The Jurisprudent Council of the Insurance Industry was founded with the following objectives: “Shariah-based supervision of the insurance industry”, “Verifying compliance of various policies with Shariah principles”, “Development of a comprehensive insurance based on the teachings of Ahlulbait (Peace be Upon Them)”, “Supervising the development, formulation, and implementation of takaful based on the Shia jurisprudence”. The Chairperson of the Council is Dr. Sayed Ali Husseini and its members are Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Asgari, Dr. Yaghoobali Borji, Abedin Siahat Esfandiari, and Dr. Mohammad Kazim Rajaee.
To date, the discussions of the meetings of the Council have been on the following themes: organizing Imamiah jurisprudence in the modern time and examining all the insurance-related approvals based on the Shariah principles and Imamiah jurisprudence, formulating the policies of the jurisprudence council’s activities, exploring takaful in the countries that are currently set to implement it in their insurance industry, examining the operational framework of the takaful fund of Iran Moin Reinsurance Company, Sarmad Insurance Company, and Amin Reinsurance Company, examining the position of the contracts in the takaful based on Imamiah jurisprudence, preparing a briefings of the activities of the Jurisprudent Council of the Insurance Industry, and exploring the operational model of takaful based on Imam Khomeini’s view depicted in his book ‘Tahrir Al-Vasilah’.
Based on this report, the preliminary studies show that two contracts for takaful can be proposed for Islamic Republic of Iran: First is Solh Contract which is a required contract whose significance lies in the feature that it leaves the takaful operator and participant much freer from burdens in their practice; Second is the Shirkah contract which is a permitted contract however, it has less challenges compared with other contracts and many modern jurisprudents have a special leanings towards it.
Based on the 153 hours of discussions and study of the Council, not only the Imamiah jurisprudence was examined but also those in Sunnah jurisprudent books. Thus, the proposed contracts are based on the viewpoints of the domestic and foreign consumers.