Correspondence · Confidential Enquiry Channel
Al‑Ershaad Consultancy does not operate a public contact form. Enquiries received here are routed directly to the office of the Senior Advisor on duty and acknowledged within one business day under attorney‑client privilege protocols. Whether you are structuring a sovereign sukuk, certifying an in‑house product, or seeking a second‑opinion on a Shariah board resolution, your correspondence enters a managed channel — not a marketing inbox.
Two Jurisdictions · One Correspondence Channel
Our DIFC headquarters and Manama satellite are operated as a single coordinated correspondence register. Whichever office you address, your letter is read by the same Senior Advisor on duty that day. Both addresses are licensed venues for the receipt of formal Shariah review instructions.
Principal Office
DFSA External Shariah Review Firm · Licence No. ESRF‑0417
Satellite Office
CBB External Shariah Review Firm · CBB Reg. No. ESR‑0211
Both offices operate under a unified engagement letter and conflicts register. Engagement terms, fee schedules, and confidentiality protocols are governed by the DIFC office unless otherwise instructed by the client in writing.
The Single Action
One named advisor. Forty‑five minutes. No marketing deck, no junior associate, no obligation. The conversation is privileged, off the record until a formal engagement letter is signed, and conducted in the language of your boardroom.
Chapter One · Preparing the Brief
A senior advisor can move from enquiry to instruction in a single sitting — provided the principal arrives with four pieces of information already in hand. The following four chapters describe what we will ask, and why each field accelerates the engagement.
A one‑paragraph description of the structure — sukuk al‑ijara, musharakah mutanaqisah, mudarabah fund, takaful re‑insurance, or a hybrid — together with the role your institution intends to play: originator, investor, servicer, or Shariah reviewer of record. If the structure is still being modelled, an indicative term sheet is sufficient.
The regulator you report to (CBB, DFSA, SC Malaysia, OJK, FSA UK, or another), the listing venue if any, and the Shariah standard the instrument must conform to — AAOIFI, IFSB, the local central bank standard, or your institution’s internal Shariah governance framework. This determines which of our nine resident scholars is best assigned.
The date by which a Shariah opinion must reach your internal Shariah Supervisory Board, Investment Committee, or Board Risk Committee. Our average turnaround is six business days; expedited four‑day tracks are available for time‑bound sovereign issuances and live M&A transactions.
The principal parties to the proposed transaction, any prior engagements Al‑Ershaad has held with those counterparties, and whether the firm is being instructed jointly or solely on behalf of your institution. This permits our conflicts register to clear the engagement before formal appointment.
A principal who arrives with all four chapters in hand can expect a substantive preliminary view within the consultation itself — not a request for a second meeting.
Chapter Two · Admissibility
A Shariah advisory opinion is only as useful as the regulatory standing of the firm that issues it. The following credentials determine whether our opinions are admissible before your regulator, your internal Shariah board, and the standard‑setters who audit your product shelf.
01
External Shariah Review Firm, DIFC. Our DFSA licence permits the issuance of formal Shariah opinions, product certifications, and structural reviews to DFSA‑regulated Islamic financial institutions and to those operating passported into the DIFC from GCC and European jurisdictions.
02
External Shariah Review Firm, CBB Reg. No. ESR‑0211. Our Bahraini standing permits opinions addressed to Bahraini‑licensed Islamic banks, takaful operators, and the Bahrain Bourse for sukuk listings — the most widely accepted regulatory venue for cross‑border GCC Shariah opinions.
03
Active panel member of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions. Our resident scholars have contributed to four fiqh standards adopted by AAOIFI since 2014, and our firm is permitted to certify AAOIFI‑aligned product structures on behalf of member institutions.
04
Listed with the Islamic Financial Services Board as a technical advisor for prudential standard reviews, and panel‑registered with the Bahrain Shari’a Review Bureau for cross‑border SSB coordination across the GCC, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Chapter Three · Operational Questions
The following are the operational questions most often raised by heads of Shariah compliance, general counsel, and chief risk officers before initiating contact. They are answered here so the first conversation can begin at principal speed.
Yes. Every enquiry received through this page is logged under our standard confidentiality protocol, read only by the Senior Advisor on duty, and never disclosed to third parties. A mutual non‑disclosure agreement is offered as a matter of course on the first call — it does not gate confidentiality itself.
Six business days for the initial review and conditional opinion, benchmarked as 3.4x faster than the GCC boutique advisory median in the 2023 IFAAS study. Expedited four‑day tracks are available for sovereign issuances and live transactions. Full Shariah Supervisory Board‑grade certification runs in twelve to eighteen business days depending on instrument complexity.
Engagements are governed by a fixed fee memorandum rather than hourly billing, with fees calibrated to the notional value of the instrument, the regulatory jurisdiction, and the depth of certification required. A standard engagement letter and fee schedule are issued within forty‑eight hours of the first consultation, with no obligation to proceed.
Active mandates span fourteen jurisdictions across the GCC (UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman), the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Where a jurisdiction falls outside our direct licensing perimeter, we coordinate with locally‑licensed external Shariah reviewers under a joint‑opinion framework that preserves a single point of accountability for the client.
Either model is available. Approximately two‑thirds of our institutional clients retain us under a standing external Shariah reviewer mandate — providing them with a privileged annual review cycle, an on‑call advisor, and preferential turnaround. Project‑by‑project engagement is equally common for sovereign and one‑off sukuk issuances.
No further question. The next step is yours.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation