Insurance companies as known in the West function fully in most of the Muslim world; nonetheless, Muslim religious scholars continue to debate whether Islam and insurance can coexist.;Marine insurance is believed to be the first type of insurance known to world civilization.;Insurance was first introduced into the Muslim world in the nineteenth century, and the first legalist who dealt with the problem of insurance was Ibn ('c(,))Abid(')in.;When speaking about insurance, one refers to four main types: insurance on property, and on life, liability insurance and social insurance. For theological reasons, life insurance is the most problematic type of insurance for Islam. Social insurance, on the other hand, is generally accepted, since it protects the public interest.;Since the beginning of the twentieth century, there have been as many opponents as supporters of insurance. Many attempts have been made to legitimitize insurance by weighing its benefits against its detriments (maslaha), by introducing it under ('c)urf and by refuting the existence of the negative connotations of interest, gambling and speculation which do exist in insurance contracts.;Another way to legitimize insurance is by creating an Islamic insurance. Islamic insurance has been put to the test in at least three Islamic insurance companies in the late 70s and early 80s. Their initial success has been significant; still, at present, the insurance market in Islamic and Arab countries is served mostly by Western-style insurance companies.;Hardly any company provides life insurance. Zakat will not be able to cover all social welfare expenses, even when its collection is at its peak. Property insurance, which used to be applied only to large commercial and governmental projects, is spreading rapidly and attracting individual customers as well.;The real competition between the Islamic insurance companies and the Western-style ones has not yet begun.;The theory of Islamic insurance is sophisticated yet workable. Whether it will win popular support in practice will depend on the religious atmosphere in a specific country at a specific time, at least as much as on the pure economic soundness of Islamic insurance.
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