The Spirit of the Riba-Free and Gharar-Free
(Islamic) Banking and Finance System
Money is a manmade measuring device, created to help people transact
business activities (buying and selling) and to measure the accumulated
wealth and the success or failure of a venture. It cannot be rented. Renting
money (through the use of the interest rate) is riba and is prohibited by
Shari’aa. Assets are considered to be the properties of God, and they are
placed in trust by God—according to His infinite wisdom—in different
forms and quantities in the custody of each one of us. It is our duty to honor
that trust, and when we invest or use these assets, we should do so properly
and prudently. Assets and savings of each community must be largely rein-
vested in the community to create economic growth, prosperity, and
job opportunities. The system redistributes wealth through the mechanics
of ‘‘trickle-down economics’’ through the system of inheritance and
almsgiving.
STRATEGIES USED TO BUILD A VIABLE RF
BANKING SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES
The following is the set of strategies we used when we started RF banking
services in the United States, first in the form of a finance company—LAR-
IBA—in 1987, and then as a full-service national bank in 2003.
&RF banking and finance proponents’ ultimate goal is to offer an alter-
native banking and finance service, not to discredit and/or dismantle
the existing riba-based conventional banking system.
&The RF bankers’ attitude is not to grow as quickly as possible by using
capital or sources of money from outside the community. RF bankers
believe in putting their money where their mouth is. We state that it is
wiser and more prudent to grow methodically with our own money
and the community’s money to develop community ownership. Our
commitment is simply to develop trust between our community mem-
bers, and to start with what is possible to achieve what may be im-
possible, as we learn from theSunnah of our beloved prophets
Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (pp.). It is not
shameful to say today that we are small because, God willing (inshaa
Allah), we aspire to be bigger by the blessings of God.
&The RF bankers’ goal is not to change the laws of the land. The goal is
to adhere and uphold these laws without violating Judeo-Christian-
Islamic values and the tenets of Shari’aa (the Law). RF bankers needOperating an RF Bank in the United States 321