The Role and Responsibilities of Youth in Islam

Youth is considered to be the backbone of any nation. The level of moral development, civilization and consolidation of authority and potency depends on the morality of its youth. It can be said that nations survive till their ethics live. The question of youth and Islam at present stems from the overwhelming demographic weight of youth and their relatively recent invasion into the public domain, as well as a wave of Islamic revivalism throughout the world. For any society and its future the youth plays vital and integral role both for progress and decline. The reason is that youth can make the future dark or bright through their role as individuals and as active members of society. This paper draws on lively focus group narratives of young Muslims to explore the interactive presentation of Islamic selves. By bringing together young people who practice Islam in different ways, this paper offers a deeper insight into how claims to a universal identity are actively constructed and contested through particular social relationships and interactions in specific structural contexts. The first part of the paper presents introduction of the whole study. Second part gives description about the categories of youth including; pious, deviated and confused. In third part importance of youth in Islam has been highlighted. Fourth part presents social, moral, political situation of Muslim societies in contemporary time. Fifth part gives description of impact of moral, social, and political situation on the minds of young people. Discussion concludes with the responsibilities of youth which is followed by findings and conclusion of the whole discussion. In so doing, the paper takes up recent calls for more research on the personal meaning of Islam as religion for Muslim youth

Liquidity Management by Islamic Banks in Pakistan: Analysis of Shariah Legitimacy and an Empirical Investigation

This research was designed to explore the liquidity management mechanisms and practices of Islamic banks in order to gain an insight of difficulties being faced by the Islamic banks in managing liquidity with the ultimate objective of finding Shari’ah compliant way-outs of such difficulties. This research has developed following econometric models (i) Liability Model—that identifies liquidity behaviours of Islamic banking depositors; (ii) Asset Model—that identifies liquidity behaviours of both the Islamic bankers and entrepreneurs; (iii) Liquidity Reserves Model—that explores factors determining the Islamic banks’ optimal liquidity reserves; and (iv) Liquidity DemandSupply Models—that investigate the resilience of the Islamic banking industry by considering different scenarios of unanticipated liquidity withdrawals. This research has found that: (a) Sukūk are the widely used liquidity management instruments by IFIs; (b) IFIs invest their excess liquidity by means of Mudārabah and Wakālah based mechanisms; (c) Commodity Murābahah is another widely used liquidity management instrument; (d) In Malaysia, there are various liquidity management instruments available, which are based on contracts of Bay’ al-‘īnah and Bay’ al-Dayn; (e) conventional liquidity management instruments are debt-based securities, therefore, are not Shari’ah compliant due to the involvement of Islamically prohibited Ribā and Bay’ al-Dayn. This research has found the liquidity behaviours of Islamic banking depositors and Islamic bankers as follows: (a) Islamic banking depositors are classified into the following three segments: (i) depositors with religious motives; (ii) depositors with profit motives; and (iii) depositors with transactional motives; (b) Islamic banking depositors withdraw their funds: (i) to fulfil their transactional needs; (ii) to relocate their term deposits’ tenor for a higher return; (iii) to shift their term deposits into other Islamic banks offering higher returns; and (iv) to place their deposits in their conventional bank’s accounts for a higher return; (c) Islamic banks, on liability side, apply following two approaches: (i) liquidity reserves are maintained for meeting the regular liquidity demands; and (ii) extra liquidity reserves are retained for meeting any unanticipated liquidity demands and for the purpose of safe sailing in times of liquidity run; (d) Islamic banks, on asset side, manage liquidity by: (i) preferring financing proposals of previously well-performed projects; (ii) requiring Rahn (collateral) or Kafālah (guarantee); (iii) preferring short-term financing; (iv) preferring to finance existing account holders; and (v) regularly monitoring the performance of their business partners; (e) Islamic banks would respond to the liquidity withdrawals exceeding the liquidity reserves by: (i) interbank borrowings or borrowing from the parent bank; (ii) selling Sukūk; (iii) withdrawing fund placements in other banks; and (iv) using bank’s equity. If further liquidity is required, Islamic banks would use emergency liquidity facility from State Bank and ask depositors to wait for extra days.