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 >>You guys are harsh! as for Meaningless waffle - well both of you misunderstand.  

 Indeed Sukuk are the nearest thing to an islamic 'bond' but that give no understanding as why does Islam need an alternative (Sukuk)? The key point is that within islamic finance they cannot invest in conventional fixed income securities - and hence have created a kind of subsititute? Why can't the use conventional bonds? well for the key reasons mentioned in the definition. As such understanding why they cannot invest in typical bonds gives a better undertstanding of what are the key structural features in Sukuk.  

 Wikipediatrix is right is that in is a massively summarised version of an 8000 word paper (""I"" wrote on the subject) cited by FT, Bloomberg, Reuters, Gulf news et al. I also provide commentary to BusinessWeek. I saw a blank space under the defn (never saw the old one you mention) and thought the topic was to important to leave empty - its odd that you are confident enought to rubbish my effort while offering no contribution of your own.. Anyhow free country/web etc..  
 kho."