Developing the Art of Islamic Banking and Finance
The art of Islamic banking and financeis the process by which all of the
undercurrents described earlier are put together to come up with a new
brand of banking. The RF banking (riba-free banking) brand merged all of
these undercurrents to produce a banking service that would be able to
satisfy the market demand. The goal was to develop the RF banking system
as an optimum and meaningful financing approach that would benefit all
people and help them to live a life free from riba.
The Approach Used to Develop the Art of
Islamic RF Banking
The challenge we faced was how to develop an RF bank (with the limited
knowledge we all had then; please note that in 1987 we called itinterest-
free Islamic banking) that would abide by Shari’aa and at the same time
would comply with the laws of the land. In trying to do so, a prior experi-
ence I went through in 1972 in Dallas, Texas was useful. At that time, I was
the chairman and one of the imams (religious leaders) of the first organized
Islamic Center in Dallas (and maybe one of the first in the state of Texas),
the Islamic Association of North Texas, or IANT. One of my responsibili-
ties was to perform weddings according to Islamic Law (Shari’aa). The
Board of the Association asked me to start working on getting Texas state
officials to recognize an Islamic wedding contract, instead of the state-sanc-
tioned civil marriage license. Our group talked to lawyers, state officials,
and to the clergy in the Christian and Jewish faiths. Soon we learned that
other faith leaders had tried earlier, but it was not possible. A wise religious
leader shared with us the fact that the civil marriage certificate carries with
it the weight of the law of the land in order to protect the two parties in the
marriage contract. In addition, the civil marriage contract can be signed by
a civil official (e.g., a justice of the peace), which makes it civil, or by a reli-
gious leader, which makes it religious. Without the power of the state’s legal
system, law enforcement system, and legal codes, this leader pointed out, no
institution would be able to prevail in case of a dispute.
It was a personal experience that made us see the light. One day I per-
formed the wedding of a wonderful young lady who had come to the United
States from a Muslim country to study. She met a young man, and they de-
cided to get married. I officiated the wedding using a ‘‘homemade’’ Islamic
wedding contract. Six months later, the young lady contacted me with tears
in her eyes and told me that her husband had left her and disappeared. We
tried to help by calling the police. I showed the police the ‘‘Islamic’’ mar-
riage certificate. We were told that it might be a useful document, but it did
RF Banking Model for the 21st Century 245