SUKUK BACKED BY MIXED ASSET
Sukuk literally means “pieces of paper” or “documents that acknowledge something.” In a commercial sense it refers to instruments used in Islamic finance to allow one party to raise capital or funds in the capital market with the issuance of sukuk papers that list the rights and obligations of all parties involved in a transaction. Even though sukuk are sometimes referred to as Islamic bonds, they are not bonds in the conventional sense as holders of the former are not supposed to expect a fixed rate of returns from their purchase of these securities, as is the case with conventional bond holders. In the case of sukuk, what is important is that holders of the certificates must own the underlying assets to justify returns which are not fixed but are tied to actual returns/incomes generated by the assets owned. Hence, in the case of sukuk musharakah, for example, investors are sold portions of assets to be used in business. Returns to holders are in fact income or profit earned from the use of the assets in a manner specified in the sukuk contracts.
