ihiBlog: Sheikh Usmani’s opinion on sukuk: “Sheikh Yusuf deLorenzo, a prominent Shari’ah scholar, translated the opinion of Sheikh Taqi Usmani on the permissibility of many forms of sukuk into English. One form of sukuk that Sheikh Usmani focused was the requirement that the underlying assets be purchased at face value, not market value, and also that payments to the sukuk holders be linked to an interest rate. The main problem with linking sukuk returns to the interest rate is that the structure forced the manager of the enterprise to make an interest-free loan to investors if profits fell below the benchmark interest rate that would be repaid when profits were higher or at the time of asset repurchase. Sheikh Usmani believes that instead of benchmarking payments to investors and managers of sukuk-financed enterprises, these payments should vary based on the profitability of the business. “