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LET US GROW UP
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
courtesy: The Dawn internet, March 31, 2002
The federal minister for zakat, ushr and
religious affairs, the venerable Dr Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi,
interacting with the press people in Faisalabad last
week held forth on the subject of what he terms 'Islamic
banking', based on the elimination of 'Riba'.
The State Bank is apparently at work formulating a 'new
charter' under which an 'Islamic bank' will be set up.
The House Building Finance Corporation is one
institution which has already adopted the sharing rather
than the interest based loan system, and in a major and
innovative move forward, Pakistan's banks are soon to be
equipped with 'Islamic Windows' designed to eventually
lead to the 'Islamic' system of banking.
At the heart of the dispute over the Islamization of the
economy is the meaning of the Quranic word 'Riba', the
literal meaning of which is an increment or an increase.
There are many who are of the opinion that what is
actually forbidden by Islam is usury, i.e. the charging
of exorbitant rates of interest. We need to go back in
time to try and sort out exactly what the Islamic
injunctions signify in today's world.
At the time when Islam was born, it was not uncommon for
rates of interest of 100 per cent or more to be charged,
and it was this excess that was strictly prohibited. In
fact, over the centuries every civilized society has
prohibited usurious loans. Jesus Christ threw the
money-lenders out of the temples in Jerusalem, loans
bearing exorbitant rates of interest also being
prohibited by Judaism (although in mediaeval times the
Jews became famous for specializing in this branch of
trade). The British government in India prohibited
usurious loans as far back as the year 1918. It is a
fallacy to think that the prohibition of usury is
confined to Islam.
The 'Riba' dispute really needs to be examined against a
backdrop of internally acceptable practice. One point of
view is extremely rigid and totally prohibits any rate
of interest whatsoever. This means that even in cases in
which the rate of inflation in the country is, say, 10
per cent, there is a prohibition against even recovering
this amount from a borrower. In other words,<B> if a man
borrows Rs100,000 on January 1 and on December 31 the
true value of the amount is Rs90,000, it holds that the
lender can only recover Rs90,000 (in real terms) and
must suffer an effective loss of Rs10,000.
Now, the holy Quran specifically affirms the right of a
lender to recover the full amount he has lent, so he
cannot be denied his right of full recovery if during
the loan period the value of his money has decreased.
There has to be an appropriate modality to ensure
economic justice to both the lender and the borrower. In
accordance with the tenets of Islam, the more liberal
view is that the lender must not be penalized - after
all, lending money to a needy person is not a crime -
and the lender should be entitled to at least recover
the real value of the loan.
However, this view has not been accepted by the Federal
Shariat Court or the Supreme Court, and most strangely,
the view of the Supreme Court is more rigid than that of
the institutions in other Islamic countries where
different types of lending are permissible. For example,
a bank may engage in Islamic banking, in which it lends
money on the basis of profit sharing and at the same
time an option can be given to enable lending on the
basis of a fixed rate of return. The question is whether
Pakistan will introduce rigidity into its banking system
or fall in line with the banking practice in the rest of
the world.
Experience proves that our financial institutions which
have entered into profit sharing agreements with
business houses have generally suffered most adversely.
Sadly, we have a plethora of companies which maintain
false, or inaccurate, books of accounts to ensure that
the banks are denied their fair share of profits. Some
mechanism will have to be evolved whereby companies will
not be able to maintain false accounts and claim that
they have suffered losses when in fact they are
operating profitably.
Why should our banks be denied their profits, or even
lose the principal amounts loaned? After all, bank loans
are funded by the deposits of ordinary citizens. It is
imperative that no injustice, violative of Islamic
injunctions, is done to small depositors. They should
never be faced with a situation in which they are
informed that the hard earned money deposited by them in
our banks will not be repaid in part or in whole because
it has been lent to rich companies falsely claiming
losses.
Now, let us take the lenders of today's world as opposed
to those of the 7th century when usury was the norm.
Traditionally, the borrowers by definition were those in
need, often dire need, whose weak bargaining position
meant that they were in danger of being exploited by the
limited number of people who controlled wealth and
capital, and who drove hard, unfair, inequitable
bargains by virtue of their superior bargaining
position. In time, laws were passed to prevent money
lenders from charging usurious rates of interest.
The introduction of the banking system has inverted the
traditional lender-borrower relationship. The lenders
today are not a small number of very rich people who
monopolize wealth. They are the millions of middle class
people who deposit their life's savings in banks to meet
the future needs of their families and it is this money
which is passed on by the banks to the borrowers, the
bulk of whom are corporate or business entities, many of
which are very large and very wealthy.
Thus is it that it is now the lenders and not the
borrowers who require protection? Is it right that the
borrowers should receive interest-free loans which they
may or may not repay? Should the rich grow richer and
the poor poorer? This is far from being in conformity
with the spirit of Islam.
And another thing - the proposed plan that in time all
our banks should resort exclusively to the traditional
Islamic methods of financing, such as mudarabas or
musharika arrangements, similar to profit sharing, could
easily lead to a mass deprivation of the savings of the
poor depositors - it will vastly enhance the
exploitation of the poor, that is, the lenders, while
the field will be left open for the borrowers, already
wealthy, to reap even vaster fortunes.
However, all things being equal, there must be a
safeguard for the genuine needs of the borrowers. They
cannot borrow without any charge, nor can they be
saddled with exorbitant bank charges, for if they are
the economic activity of this country, already in the
doldrums, will grow even slacker making it increasingly
difficult for the nation to emerge from the poverty trap
in which it is locked.
The cost of bank borrowing is not simply a fairness
issue between the bank and the borrower; it has a
critical level of importance to the functioning and
growth of the economy as a whole, leading to price
increases, inflation, a fall in exports and a greater
dependence on foreign loans at high interest rates.
It is a fallacy that interest-free banking is risk-free
banking. All lending entails risk. Apart from the fact
of the risk that a loan may not be repaid, there may be
an economic slump, or recession, leading to a high level
of business failures. We have our fair share of sick
industries, desperately in need of bank loans for their
mere survival. Obviously, the profit sharing system is
no answer to their predicament.
Our Islamization experts in the banking area need to
give the matter of the elimination of 'Riba' a long hard
look. Rather than destroy the present banking system in
the name of interest-free banking, why not merely reform
it? The banking system is integral to the functioning of
the country's economy and an unrealistic decision will
surely lead to highly adverse consequences.
Restructure the system in the light of Islamic tenets
but do so in a manner that leads to an improvement in
efficiency rather than the devastation of the economy.
The process of Islamization must be for the economic
betterment and moral redress of the people of Pakistan,
not as a regressive measure for their impoverishment.
The laws and rules of Islam were all set and made on a
practical basis, in conformity with the norms of the
day. Islam is neither a stagnant nor a rigid way of
life. It was known, in the days of its greater glory, to
move in line with the times.
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