Clergy adopt unified stance on interest

Asem Mustafa Awan

All religious schools of thought in Muslim Ummah have the same stance on interest (riba) that it is un-Islamic and oppressive. Addressing a seminar in Karachi on the topic of usury, leading scholars of all schools of thought including Grand Mufti of Pakistan Mufti Taqi Usmani, Mufti Muneebur Rahman and representatives of the business community concurred that there is need to remove and eliminate usury from the banking system. It was also acknowledged that the entire economic and financial system globally is based on interest banking.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated that there is possibility to eliminate the interest from the country in five years as the usury-based economic system severely impacts on  poor. Around  21 per cent of the Islamic banking system is in place and the assets of Islamic banking are at the level of 7 trillion rupees.

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, at inauguration of  the state bank of pakistan,pakistan,banking,central bank,state,fake calls,bank,raast,transfers,fraud calls,sbp,digitization,digitalization,podcast,transfer,financial,landscape,technology,credit cart,frauds,digital,economy,episode,currency,debit card,pos,atms,grey,qrcode,online,mobile,qr-code on July 15, 1948, said: The economic system of the West has created insoluble problems for humanity, and most people are of the opinion that only a miracle can save the West from this impeding disaster.

The Constitution of Pakistan also directs interest-free banking. The  Article 38(a) of the Constitution places  the responsibility on the Government of Pakistan to establish an interest-free economy. On April 28, 2022, the Federal Shariah Court prohibited all forms of usury and said that the collection of money in excess of the original amount by the banks is usury, which is against Islam, the Constitution of Pakistan and the Qur’an and Sunnah.

The Federal Sharia Court directed  to make all the laws in accordance with Islam by 31 December 2027, but unfortunately the government of Pakistan and many private banks filed an appeal against this decision of the Federal Sharia Court.

On November 10, 2022, Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that the government and the State Bank will withdraw their appeals against the decision of the Federal Sharia Court, after which there was hope that usurious banking would end in the country by December 31, 2027.

Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Siraj-ul-Haq proposed that until 2027 all international agreements should be made in accordance with the law of the land; if the usher and zakat system is adopted,  the government will achieve surplus of income over the debt. He also suggested scholars should form a Sharia Supervisory Board. In the decision of the Federal Shariah Court, it was said that the government should bring all the loans at home and abroad under the interest-free system.

Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has assured the scholars in the seminar that he will make full efforts for Islamic banking so that our economy can be developed according to Islamic principles. As Muslims, we have to present an ideal economic system to the world, which is based on true Islamic concepts of human equality and social justice, so that we can get rid of the economic system as the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had directed.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.