随着这一时期信贷的急剧扩张，会计准则也出现了恶化，这加剧了不确定性，并削弱了人们对整个体系的信心。与信贷增长相伴的是表外资产与负债入账规模的扩大，其中许多是衍生工具。这使得大量风险资产和负债得以在投资者和监管机构的视线之外持有。被救助的花旗集团（Citigroup）可以说明这一问题的严重程度。截至2008年6月，这家全球最大的银行持有的表外资产高达1.2万亿美元。普华永道会计师事务所（PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP）合伙人宝莉·沃勒斯（Pauline Wallace）对这种表外会计作了精辟的描述，她说："魔术师来参加派对，他们能让东西凭空消失。风险仍然存在于某处，只是你永远不知道它在哪里。28"

Along with the run up in credit over this past period we have seen a deterioration in accounting standards that have contributed to uncertainty and a lack of confidence in the system in general. Mirroring the growth in credit has been a growth in “off-balance sheet” recording of assets and liabilities, many of which are derivatives. This has enabled the holding of risky assets and liabilities beyond the gaze of investors and regulators alike. The extent of this could be seen in the recently bailed out Citigroup, the largest bank in the world, which as of June 2008 had 1.2 Trillion dollars of off-balance sheet holdings. Pauline Wallace, a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP accurately portrayed this off-balance sheet accounting when she said: “Magicians come to parties, and they make things seem to disappear. The risk is somewhere, but you never knew where28”.

表外持有项目包括期货、远期合约以及某些贷款承诺。伊斯兰教法明令禁止签订其中许多合约,而有意隐瞒这些项目则带来双重问题,因为这违背了对所有资产与负债进行透明核算的要求。与西方市场一样,伊斯兰社会高度重视及时、准确的财务报表,以规范公司经营并如实报告收益与财务状况。伊斯兰教法规定公司账目必须定期编制,投资者之间的利润分配也以此类账目的准确呈报为基础。在财务报表中不记录任何资产或负债,是绝对不允许的。 除政府救助之外,陷入困境的美国贷款机构如今还寄希望于暂停“按市价计值”会计规则,以此求得自救。这些规则要求机构按照最近一次的成交价格对其抵押贷款资产进行估值。然而,近期对这些规则的放宽并不能使损失消失。相反,它只会让贷款机构假装损失不存在,而代价则由投资于这些公司的每一个人以及整个体系的信心来承担。银行现在可以假装其抵押贷款资产具有更高的价值,使其资产负债表显得资本充足。这样一来,它们就不必为发放新贷款而筹集更多资本。然而,正如痛觉迟钝的人面临遭受灾难性伤害的危险一样,这种做法实际上会鼓励金融机构承担更大的风险,最终将导致更多的破产和更大的损失。

Off-balance sheet holdings include futures, forwards and certain loan commitments – whilst Islamic law forbids outright the entering into many of these contracts, the effective hiding of them is doubly a problem as it runs counter to the requirement for transparency of accounting for all assets and liabilities. Like western markets Islamic society places enormous importance on the provision of timely and accurate financial statements for the regulation of company practice and reporting of earnings and financial position. Islamic law mandates that company accounts be prepared regularly and the distribution of earnings amongst investors is based upon the accurate provision of same. The non recording of any assets or liabilities in the financial statements is simply not allowed. In addition to the government bailouts, distressed US lenders are also now looking to the suspension of “mark to market” accounting rules as a means of salvation. These rules require institutions to value their mortgage assets according to the most recently traded price. However, the recent relaxing of these rules will not make the losses go away. Rather it will simply allow lenders to pretend that the losses do not exist to the expense of anyone investing in these companies and confidence in the system. Banks can now pretend that their mortgage assets for example have greater value, and that their balance sheets are well capitalised. They would not need to raise more capital in order to fund new loans. But, just as a person with no sensitivity to pain runs the risk of catastrophic injury, such a move actually encourages financial institutions to take greater risks, which, in the end, will produce more bankruptcies and greater losses.

相较于让企业左右监管机构如何适用会计准则，伊斯兰教法要求始终如一地运用市场价值来确定财务状况。投资者加入或离开一家公司时，不能依据“按模型计价”（mark to model）或其他估算结果来进行，而这些估算往往出自那些奖金取决于最高估值的人之手，他们希望将这些估值纳入其中。西方的企业精英对政府政策的影响过大，这在伊斯兰教中是不可能出现的：选举新的哈里发时，公司的结构、组建方式和会计法律都不能被更改。对公司法律的不断修修补补，暴露出一个不合时宜的体系所固有的缺陷，它也无法给投资者所渴求的真正透明度。

Rather than letting corporations dictate to regulators how accounting standards should or should not be applied, the Shariah law requires consistent application of market values in determining financial position. Investors joining or leaving a company cannot do so on the basis of “mark to model” or other estimates of what those whose bonus is dependant on the highest value, want to include. There is too much influence on government policy from corporate elites in the West, a matter that cannot arise in Islam as with the election of a new Caliph, the company structure, formation and accounting laws cannot be changed. The constant tinkering with the corporate laws expose the inherent failures of a system that is not fit for purpose and lacks the true transparency investors crave.