"Takaful" Insurance is a product presented by Islamic banks against potential threats on properties, health, work and income. The main difference between conventional insurance and "Takaful" insurance is that the former has uncertainty or "Gharar" in Sharia' terminology, since the client pays a certain amount of money but doesn't know precisely what he gets in reward particularly if the client needed no compensation. In such case, all the paid amounts go to the conventional insurance firm while the client is not rewarded in this case.
"Takaful" Insurance, on the other hand, is based on solidarity and donation between groups of people, each of which pays a specific amount of money in one financial pool. If any member of this group is worthy for compensation according to the terms of agreement, the whole group donates the compensation to this member. In "Takaful" insurance, the role of the insurance company is limited to invest the money and manage the compensation procedures.
The "Fund Pool" in "Takaful" insurance company is divided into two separate funds:
- "Contributors' Pool": Consists of clients' contributions. All compensations are funded from this pool.
- "Shareholders' Pool": The money in this pool is funded by the shareholders in order to run the company activities including investing contributors' funds in safe and profitable funds.
If "Takaful" insurance period ends with surplus in the contributors' pool , the client has one of the following options:
- Client can be refunded his share of the surplus amount.
- Use the share of the amount to renew "Takaful" insurance document.
- Grant the amount to the company as bonus for their good performance.