Contemporary Islamic Finance: Innovations, Applications and Best Practices

Acknowledgments

Many people worked together to make this book possible. I would like to begin by thanking Bob Kolb for presenting me with the idea for an “Islamic Finance” volume, and my colleague at DePaul University, Timur Gok, for introducing us in the first place. I am forever grateful to the contributors to this volume: they supported the vision and were rewarded for that support with pesky follow-up questions and edit requests, which they endured with good humor. Those who have known me for years have seen a new side of me; I hope my editorial persona has not scared them away or scared away those authors who are new to my professional network. Emilie Herman and Kevin Commins at John Wiley & Sons kept all of us on track. Emilie's patience apparently knows no bounds.

I would also like to thank colleagues and friends who have supported me in the writing process. Annette Iskra, Suzanne Gaskins, Richard Taub, John Lucy, Rick Shweder, Sheikh Nizam Yacouby, Imam Senad Agic, Aminah McCloud, Juliet Bromer, and Jack Mosevich have patiently helped me sort through priorities in the continuing struggle to balance professional and personal life. Ali Fatemi, the chair of DePaul's Finance Department, made life easier at work so I could dedicate time for the book. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my research assistant, Sarah Lalji, who put in many hours of work to take care of book details, in addition to her full-time school schedule.

My daughters, Ozakh and Hazar, are the most wonderful ...