Criticizing Some Misunderstanding about the Prohibition of Riba in Islamic Banking

Abstract

Since the start of modern banking in Islamic countries, some scholars have tried to provide a certain interpretation of riba prohibition in Islam which does not cover the interest-based banking system. Hence, it is completely possible to use conventional banking in Islamic countries. On the other hand, some others have tried to come up with a more comprehensive understanding of riba and criticize the conventional banking as a whole. According to this view, the possibility of using the conventional banking innovations in the Islamic context is very low. In this paper, both of these extreme views will be criticized. The results, which are based on an analytical-descriptive approach, show that these views cannot be accepted when considering the Islamic fiqh. In addition, because of the fact that the Islamic jurisprudence, over and above disallowing riba, approves different economic agreements (useful for diverse economic goals and incentives) and makes it possible to design new economic contracts, there is no need to come up with extreme views about the riba prohibition.

Keywords

• riba
• banking interest
• conventional banking
• islamic banking
• islamic fiqh