EDITORIAL
Note from the
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF This issue is special in many ways. Firstly, it includes a comprehensive account of Cambridge Islamic Finance Leadership Programme – the first and the only leadership programme in the world that is tailor-made for the middle and upper-middle management personnel of the institutions offering Islamic financial services. I believe that our reader will enjoy the ISFIRE Report this issue contains. Secondly, this issue is going to be distributed at our 6th Global Islamic Finance Awards to be held at Jakarta, Indonesia; which is expected to be one of the most respectable gatherings of the most influential leaders of the global Islamic financial services industry. Thirdly, this issue brings to you a very unique perspective on Islamic banking and finance by Dato’ Wan Mohd Fadzmi Wan Othman, CEO of Agrobank, Malaysia; who features on the cover page. Finally, it is my pleasure to report that with this issue, ISFIRE has emerged as the most widely circulated magazine in Islamic finance, which is also the only print magazine on Islamic banking and finance, published from London. All other Islamic finance magazines from London have either gone out of physical print circulation or no longer available in the market. In terms of contents, ISFIRE has also nearly achieved its target of becoming HBR of Islamic finance. When we started in 2011, we had studied the market of print magazines and popular journals, and amongst the top magazines, we chose Harvard Business Review to be our benchmark. Today, ISFIRE is considered as HBR of Islamic finance. This is due to our editorial policy of publishing only those articles and papers that have exclusively been written for ISFIRE. Our interviews are also exclusively conducted for ISFIRE. We do not cut and paste or borrow material from other publications. Originality is our hallmark! ISFIRE is also unique in another way. It is the only magazine in Islamic banking and finance in the whole world, which have a full-time Editor-in-Chief and Editor who holds PhD degrees in economics and finance, and are indeed respected for their advocacy role for Islamic banking and finance. Since Dr Sofiza Azmi joined the editorial team, ISFIRE has significantly improved and has, as asserted above, approached its benchmark in terms of style and quality of contents. In this issue, we have included our first Technical Note on Standardisation of Notation in Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance. The first note is on Murabaha. I would also like to congratulate Professor Kabir Hasan of the University of New Orleans, and a member of our International Editorial Board, for winning this year’s Islamic Development Bank Prize in Islamic Banking and Finance. We have included a detailed interview of him, which our readers must find of interest. I am thankful to all those who had faith in us, and supported ISFIRE generously for us to continue to produce a quality publication in Islamic banking and finance.
Professor Humayon Dar, PhD (Cantab) Editor-in-Chief