The Objectives of the Prohibition of Riba By: Elhadi Habbani

Riba in Fiqh:
Although most of scholars have agreed that the meaning of Riba in Arabic is "excess, increase, or growth as explained before, and the same meaning has been mentioned in many verses in Quran as well as in Sunnah. Not all increase or growth meant to be considered as prohibited Riba in Islam. The Qur’an did not mean any increment as it refers to an increment in a specific transaction, “the” Riba that was common and known among the Arabs and other nations at the time of revelation . Although it has been generally interpreted in English language as “usury” and interest as said before, but it has a much deeper, unique, and wide-ranging meaning extracted from the ancient trading practices of Arabs before Islam, which were quite related to their life norms at that time, for, In the pre-Islamic and even early Islamic era, Riba implied the increase of money for an additional time span of a loan maturity. The pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabs, in their trade practices used to lend money, leave its principal unmoved with borrowers, and receive a continuous interest over principal as a charge for delaying full settlement of the principal plus its pre-determined interest, and so on, they continue claiming the principal plus the interest at the due date from the debtor, and if he/she was not ready to pay off, they would put additional charge and extend the maturity again and again. Which means that one of the most essential aspects of the trading norm of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabs was the dominance of financial transactions with pre-fixed successive maturities with revolving interest.
While generally in Shari'ah, Riba refers to the increment percentage that borrower must pay to the lender above the principal amount as a quite linked provision for the loan, or as a compensation to the same lender for any additional extension beyond the maturity of the same loan, the most broader and unique meaning of Riba within fiqh terminologies that reflected the prehistoric trading life of Arabs refer to two kinds of derivative Riba. Riba al-nasi’ah and Riba al-fadl.

Arabic Forum