church’s original prohibition against usury was slowly relaxed by using the
wordinterestinstead of the wordusury. The original meaning ofusurywas
to charge a price for using (or renting) money. Today, however,usuryis
defined as excessive interest.
In the case of fungibles (such as wheat, which will be consumed), it
would be unjust to pay a price for renting them. This means that fungibles
can be sold through a process of title transfer, but not rented. Applying this
concept to money, one cannot charge a rent (interest) for the right to use
money, because money is a thing.
In the case of nonfungibles, like an owned real estate property, title can
be transferred for a price in a buy/sell agreement. In Shari’aa, it is called
Milk ul Raqabah(which means ownership). There is also another right that
a nonfungible property offers, which is the right of the owner to rent (or
lease) the use of that item (such as renting a car or a house) to a lessee. In
Shari’aa, it is calledHaq Ul Manfa’aa(which means the right of usufruct).
One can charge for the right to use a nonfungible.
The original teachings of the Old and New Testaments agree with the
rules that taking usury on money lent (rent for the use of money) is unjust,
because this implies selling what does not exist; this evidently leads to in-
equality, which is contrary to justice. This is not much different from Is-
lam’s position on riba.
Riba charging and its divine prohibition (haram) in Shari’aa become
clearer after learning about the history of the prohibition of interest charging
(usury) in the Jewish and Christian Bibles. It also brings to mind an exciting
thought: If all faiths of the children of Abraham (pp) agreed on the issue of
prohibiting the charging of interest on loans, perhaps we can develop a
Judeo-Christian-Islamic window that could lead to cultural unity in the
United States and the world. This unity eventually would bring better under-
standing and cooperation between the people and the leaders of the three
Abrahamic faiths, which would eventually lead to a different mindset and a
new style of living that could ultimately lead to peace, prosperity, and social
harmony in the local communities of the United States and the world at large.
All divine revelations in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam started from
prohibiting the grievous act of taking advantage of the poor and the needy
by charging them interest on the loans that they needed to help them survive
and meet their basic needs. Cutting out a bite (qard)ofone’sownmoney
and giving it as an interest-free loan to those who are in need is a difficult
decision to make, because there is noreturn on it. The Judeo-Christian-
Islamic revelations consider this qard as a loan to God, who promises abun-
dant return on it in this life and the hereafter.
Some of the rich and affluent may lend to the poor and the needy reluc-
tantly, with the intention of showing off in front of others or of using the
The Faith-Based Judeo-Christian-Islamic Foundation 19