The Status of Life Insurance in Fiqh Contracts

Life insurance is a new form of contract that has been favored in today’s world exposed to a variety of risks. This insurance provides a value added situation, materially and spiritually, at both small and large levels of the society. The highly advantageous side of this insurance is its affording assurance and security against impending death. There are two approaches to rendering the insurance a sharia-based character: one is its being conforming to the pre-established principles, and the other falls within statute. The solution for conforming it to sharia principles is to adjust it to one of fiqh-based forms of contract: contract of liability (ziman), and contract of settlement (solh) as compared to other forms of contract like hiba, jualah, muzaraba and alike.