In a webinar hosted on Zoom by the University of Human Development (UHD) on 22^nd February 2022 at 8:30 Erbil Time, Prof. Dr Ali Qaradaghi, the Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and Head of the Board of Trustees of University of Human Development, presented a talk on smart and electronic contracts and their legality from an Islamic point of view.

He mentioned that Islam has had a significant contribution to the development of society and the civilisations around it. He referred to the Islamic principle of having mutual consent in contract between the parties and the principle of tacit approval or agreement to establish important and flexible bases for various forms of contracts—smart and electronic contracts can be said to be legal from the Islamic point of view under two conditions or when two things are executed.

Regarding smart contracts, they need to be detached from cryptocurrencies, then they can be used for many other purposes. As for electronic contracts, one must be aware that the companies or the intermediaries with whom one does transactions must be reliable and liable for faults.

Prof. Dr Ali Qaradaghi encouraged the UHD to exert its efforts to develop a smart contract programme and put it at the public’s service by sharing it with other institutions and government agencies. He said that the Kurds must trust themselves with invention and innovation and they can develop great things if they have the will to do so. He finally took some questions from the audience. The webinar lasted more than an hour and a half.

The UHD President Prof. Dr Mariwan Ahmed Rasheed thanked Prof. Dr Ali Qaradaghi for his time and knowledge and said that his recommendations would be taken seriously.