1. What is Takaful ?

The takaful Insurance is an agreement between members of a given group and common interests, called participants, who collectively decide to guarantee each other against a number of potential setbacks or losses, clearly defined in the agreement, by The intermediary of a common fund fuelled by the resources of each member of the group and which should be used to compensate the participants.

The fund is invested in accordance with Islamic shari’a and its wise management must provide profits. It is therefore a mutual solidarity through mutualisation of risks and resources.

It is often according to this model that the takaful work when they gather a small number of participants assisted by a manager responsible for daily operations. If the group of Associates is more significant, they can be created on the initiative of a promoter, a specialized company called the Takaful Manager who then manages it.

2. Forms Of Takaful

Several forms of takaful insurance exist depending on the nature of the various components of the management of the Fund and its objectives.

2.1 – Associative insurance

Non-profit insurance uses the model called Tabarru’a (donation تبرع)-based takaful. In this model, originally from Sudan, the promoters of the takaful insurance, no more than the insured obviously, do not receive income. The contribution originally paid by the promoters is a benevolent loan (Qard Hasan قرض حسن). The participants make a donation (Tabarru’a) to the Mutual Guarantee Fund. Temporary losses are also covered by benevolent loans made by the promoters. The policy holders are at the same time the fund managers. This organization is most often found in the social economy, particularly on Government initiative.

2.2 – Commercial Insurance :

The commercially managed insurance maintains, in any event, the distinction between the mutual fund of the insured and a fund constituted by the promoters, managers of the takaful.

Several forms are encountered depending on whether they use the Mudaraba or the Wakala (agent contract), alongside less conventional forms.

2.2.1 – The Mudaraba-based takaful insurance :

This formula is put in place in two times; the insured persons constitute, on the one hand, a mutual guarantee fund, the takaful as such, On the other hand, the insured and a company set up an agreement Mudaraba in which the former bring their resources (Rabb al-Maal رب المال) in the form of the Mutual Guarantee Fund and the second its managerial capacity (mudarib). It is only the mudaraba that the manager of Takaful withdraws his income thanks to the investments he realizes, income of course shared with the mutual fund of guarantee under the terms of the contract of Mudaraba.

In this way, even if the takaful is managed in a commercial manner, it remains a non-profit activity. Profits only come from the result of financial investments.

2.2.2 -Wakala-based Takaful :

In this formula, the manager of the Takaful insurance operates as an agent (Wakil) of policyholders who pay for it in As such.

Operations take place substantially as in paragraph Previous except that:

• The contract of Mudaraba is replaced by a contract of Wakala .
• The remuneration of the agent may be a fixed remuneration or represent a percentage of the The premiums collected by the mutual fund guaranteeing Insured.
• Expenditure on investment transactions is charged To the insured mutual fund.

The contract of Mudaraba is more interesting than the contract of Wakala For the manager of Takaful because it has a higher chance of compensation, while the second does not, in itself, encourage the manager to Manage the best interests of the insured.

At the same time, the Wakala contract allows policy holders to have a better transparency on the remuneration of the agent (Wakil) than on Mudarib, avoiding also various legal controversies on the method of remuneration.

To conclude, it will be added that the reinsurance is possible (retakaful) even with a conventional insurer see the fact that there is a lack in the offer of shari’a compliant reinsurers.

In this case, the Takaful Manager cannot receive a commission The reinsurer to whom it transmits the management of the mutual fund Insured because he is not his agent, but he can maintain a Share of premiums before transferring them to the reinsurer or arranging Profit sharing with him.

3. Types of takaful contracts

There are a large number of takaful-type insurance contracts that Cover various risks as is the case in Conventional insurance.

1.1 – Family-oriented contracts :

Family-oriented contracts are divided into individual contracts, Collective contracts, mortgage contracts and savings contracts. Individual contracts are essentially concluded in the long term To create a savings to cover different risks (sickness, Disability, death…) Or the retirement, the education of the children…
Collective contracts are contingency contracts concluded by the Various organizations for their members.

Mortgage contracts and savings contracts are used to To repay a loan in the event of a borrower’s inability. They can be short, medium or long term.

1.2 – General Contracts :

As the name implies, the general contracts are very Varied. They concern the fire and its consequences, theft, breakage of objects, failures, accidents at work, personal accidents or accidents caused to third parties…