ABSTRACT
Riba (often translated as “interest” or “usury”) is one of the hotly debated issues in the modern period. While the Qur’an unambiguously prohibited riba there have always been debates among Muslim scholars on what constitutes riba, and these differences can be found in pre-modern fiqh and Qur’anic interpretation as well as in modern day debates on the same issue. Naturally, the debates are often influenced by particular contexts in which the scholars find themselves. In the early seventh century CE, the Qur’an condemned and prohibited riba and seemed to have been primarily concerned about exploitation of the poor and needy through interest on debts they owed to their creditors. The focus shifted to a large extent in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), where the primary interest was in determining largely what kind of barter transactions would come under the label riba, based on what a number of hadith appear to have said on the issue of riba. In fact, the bulk of fiqh discussions are about such transactions, and relatively little emphasis was on what the Qur’an prohibited as riba. In the modern period, the context has changed significantly, and given the widespread use of lending and borrowing based on interest, the focus shifted primarily to “interest” and whether certain forms of interest can be considered riba while others not, and whether interest as such should be considered riba.
