Fintech and Islamic Finance: Setting the Shari'ah Parameters

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Innovation in Islamic finance is not only welcomed, but is also necessary to meet various needs of society. For that reason, Shari’ah as the foundations where Islamic finance is operating invites creativity and innovative means in financial practices. Fintech as a new innovation in financial services is therefore a welcome development in Islamic finance. In this paper we have observed the following parameters need to be followed in fintech application, namely (1) the basic permissibility principle in Shariah invites creativity and innovation in financial services to facilitate mankind’s activities in transactions; (2) Fintech application should observe the prohibitions such as interest (riba), gambling (maysir), uncertainty (gharar), harm (darar), cheating (tadlis), and etc.; (3) Fintech application should observe the rules in contract, namely the pillars (rukn) and conditions (shurut); (4) Fintech application should observe Islamic ethics in transactions; and (5) Fintech application should aim at realising benefits (maslahah) and avoiding harms (mafsadah) in the society