Bringing proof that interest is not haram
Question:
Whoever says it is allowed to deal with interest has the burden to provide the evidence.
Answer:
Before answering your question I need to make it more precise.
I am not aware of any scholars who have said 'interest' is halal. This is not my view either. The question is, whether all kinds of interest is haram, or only a specific kind of interest (usury) is haram.
Therefore I reword your question as follows:
"Whoever says it is allowed to deal with interest that is not usury has the burden to provide the evidence."
My answer:
No my dear friend. Please bear in mind that 'interest' is an English www.jstor.org/stable/20832724word. The Qur'an obviously was revealed in Arabic. The Qur'an has declared 'riba' to be haram. Whoever says riba that the Qur'an made haram is the same as every kind of interest today has the burden to provide evidence.
However since this is an educational website I do bring reasoning. I initially thought I should write about it, but I then decided, given my other commitments, it should suffice if I provide reference to some of the very good writings about the topic by our great contemporary and past scholars and researchers. The fact of the matter is that evidence has already been provided by a number of our Muslim intellectuals, many of whom have/had expertise in this particular subject. So I refer you to some of the following books/chapters/articles and if you have problem accessing any of the articles, just let me know:
- Abdullah Saeed: "Islamic Banking and Interest: A Study of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam and Its Contemporary Interpretation", Brill Academic Publishers, 1996.
- Abdullah Saeed: "The Moral Context of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam Revisited", American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol, 12 No. 4.
- Fazlur Rahman: "Riba and Interest", Islamic Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (MARCH 1964), pp. 1-43
- Neş'et Çaǧatay: "Ribā and Interest Concept and Banking in the Ottoman Empire", Studia Islamica, No. 32 (1970), pp. 53-68
- Ahmad Shafaat: "Riba in the Qur`an: A Detailed Examination of Relevant Verses"
- Mohammad Omar Farooq: "Stipulation of Excess in Understanding and Misunderstanding Riba: The Al-Jassas Link", Arab Law Quarterly 21 (2007) 285-316
- Mohammad Omar Farooq: "The Riba-Interest Equation and Islam: Reexamination of the Traditional Arguments", Global Journal of Finance and Economics, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 99-111, September 2009
- Mohammad Omar Fariiq: "The Riba-Interest Equivalence: Is There an Ijma (Consensus)?", Transnational Dispute Management, Vol. 4, No. 5.- Farhad Nomani: "The Interpretative Debate of the Classical Islamic Jurists on Riba (Usury)", Semantic Scholar, Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economy, 2002.
You may be interested to know that it was only later in the scholarship of Islam that the view that says all kinds of interest is haram, became popular. You may like to know that even at the time of the Ottoman empire interest rates of up to 15% were considered permissible and not riba.
One only needs to extend the scope of one's studies to see the evidence that you are looking for.
--------
Farhad Shafti
February 2018
(revised: October 2022)
Whoever says it is allowed to deal with interest has the burden to provide the evidence.
Answer:
Before answering your question I need to make it more precise.
I am not aware of any scholars who have said 'interest' is halal. This is not my view either. The question is, whether all kinds of interest is haram, or only a specific kind of interest (usury) is haram.
Therefore I reword your question as follows:
"Whoever says it is allowed to deal with interest that is not usury has the burden to provide the evidence."
My answer:
No my dear friend. Please bear in mind that 'interest' is an English www.jstor.org/stable/20832724word. The Qur'an obviously was revealed in Arabic. The Qur'an has declared 'riba' to be haram. Whoever says riba that the Qur'an made haram is the same as every kind of interest today has the burden to provide evidence.
However since this is an educational website I do bring reasoning. I initially thought I should write about it, but I then decided, given my other commitments, it should suffice if I provide reference to some of the very good writings about the topic by our great contemporary and past scholars and researchers. The fact of the matter is that evidence has already been provided by a number of our Muslim intellectuals, many of whom have/had expertise in this particular subject. So I refer you to some of the following books/chapters/articles and if you have problem accessing any of the articles, just let me know:
- Abdullah Saeed: "Islamic Banking and Interest: A Study of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam and Its Contemporary Interpretation", Brill Academic Publishers, 1996.
- Abdullah Saeed: "The Moral Context of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam Revisited", American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol, 12 No. 4.
- Fazlur Rahman: "Riba and Interest", Islamic Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (MARCH 1964), pp. 1-43
- Neş'et Çaǧatay: "Ribā and Interest Concept and Banking in the Ottoman Empire", Studia Islamica, No. 32 (1970), pp. 53-68
- Ahmad Shafaat: "Riba in the Qur`an: A Detailed Examination of Relevant Verses"
- Mohammad Omar Farooq: "Stipulation of Excess in Understanding and Misunderstanding Riba: The Al-Jassas Link", Arab Law Quarterly 21 (2007) 285-316
- Mohammad Omar Farooq: "The Riba-Interest Equation and Islam: Reexamination of the Traditional Arguments", Global Journal of Finance and Economics, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 99-111, September 2009
- Mohammad Omar Fariiq: "The Riba-Interest Equivalence: Is There an Ijma (Consensus)?", Transnational Dispute Management, Vol. 4, No. 5.- Farhad Nomani: "The Interpretative Debate of the Classical Islamic Jurists on Riba (Usury)", Semantic Scholar, Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economy, 2002.
You may be interested to know that it was only later in the scholarship of Islam that the view that says all kinds of interest is haram, became popular. You may like to know that even at the time of the Ottoman empire interest rates of up to 15% were considered permissible and not riba.
One only needs to extend the scope of one's studies to see the evidence that you are looking for.
--------
Farhad Shafti
February 2018
(revised: October 2022)
