with other criteria to be efficient financial instruments. These criteria may be of those are considered in microeconomics or of those considered in macroeconomics. In microeconomics, say, these are must be observed: 1. Liquidity: the capacity of financial instruments to be liquidated and rapidly converted into money. 2. Efficiency: the relative superiority of certain financial instruments over similar instruments in fulfilling customers’ objectives and motivations. In macroeconomics also criteria such as financial instrument’s alignment with economic growth and justice must be observed.[22]

Using the Methods and Instruments of Conventional Economics in Islamic Economics

Mousavian maintains that methods and approaches developed within the conventional economic system are not incompatible with the Islamic economic system. According to him, these methods can be modified within the framework of the Islamic economic system and incorporated into the issues of Islamic economics.[23]

Mousavian’s Views on Islamic Banking

Mousavian held several views on Islamic banking, including:

The Importance of Trade-based Contracts in Islamic Banking Compared with Equity-based Partnership Contracts

It is said that Mousavian emphasized the application of equity-based partnership contracts (contracts without a fixed rate of return and based on profit and loss) in his earlier thought,[24] but later (for example, in the book “Islamic Banking” that is one of his latest books) he regarded trade-based contracts, such as murabaha, as contracts supported strongly by hadiths and being effective in Islamic banking which are more useful than partnership contracts.[25]

Permissibility of Penalties for Delayed Payment

According to Seyed Abbas Mousavian, delayed payment penalty is a means of reducing losses resulting from delayed payment of debts. He maintains that failure to pay debts on time leads to a reduction in deferred transactions, the erosion of public trust, a reduction in qard al-hasan (benevolent lending), Increasing the burden of bail and guarantees, and a decrease in financial exchanges.[26]

Superiority of the Islam-based Method over the Fiqh-based Method

Banking issues and financial instruments could be evaluated by Fiqh-based method. This method aims to ensure that banking methods or financial instruments do not conflict with Islamic jurisprudential rulings. On the other hand, Mousavian proposed Islam-based instead of Fiqh-based method. Islam-based method adopts a systemic and multidimensional approach to human conduct and interactions. Some researchers in economic Fiqh have regarded Mousavian’s theory as a movement toward the development of knowledge in this field.[27]

Explanation of the Fiqh-based Method

Fiqh-based method has two stages: jurisprudential analysis of an issue (it may be called jurisprudentialization) and establishment of a jurisprudential entity or institution; therefore the conformity with Fiqh is established as a criterion for Islamic banking. Mousavian maintained that, at the jurisprudential analysis stage, financial institutions are evaluated and reconstructed on the basis of Islamic jurisprudence through an approach based on the presumption of validity. According to Mousavian, at the establishment stage, a new model based on Shia jurisprudence is presented or reproduced for financial institutions and instruments that have no precedent in conventional economics.[28]

Explanation of the Islam-based Method and Its Superiority

Islam-centered method uses all Islamic sources instead of being content with Fiqh alone; the Islamic sources includ moral judgments, jurisprudence, divine traditions, and the objectives and principles of Islam. Ghafouri and Mirmoezzi, researchers in Islamic jurisprudence, state that a study of Mousavian’s works shows that he considered ethical principles or divine traditions in constructing an economic system. They cited the article “Religion and Economics” and the article “Introduction the Islamic Economic System” for this calim.[29]

According to these researchers, in this method Mousavian, as in the jurisprudence-centered method, proceeded through two stages in economics: Islamization and Islamic establishment. Islamization means examining and reconstructing the conventional economic model on the basis of all Islamic data, including ethical rulings, jurisprudence, divine traditions, and the objectives and principles of Islam. The Islamic establishment method likewise means presenting a new economic model based on these criteria.[30]

The superiority of the Islam-centered method over the jurisprudence-centered method lies in the fact that jurisprudence does not encompass all Islamic teachings in every respect, because jurisprudential knowledge does not necessarily correspond to the Preserved Tablet and is a conjectural and ijtihadi process. Accordingly, a model concerning financial institutions and instruments may not conflict with jurisprudence but may nevertheless contradict the principal foundations of the Sharia, such as justice, security, and freedom.[31]

No Distinction between Bank Interest and Usury

By equating bank interest with usury, Mousavian regarded views distinguishing between the two as incorrect and invalid.[32] Mousavian refers to several such views:

  1. Usury as an economic necessity of the present age: According to this theory, bank interest or usury is necessary for economic development in the present age and plays an effective role; pursuant to the maxim “necessities permit prohibitions” (al-darurat tubih al-mahzurat), rulings are relaxed in circumstances of harm.[33]
  2. Restricting usury to interest charged by private banks: On this basis, bank interest constitutes usury and is prohibited only when it relates to private banks, not state-owned banks, because state-owned banks are not exploitative institutions and have not been established to generate profits. Abbas Mousavian attributes this theory to Mohammad Hadi Marefat.[34]
  3. Restricting usury to an increase charged for extending the term: According to this view, prohibited usury is money paid to a lender in return for extending the repayment period of a loan. Mohammad Rashid Rida expressed this view in “Tafsir al-Manar” under Verse 130 of Sura Al Imran and in the “book al-Riba wa-l-Mu‘amalat fi al-Islam.” Interest charged in modern banking does not possess this characteristic.[35]

In rejecting these theories, Mousavian maintains that engagement in genuine transactions must be regarded as the principal means of earning profit and that new transactions arising from the expansion of the banking system must be carefully examined to ensure that they are free of every form of loan-based and transactional usury.[36]

Distinguishing Permissible and Impermissible Stratagems for Circumventing Usury

Mousavian divided stratagems for circumventing usury into permissible and impermissible stratagems. According to him, the criterion for impermissible stratagems is the absence of a genuine intention to undertake the alternative transaction or the applicability of usury to the stratagem despite the existence of a genuine intention. He maintained that this distinction depends largely on the parties’ intentions. In contrast, he classified spot and deferred sales, as well as the leasing of fixed assets, among permissible stratagems. He maintained that, in many transactions, because of the prohibition of usury, the parties genuinely intend to enter into permissible transactions.[37]

Securities from Mousavian’s Perspective

Abbas Mousavian accepted several financial instruments, such as qard al-hasan securities,[38] murabaha securities (in some of their forms),[39] and lease securities[40] as Islamic financial instruments. He regarded these securities as appropriate alternatives to bonds and preferred shares—which are generally based on interest.[41]

Bonds

Abbas Mousavian divides bonds into four categories (interest-bearing bonds, income bonds, prize bonds, and discount bonds). For each category, he reports and critiques the jurisprudential opinions of jurists and marjas, with most of the discussion concerning loans, usury, and the foundations of their prohibition.[42] According to Mousavian, none of the justifications for considering various types of bonds permissible possesses a jurisprudential foundation; according to the definition of usury, every loan in which an increase is stipulated and the borrower undertakes to pay that increase constitutes usury and is prohibited.[43]

Murabaha Securities

According to Mousavian, murabaha is a type of sale (purchase and sale) that, when structured as securities, represents the owner’s debt to the holder of the security.[44] Mousavian regards murabaha as legitimate in Imami jurisprudence and based on a narration from the sixth Imam of the Shia.[45] According to Mousavian, trading murabaha securities includes transactions other than the murabaha sale; after examination, it appears that Shia jurists have regarded the purchase and sale of these securities as valid under certain assumptions.[46]

Ordinary Shares

According to Mousavian, shares are a new phenomenon with no precedent in jurisprudential texts and constitute one of the newly arising issues.[47] Mousavian maintains that, provided the activities of public joint-stock companies concern legitimate subjects and are conducted in accordance with religious standards, the establishment of such companies and their operation within the framework of specific laws and regulations present no jurisprudential problem.[48]

Preferred Shares

Seyed Abbas Mousavian maintains that certain preferred shares present no jurisprudential problem, while others are prohibited. He regards “non-cumulative fixed-dividend preferred shares” and “non-cumulative participating preferred shares” as permissible, while considering “cumulative fixed-dividend preferred shares,” “cumulative participating preferred shares,” and “floating-rate preferred shares” to be instances of impermissible stratagems and usury.[49]

Internal Links

Summaries of several books by Seyed Abbas Mousavian have been written in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Jurisprudence:

Footnotes

  1. ↑ “Selections from the Numerous Messages of Condolence,” website of the Monetary and Banking Research Institute of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
  2. ↑ “Seyed Abbas Mousavian: Discourses and Interviews,” pp. 302-303.
  3. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” pp. 277-278.
  4. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” pp. 277-278.
  5. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” pp. 277-278.
  6. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” pp. 277-278.
  7. ↑ “Biography of Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” Ijtihad Network website.
  8. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” p. 278.
  9. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” p. 278.
  10. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” p. 278.
  11. ↑ “An Overview of the Life and Activities of the Late Hujjat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin Seyed Abbas Mousavian,” p. 278.
  12. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 5-10.
  13. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 5-10.
  14. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 12-20.
  15. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, p. 15.
  16. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 17-19.
  17. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, p. 20.
  18. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 12-20.
  19. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 48-49.
  20. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 48-49.
  21. ↑ Mousavian and Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, pp. 52-58.
  22. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments, pp. 253-267.
  23. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Banking, p. 29.
  24. ↑ Ghafourzadeh, “An Examination of the Development of Professor Mousavian’s Thought concerning the Position of Trade-based and Equity-based Partnership Contracts in Resource Allocation,” p. 87.
  25. ↑ Ghafourzadeh, “An Examination of the Development of Professor Mousavian’s Thought concerning the Position of Trade-based and Equity-based Partnership Contracts in Resource Allocation,” p. 88.
  26. ↑ Mousavian, “A Jurisprudential-Legal Examination of Laws concerning Penalties and Compensation for Delayed Payment in Iran,” p. 12.
  27. ↑ Mirmoezzi and Ghafouri, “The Development of Professor Mousavian’s Intellectual Method: From the Jurisprudence-Centered Method to the Islam-Centered Method,” pp. 40-58.
  28. ↑ Mirmoezzi and Ghafouri, “The Development of Professor Mousavian’s Scientific Method from the Fiqh-based Method to the Islam-Centered Method,” pp. 48-55.
  29. ↑ Mirmoezzi and Ghafouri, “The Development of Professor Mousavian’s Scientific Method from the Jurisprudence-Centered Method to the Islam-Centered Method,” p. 58.
  30. ↑ Mirmoezzi and Ghafouri, “The Development of Professor Mousavian’s Scientific Method from the Jurisprudence-Centered Method to the Islam-Centered Method,” p. 59.
  31. ↑ Mirmoezzi and Ghafouri, “The Development of Professor Mousavian’s Scientific Method from the Jurisprudence-Centered Method to the Islam-Centered Method,” p. 63.
  32. ↑ Mousavian and Meysami, “A Critique and Examination of New Views concerning Usury and Bank Interest,” p. 7.
  33. ↑ Mousavian, Financial Instruments, pp. 162-163.
  34. ↑ Mousavian, Financial Instruments, p. 160.
  35. ↑ Mousavian, Financial Instruments, pp. 150-164.
  36. ↑ Mousavian, Financial Instruments, pp. 150-164.
  37. ↑ Mousavian, Financial Instruments, pp. 164-187.
  38. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments, pp. 347-354.
  39. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments, pp. 359-361.
  40. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments, pp. 372-374.
  41. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments, p. 345.
  42. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Capital Market, pp. 364-370.
  43. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Capital Market, pp. 366-370.
  44. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments (Sukuk), p. 355.
  45. ↑ Mousavian, “The Application of Murabaha in Interest-Free Banking,” p. 38; Kulayni, al-Kafi, 1407 AH, vol. 5, p. 201.
  46. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Financial Instruments (Sukuk), pp. 359-360.
  47. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Capital Market, pp. 387-399.
  48. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Capital Market, p. 399.
  49. ↑ Mousavian, Islamic Capital Market, p. 415.

Sources

  • Ghafourzadeh, Hossein, “An Examination of the Development of Professor Mousavian’s Thought concerning the Position of Exchange-Based and Partnership Contracts in Resource Allocation,” Collected Articles: Commemoration of Professor Seyed Abbas Mousavian, Tehran, Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought Publishing Organization, 1403 SH.
  • Fazel and Nikpour, “A Critique of Professor Mousavian’s View concerning the Stages of the Legislation of the Ruling on Usury in the Quran,” Collected Articles: Commemoration of Professor Seyed Abbas Mousavian, Tehran, Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought Publishing Organization, 1403 SH.
  • “Selections from the Numerous Messages of Condolence”, website of the Monetary and Banking Research Institute of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, publication date: 20 Mordad 1399 SH, access date: 3 Esfand 1404 SH.
  • “Mousavian: Jurist-Economist and Distinguished Professor of Finance”, website of the Monetary and Banking Research Institute; access date: 1404/11/15 SH.
  • Mousavian, Seyed Abbas, Islamic Financial Instruments (Sukuk), Tehran, Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought Publishing Organization, 15th ed., 1402 SH.
  • Mousavian, Seyed Abbas, and Mohammad Tavhidi, Foundations of Islamic Finance, Tehran, Imam Sadiq University Press (a), 1402 SH.
  • Mousavian, Seyed Abbas, Islamic Capital Market, Tehran, Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought, 1391 SH.
  • Mirmoezzi, Seyed Hossein, and Hossein Ghafourzadeh, “The Development of Professor Mousavian’s Intellectual Method: From the Jurisprudence-Centered Method to the Islam-Centered Method,” Collected Articles: Commemoration of Professor Seyed Abbas Mousavian, Tehran, Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought Publishing Organization, 1403 SH.
  • Yousefi, Ahmad, Collected Articles: Commemoration of Professor Seyed Abbas Mousavian, Tehran, Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought Publishing Organization, 1403 SH.
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