在任何社会中，以高效方式投入财富、汇集劳动与专业知识并组建公司的机会都至关重要。西方社会围绕可在股票市场上自由交易的股份有限公司聚集发展，而伊斯兰教则为公司的组建与运作制定了具体规则，这些规则与之存在若干明显差异。

The opportunity to invest wealth, aggregate labour and expertise, and form companies in an efficient manner is fundamental to any society. While western societies have congregated around the joint stock company which is freely traded on stock markets, Islam has set out specific rules for the formation and function of companies which have some distinct differences.

伊斯兰教将公司的组建视为一项需要所有参与者要约与承诺的特定交易，这意味着合伙人之间必须就接纳新参与者达成一致。该交易的基本要素还在于，公司实体具有特定的资本和主体（人）两个要素，而标准的股份有限公司只是一种纯资本型公司（甚至董事也是雇员）。公司拥有一个“主体”要素是绝对必要的，因为它确立了对公司行为的全面问责和责任。再加上禁止“有限责任”，便可避免许多人藏身其后的匿名状态，而这种匿名状态正是标准的公众有限公司（PLC）或法国的股份有限公司（SA，Société Anonyme）所具有的。缺乏一个承担有限责任的、可问责的主体，已在当前的危机中造成了灾难性的后果。26.

Islam treats the formation of the company as a specific transaction requiring an offer and acceptance by all participants meaning that there must be agreement between partners for new participants. Fundamental to the transaction is also the notion that the corporate entity has a specific capital and body element, whereas the standard joint stock company is a company of capital only (even the Directors are employees). A “body” element to the company is an absolute requirement as it establishes complete accountability and responsibility for the actions of the company. This coupled with prohibition of “limited liability” means that the anonymity behind which many hide in the standard PLC (Public Limited Company) or SA (Société Anonyme in France) is avoided. This lack of an accountable body with limited liability has had disastrous consequences in the current crisis. 26.

当雷曼兄弟这家倒闭的投资银行声名狼藉的首席执行官理查德·富尔德于2008年10月6日向国会作证时,他为自己获得的4.84亿美元薪酬进行辩护,而他心里很清楚,自己正从他和同事们监管下的那场灾难中全身而退。对于他们将资产负债表杠杆放大20至30倍、所进行的极度冒险的押注,以及仍然存续的数十万份衍生品合约,他都不承担任何个人责任,因此富尔德可以若无其事地轻描淡写地回应大多数质询。在证词中,他表示自己对雷曼兄弟的破产承担"全部责任",并且为此"感到非常痛心"。然而,就在银行倒闭的前几天(它未能获得财政部的救助)，其高管仍在批准向即将离任的高级管理人员发放2000万美元的"特别款项"。

When the disgraced Chief Executive officer of the failed investment Bank Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, gave testimony to Congress on October 6th, 2008 he defended his $484 million in salary fully aware that he was walking away from the disaster he and his colleagues oversaw at the bank. Without any personal liability for the 20 or 30 times leveraging of their balance sheet assets, the enormously risky bets they were taking nor the hundreds of thousands of derivative contracts which remain outstanding, Fuld could happily brush aside most questions. In his testimony he said he took “full responsibility” for the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and “felt horrible” about it. Yet, even days before the bank collapsed (failed to gain a Treasury bailout) their executives were endorsing $20 million in ‘special payments’ for departing senior executives27.

关于本次危机中高管奖金水平以及是否应当加以限制的争论，忽视了最重要的一点。当银行的行为几乎不承担实际的金钱责任和法律责任时，我们便可以预见到如今已经普遍出现的那些过度行为。伊斯兰公司法确保公司的所有者不能借有限责任之名而躲避责任，他们对自己所订立合同的履行情况以及所参与的一切交易所产生的金钱影响都负有全部责任。此外，美国在安然（Enron）和世通（Worldcom）丑闻之后出台的《萨班斯－奥克斯利法案》（Sarbanes-Oxley）等被动式立法，其中高级管理人员实际上在"做假账"，然而这类立法在本次危机中几乎没有起到任何作用，因为它没有触及银行/机构交易责任这一关键要素。在伊斯兰教中，任何公司的所有者或合伙人即便在公司倒闭之后，仍然要对损失承担责任。正是这种对行为的真正问责，而非仅仅限制奖金的可能性，才能为公司高管的交易行为带来一种审慎与清醒。

The debate over levels of executive bonuses in this crisis and whether they should be curtailed neglects the most important fact. When there is little or no actual monetary and legal accountability for the actions of a bank then we can expect the type of excesses that have become common. Islamic corporate law ensures that the owners of the company are not shielded behind limited liability, they are fully accountable for the performance of their contracts and any monetary impact for all the transactions they enter into. Furthermore reactive legislation such as the Sarbannes Oxley laws introduced in the US in response to the Enron and Worldcom debacles where senior executives were effectively “cooking the books” has had virtually no effect in this crisis because it failed to address the key element of liability for the transactions of the banks/institutions. In Islam the owners/partners of any company remain liable for losses even after a company has failed. This issue of real accountability for actions, rather than potential curtailment of bonuses provides a level of sobriety to the trading practices of company executives.

必须强调的是,除少数例外情况外,在西方商业活动所适用的宽松公司法之下,那些激进的杠杆操作(借贷)、衍生品投机以及一系列高风险交易,本身都是完全合法的。因此,高管们利用如此宽松的交易环境为自己攫取巨额薪酬,而对其中的风险几乎不加顾虑,也就不足为奇了。

It must also be stressed that, with a few exceptions, the aggressive leveraging (borrowings), derivative bets, and array of risky transactions were all fully legal under the lax corporate laws governing business in the West. It is thus little wonder that executives have taken advantage of such a lax trading environment to drive massive compensation packets for themselves, with little concern for the risks involved.