ABSTRACT
The concept of Islamic banking and finance takes its origin from the aspiration of removing riba (usury) from the Islamic community. The Quran prohibits riba. Despite differing views on the concept of riba in the pre-Islamic era and the present time, Islamic scholars have sought to design and implement riba-free (usury-free) banking since the early 1950s. The first Islamic institutions which offered widespread Islamic banking services date back to the 1960s when Islamic banks started to appear in countries with large Muslim population.
