Recognizing and Ranking Islamic Financial Instruments (SUKUK)

Policy makers and programmers of Islamic financial markets try to use basic Islamic contracts for designing and creating new Islamic financial instruments and replace them with conventional instruments، so investors try to assess these new instruments in every respect. One of the most important sides of these new Islamic instruments is their risks. In this regard this essay is seeking to define the common and specific risks of Islamic financial instruments through the method of Delphi، and then in the next part it has ranked those risks by using the method of AHP. Statistics shows that the most common Islamic instruments are: Musharakah، Ijarah، Mudharabah، Istisna’، Murabaha، Salam، and diminishing Musharakah. The method of Delphi clarified that the most important risks are: market risk، inflation risk، liquidity risk، operational risk، shari’ah risk، and default and credit risk. Afterwards the AHP method showed that the highest and lowest risks of that instrument are as follows: the highest and lowest credit risk exists in the Salam and diminishing Musharakah، the highest and lowest market risk exists in the Mudharabah and Murabaha، the highest and lowest liquidity risk exists in the Salam and Murabaha، the highest and lowest default risk exists in the Salam and Musharakah، the highest and lowest inflation risk exists in the Murabaha and diminishing Musharakah، the highest and lowest operational risk exists in the diminishing Musharakah and Murabaha، and the highest and lowest shari’ah risk exists in the Salam and Ijarah. This essay is important for two kinds of people: first of all financial investors and second for the ones who try to design and issue new Islamic financial instruments.