تعیین ربا کا درست منہج اور سود کے جواز کے دلائل کا تجزیہ

Proper Methodology for Determining the Meaning of Ribā and Analysis of the Arguments for Justifying Bank Interest

Authors

  • Dr. Muhammad Zahid Siddique Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NUST Islamabad
  • Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmad Chairman, Department of Shariah and Law, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53762/alqamar.05.04.u01

Abstract

Defining Ribā has proved to be a difficult task for scholars in the contemporary world. The present paper argues that the problem lies the flawed methodology of these scholars. Hence, the paper focuses on the methodology of the Muslim jurists who held that Ribā was a technical term (Mujmal) the meaning of which was elaborated by the Prophetic traditions about ribā. Hence, believing in the inseparability of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the jurists connected the Qur’anic verses and the Prophetic traditions about Ribā and defined Ribā as: excess without a counter-value stipulated in a contract of exchange of property. The paper argues that this definition of Ribā answers all significant questions about the term, such as: whether bank-interest is included in the scope of Ribā; whether the prohibition of Ribā covers interest on credit raised for commercial purposes; whether paying interest is a lesser sin than receiving interest; whether indexation of loans is permitted in Islam; whether charging a higher price in credit-sale is permitted; whether Islamic law recognizes the concept of time-value of money; and so on. After answering these questions, the paper also examines some of the important arguments forwarded by various economists for justifying interest and concludes that these arguments do not carry any weight.

References

See for details of this methodology: Muaḥmmad Rashīd Riḍā, al-Ribā wa al-Mu‘āmalāt fī al-Islām (Cairo: Dār al-Manār, 2007). See also: Sayyid Yaqub Shah, “Islam and Productive Credit”, The Islamic Review 47:3(1959), 34-37; Izzud-Din Pal, “Pakistan and the Question of Riba”, Middle Eastern Studies 30:1 (1994), 64-78; Fazlur Rahman, “Riba and Interest,” English Translation, Fikr-o Naẓar, (1963). This theory seems to have generated interest recently. For instance, see: ‘Abd al-Karīm Atharī, Sūd Kyā Hay? (Mandi Bahauddin: Anjuman-i-Ishā‘at-i-Islām, 2008).

For representative writings of this methodology, see: Muftī Muḥammad Shafī‘, Mas’ala-i-Sūd (Karachi: Idārat al-Ma‘ārif, 1994); Sayyid Abū al-A‘lā Mawdūdī, Sūd (Lahore: Islamic Publications, 2000); M. Ayub, “What is Riba?” Journal of Islamic Banking and Finance, 13:1(1996), 7-24. M. Umer Chapra, “The Nature of Riba in Islam,” Hamdard Islamicus. 7:1 (1984), 3-24; Nijatullah Siddiqui, Riba, Bank Interest and the Rationale of Its Prohibition (Jeddah: Islamic Development Bank & Islamic Research & Training Institute, 2004); and Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Historic Judgment on Riba (Karachi: Marif-ul-Islami, 1999)

See, for instance: Rafiullah Shihab, Kirāya Makānāt kī Shar‘ī Haythiyyat (Lahore: Kitāb Ghar, 1987).

Several people have expressed this view. See, for instance: Zia-ul Haque, “The Nature and Significance of the Midlevel and Modern Interpretations of Riba”, The Pakistan Development Review, 32:4 (1993, 933-946.

Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, Kitāb al-Iqtiṣād fī al-I‘tiqād (Karachi: Dār al-Ishā‘at, 2000).

See for a representative work from this perspective: Anwar Abbasi, Bank Interest: Munāfa‘ yā Ribā (Islamabad: Aimal Publications, 2013).

Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee (b. 1945) is famous jurist and expert in Islamic law and jurisprudence who served the International Islamic University Islamabad as Professor of Shariah and Law. His works include: Theories of Islamic Law: The Methodology of Ijtihād (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1994); Islamic Jurisprudence: Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 2000); Islamic Law of Business Organization: Partnerships (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1998); Islamic Law of Business Organization: Corporations (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1998; The Concept of Ribā and Islamic Banking (Islamabad: Niazi Publications, 1995). Moreover, he translated into English several classical works, including Abū ‘Ubayd’s Kitāb al-Amwāl, Marghīnānī’s al-Hidāyah, Ibn Rushd’s Bidāyat al-Mujtahid and Shāṭibī’s al-Muwāfaqāt.

Mawdūdī, Sūd.

Chapra, “The Nature of Riba in Islam”.

Siddiqui, Riba.

Al-Baqarah, 2:275.

Nyazee, The Concept of Ribā.

Ibid., 49.

For details on istiḥsān, see: Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Abī Sahl al-Sarakhsī, Tamhīd al-Fuṣūl fī ‘Ilm al-Uṣūl (Lahore: Maktabah Madaniyyah, n.d.), 1:202ff.

“Qarḍ in the beginning is charity… but in the end becomes exchange, as it becomes exchange of dirhams for dirhams with delay and that is ribā.” Burhān al-Dīn ‘Alī b. Abī Bakr al-Marghīnānī, al-Hidāyah Sharḥ Bidāyat al-Mubtadī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, n.d.), 3:60. Akmal al-Dīn al-Bābartī explains this statement in the following words: “This necessarily invalidates qard, but the law has recommended it and the ummah has a consensus on its validity. Hence, we hold that is valid but not binding.” Mālikī jurists hold the same. Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā al-Shāṭibī, al-Muwāfaqāt fī Uṣūl al-Shar‘ (Al-Khubar: Dār Ibn ‘Affān, 1997), 5:194-195.

That is why the jurists apply the rule of ‘āriyah in it. ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Abū Bakr b. Mas‘ūd al-Kāsānī, Badā’i‘ al-Ṣanā’i‘ fī Tartīb al-Sharā’i‘ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1997), 10:600.

Ibid.

For details about the terms, ‘ayn, dayn and thaman, see: Nyazee, The Concept of Ribā, 64-67.

Kāsānī, 7:216-217.

See, for instance: Ghulām Rasūl Sa‘īdī, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Lahore: Farid Bookstall, 1998), vol. 4; Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Islām awr Jadīd Ma‘īshat-o-Tijārat (Karachi: Idārat al-Ma‘ārif, 1999).

Nyazee, The Concept of Ribā, 128-136.

For detailed analysis, see: Sarakhsī, al-Mabsūṭ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1997), 12:111-112.

For detailed discussion on Cambridge Capital Controversy, see: G. C. Harcourt, Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital. CUP Archive (1972).

See, for instance: Richard Froyen, Macroeconomics, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publisher, USA

Charles Jones, "Introduction to Economic Growth.", Chap. 3 (UK: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984).

Ibid.

A. Koutsoyiannis, Modern microeconomics (Springer, 1975).

Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest as Determined by Impatience to Spend Income and Opportunity to Invest It (New York: Macmillan, 1930).

E. R. E. Shan & G. Wenstein, “Time Discounting and Time Preference,” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol XL (June 2002), p. 351-401; E. K. Nyhus & P. Webley, “Discounting, Self-control, and Saving,” Handbook of Contemporary Behavioral Economics: Foundations and developments, Chap 15 (2002), p. 297-325.

T. El Diwany, The Problem with Interest (Kreatoc, 2003).

G. Rist, The Delusions of Economics: the Misguided Certainties of a Hazardous Science. Chap 2. Zed Books Ltd. (2011).

Sa‘idi, Sharh Sahih Muslim.

Mawdūdī, Sūd.

Kāsānī, 5:511-516.

Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Islamic Law of Business Organization: Partnerships (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1998), 85-93.

Published

2022-12-31

How to Cite

Dr. Muhammad Zahid Siddique, and Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmad. 2022. “تعیین ربا کا درست منہج اور سود کے جواز کے دلائل کا تجزیہ: Proper Methodology for Determining the Meaning of Ribā and Analysis of the Arguments for Justifying Bank Interest”. Al-Qamar 5 (4):1-34. https://doi.org/10.53762/alqamar.05.04.u01.