Abstract
This study examines the juridical potential of gift-reward mechanisms as an alternative structure for Shariah-compliant personal financing amid continuing debates over contemporary financing instruments such as tawarruq munazzam and baiʿ al-ʿinah. Although these mechanisms are widely employed in Islamic financial practice, their contractual structures have generated persistent juristic disagreement concerning substance, legal form, and conformity with the objectives of Shariah. The study aims to critically assess the legal basis, contractual characteristics, and Shariah boundaries of gift-reward mechanisms and to formulate a jurisprudential framework for their application in personal financing. Employing a qualitative doctrinal approach, the research analyzes primary and secondary sources of Islamic jurisprudence through content analysis, supported by uṣūl al-fiqh, maqāṣid al-sharīʿah, and qawāʿid fiqhiyyah. Particular attention is given to the legal characterization of hibah (gift), thawāb (reward), and their relationship with financing obligations to determine whether the mechanism constitutes a genuine contractual arrangement or merely replicates the economic substance of contested financing structures. The findings demonstrate that a reconstructed gift-reward mechanism may be accommodated within fiqh al-muʿāmalāt when the underlying contracts remain legally independent, the gift is not transformed into a disguised return on a loan, and contractual conditions do not undermine the principles of voluntariness, transparency, and avoidance of ribā. The study further identifies the need for clear legal boundaries governing the timing, conditionality, and economic relationship between financing and reward. Its academic contribution lies in developing a jurisprudential framework that connects classical contractual doctrines with contemporary personal-financing innovation without reducing Shariah compliance to formal contractual arrangements. The proposed framework offers a basis for developing ethically grounded financing structures while preserving contractual integrity and advancing the substantive objectives of Shariah.