It started in 1963 as a part of our household income. Went on till 1974 when the capital amount got exhausted. No knowledge about its forbiddance, it appeared to be a normal part of income. The next was in 1982 when I jointed a bank, Albank Alsaudi Alhollandi, an ABN bank affiliate in Saudi Arabia. Soon upgraded as a credit analyst, the issue of forbiddance of interest in Islam cropped up as the work related solely on lending. Interest appeared to be controversial subject with two opinions, applicable to all forms and bank interest exempt as it was said to be beneficial to all, both the lender (depositor) and the borrower. Glad at being on the safer side the issue was buried and forgotten. Resigned the job due to personal reasons, my banking relationship as a borrower continued as a partner in a business that relied heavily on bank borrowings. Venturing into a retail business also added to the need for further borrowings.
The issue of forbiddance on all forms borrowings and lending that involved interest kept cropping up as opinion, divided between the religiously knowledgeable and the proponents of worldly ways. Explanations on forbiddance on the part of the former was mostly a blanket prohibition where not to ask probing questions but to follow the ban whereas the latter stuck to the argument that what was beneficial to people cannot be brought under the prohibited, like the bank interest. Except for the manner the banks ran after successful businesses offering loans and advances, neglecting the needy in business being unreasonable, on a personal level I could not pin the blame on banks. But, at the same time the verses of the Qur’an and the explanations in the hadith appeared to enlarge the scope of riba (increase in Arabic language). The hadith particularly shed light on the methodology that conformed to the prohibition to all forms of increase in money matters. There was not much material available as further explanations.
The fact that a larger part of my life was involved in consuming interest directly or indirectly was a worrying factor. Then it dawned on me in a flash one day that the answer is hidden somewhere in the growing poverty levels in the world where only a few got richer. As the search progressed, things started falling into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Then it was time to act. The solution was to withdraw from interest related businesses. In retail line, though bank borrowings had been discontinued, the business depended heavily on credit card transactions that involved a month’s credit for which the interest was paid in the form of commission to the bank. Acceptance of credit card stopped, the sales tumbled and business became unviable. Complete withdrawal from the businesses was the only option left and acted upon.
Close to two decades spent in trying to educate Muslim businessmen and those connected to the world of commerce on riba elicited few sympathetic hearing or kindly advise on the futility of trying to swim against the tide. Recently my second daughter suggested writing a blog on the subject. Since it is not a subject that can fit into a blog, I decided to create a web site and named it ‘financeinislam.Org.’, where the subject is dealt with in two articles titled ‘Riba in banking’ and ‘Looking beyond banking’.