Understanding Shariah audit practice in Kuwait Islamic banks – three papers

Albader, Khaled J.A.B.Y. (2026) Understanding Shariah audit practice in Kuwait Islamic banks – three papers. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis examines the emergence, practice, and socio-political consequences of Shariah audit within Kuwaiti Islamic banks. While existing research in Islamic accounting has largely focused on normative prescriptions or conceptual critiques, it has paid limited attention to how Shariah audit is constituted and enacted in practice. Addressing this gap, the thesis adopts an interpretive and critical approach to investigate Shariah audit as a socially embedded and power-laden field of governance.

Drawing on the sociological framework of Pierre Bourdieu, the study conceptualises Shariah audit as a dynamic field structured by struggles over authority, legitimacy, and interpretation. The analysis is organised into three interconnected empirical papers. The first examines the emergence of Shariah audit as a field of power, demonstrating how competing actors— particularly Shariah auditors and financial auditors—negotiate authority within overlapping institutional logics. It shows that Shariah audit does not exist as a stable or unified practice, but is continuously shaped through contestation and negotiation. The second paper shifts focus to the everyday enactment of Shariah audit, analysing how practices are performed through routine interactions, organisational processes, and embodied dispositions. Using the concept of habitus, it reveals how audit practices are structured and reproduced through the social positioning of actors within the field. The third paper explores the broader consequences of Shariah audit, conceptualising it as a form of symbolic power that shapes organisational legitimacy, moral accountability, and social acceptance. It demonstrates how religious authority operates through doxa and symbolic violence, producing taken-forgranted acceptance of Shariah audit judgments.

Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative case study design based on in-depth interviews, archival materials, and contextual analysis. A purposive sampling strategy is used to engage key actors within the Shariah audit field, enabling theoretically informed insights rather than statistical generalisation. The analysis is iterative and reflexive, moving between empirical material and theoretical concepts to generate a nuanced understanding of practice. The thesis makes three key contributions. First, it advances Islamic accounting research by shifting the focus from normative debates to the empirical study of practice. Second, it extends critical accounting literature by demonstrating how religious auditing operates as a socio-institutional dispositive of governance. Third, it contributes to Bourdieusian accounting research by applying concepts of field, habitus, and symbolic power to a novel empirical context. Overall, the study provides a theoretically integrated and empirically grounded account of Shariah audit as an emergent and contested field that actively shapes the organisation, legitimacy, and meaning of Islamic banking.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Financial support provided by Public Authority for Applied Education and Training in Kuwait.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc; H Social Sciences > HG Finance
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School
• Funder's Name: Public Authority for Applied Education and Training in Kuwait
• Supervisor's Name: Wickramasinghe, Professor Danture and Ahn, Dr. Paul
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-85987
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Jun 2026 14:03
• Last Modified: 02 Jun 2026 14:32
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85987
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85987