Does the prohibition of usury in Islamic law preserve wealth in the essential or the necessary aspect, and is the distinction made by some scholars between consumer and investment loans considered valid in realizing the basis of the prohibition?
Usury (riba) is forbidden in all its forms. A loan with an increment is one of its forbidden forms, whether it is for consumption or investment. There is a consensus among scholars on this. The evidence generally prohibits loans with an increment. What some researchers have mentioned regarding differentiating between investment and consumption loans, or between small and large amounts, is incorrect. Islam only recognizes the good loan (). Lending and borrowing with usury are forbidden, and the sin of borrowing is only lifted out of dire necessity to secure essential needs like food and drink, or fear for one's life from perishing, and not for someone who wishes to establish a factory or build a building, and so on.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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- Summary from Ftawy's records, reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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