Rationale
of the Prohibition of Interest
The representation in
the holy Quran of the practice of interest as an act of “war with Allah and his
messenger” provides an insight into the philosophy behind the prohibition of interest
in Islam. It is a clear pointer that the institution of interest is
somethingwhich runs counter to the scheme of things Which Islam atands for and
which Allah wanted to see established on
earth. That the words Allah has blighteth riba
and made sadaqat fruitful, which occur
in verse 276 of surah Al-Baqara, also
point towards the fact that the practice of interest militates against the
objectives of an Islamic society, while sadaqat promotes these objectives. The main
points of the rationale for the prohibition of interest in Muslim countries may
be listed as follows.
- Transactions based on interest violate the equity aspect of economic organisation.
- An interest-based system discourrages innovation, particularly on the part of small-scale enterprises.
- In an interest-based system, banks are only interested in recovering their capital along with interest.
- An interest-based system dampens investment activity because it adds to the costs of investment.
- The interest-based system is security oriented rather than growth oriented.
