In Islamic Finance: Law, Economics, and Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Mahmoud A. El-Gamal recommends reorganizing Islamic finance to follow the spirit—rather than the letter—of the Koran. He also blogs on the subject at elgamal.blogspot.com. The “Shariah Report 2008” (Chicago: Failaka Advisors) offers biographical profiles of the most active scholars in the field, including their education, experience, and employers.

For an in-depth look at Islamic finance’s growing pains and the emerging hubs of the industry, see a recent special report on the industry from the Financial Times (June 19, 2008). Forbes offers an overview of the people, places, and prohibitions central to the movement in a similar multiarticle special report (April 21, 2008). Joanna Slater’s “When Hedge Funds Meet Islamic Finance” (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 9, 2007) describes how sheikhs are advising hedge funds on attracting capital from the Middle East.

Additional resources on the industry are available at the Web site of Harvard Law School’s Islamic Finance Project. Publicly listed companies that are compliant with Islamic finance are found on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index.