05-01-2004, 11:12 PM
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Dear friends
Just a few things to share with you all.
Hope these will help you out in achieving a conclusion on this issue.
1. As a Muslim we should know that when Allah SWT sent us in this world, he gave us certain instructions called "deen" which is a complete way of living.
2. As Muslims we must have faith that whatever Almighty has instructed us to do, is in our favour either individually or collectively.
3. Riba of any sort is Haram and is declared to be a War with Allah Almighty. A number of jurists have discussed a lot on this issue and the issue now stands resolved as far as the perspective of Sharia scholars is concerned, that the modern day interest falls within the definition of Riba.
4. Our Deen also provides us with the instructions on an overall socio-economic system. This system includes various instruction on the modes of contract law, partnership law, taxation laws, sales of goods and other commercial laws. It is not silent on any of the aspect of human life and we are obliged to abide by these instructions individually and collectively.
5. Now coming to the matter of interst, as to why it is Haram and why it is considered to detrimental to the society.
6. The first thing is its social effect that it makes people greedy and loving the money. This effect has numerous social and ethical side-effects also.
7. From economic point of view, this has proved to be detrimental to the collective benefits of the society. If we define interest in purely economic terms, we can say that "it is generation of wealth during a specific period, without any productive activity".
8. Now imagine that irrespective of the performance of other productive factors, the owner of one factor i.e. capital is asking that "you have to give me fixed return, irrespective of whatever gets produced". There is no guarantee that even any productive activity would take place or not. On the contrary he is not taking any risk at all. Does it seem justifiable.
9. Most important thing to note is that since the interest mandates generation of wealth without any productive activity, IT HAS BEEN PROVED TO BE THE PRIME CAUSE FOR "INFLATAION". For this purpose you may consider to study a number of books and papers that have actually diagnosed the capitalist system, fairly in detail and in an analytical manner. How funny is that now people justify its siginficance, because of INFLATION, whereas actually it is the prime cause of inflation.
10. Notwithstanding this selfish, greedy and cruel approach, Islamic financing options are either trade based, rent based or profit and loss sharing based. All these modes are actually based on real factors of production i.e. land, tangible assets and enterprenuer's skills and experience.
11. In all these basis, the financer really takes the risk of loss whereas it is always ensure that some commercial and economic activity is actually underlying these transaction. Accordingly, these are just and equitable bases for business financing.
12. Last but not the least, these all things work ideally in a complete Islamic society, which is currently not present. Islamic banking and finance is just a facet of the same. Nevertheless, we should ensure that we are striving towards development of an Islamic society, individually and collectively. We should further ensure that we are avoiding the interest and all other non-permissible transactions in our individual lives either through avoiding them at all or by using Islamic financial institutions as an alternate.
Thanks and Allah Hafiz
Dear friends
Just a few things to share with you all.
Hope these will help you out in achieving a conclusion on this issue.
1. As a Muslim we should know that when Allah SWT sent us in this world, he gave us certain instructions called "deen" which is a complete way of living.
2. As Muslims we must have faith that whatever Almighty has instructed us to do, is in our favour either individually or collectively.
3. Riba of any sort is Haram and is declared to be a War with Allah Almighty. A number of jurists have discussed a lot on this issue and the issue now stands resolved as far as the perspective of Sharia scholars is concerned, that the modern day interest falls within the definition of Riba.
4. Our Deen also provides us with the instructions on an overall socio-economic system. This system includes various instruction on the modes of contract law, partnership law, taxation laws, sales of goods and other commercial laws. It is not silent on any of the aspect of human life and we are obliged to abide by these instructions individually and collectively.
5. Now coming to the matter of interst, as to why it is Haram and why it is considered to detrimental to the society.
6. The first thing is its social effect that it makes people greedy and loving the money. This effect has numerous social and ethical side-effects also.
7. From economic point of view, this has proved to be detrimental to the collective benefits of the society. If we define interest in purely economic terms, we can say that "it is generation of wealth during a specific period, without any productive activity".
8. Now imagine that irrespective of the performance of other productive factors, the owner of one factor i.e. capital is asking that "you have to give me fixed return, irrespective of whatever gets produced". There is no guarantee that even any productive activity would take place or not. On the contrary he is not taking any risk at all. Does it seem justifiable.
9. Most important thing to note is that since the interest mandates generation of wealth without any productive activity, IT HAS BEEN PROVED TO BE THE PRIME CAUSE FOR "INFLATAION". For this purpose you may consider to study a number of books and papers that have actually diagnosed the capitalist system, fairly in detail and in an analytical manner. How funny is that now people justify its siginficance, because of INFLATION, whereas actually it is the prime cause of inflation.
10. Notwithstanding this selfish, greedy and cruel approach, Islamic financing options are either trade based, rent based or profit and loss sharing based. All these modes are actually based on real factors of production i.e. land, tangible assets and enterprenuer's skills and experience.
11. In all these basis, the financer really takes the risk of loss whereas it is always ensure that some commercial and economic activity is actually underlying these transaction. Accordingly, these are just and equitable bases for business financing.
12. Last but not the least, these all things work ideally in a complete Islamic society, which is currently not present. Islamic banking and finance is just a facet of the same. Nevertheless, we should ensure that we are striving towards development of an Islamic society, individually and collectively. We should further ensure that we are avoiding the interest and all other non-permissible transactions in our individual lives either through avoiding them at all or by using Islamic financial institutions as an alternate.
Thanks and Allah Hafiz