User:Thinker25/sandbox

We need to go a little deeper into what the Quran really says about RIBA. The Quran was revealed to an 'ummi' ie ignorant, illiterate person though of great intelligence, intellect and commonsense, and the first recipients of the message were little more than barbarians! The message perforce had to be plain and simple, not obscure and creating controversy. No economic activity can be done without profit whether as goods or services or finance,whether one labels it profit or commission or interest. In business and commerce the same rules applied all over the world to keep equitable conditions and giving and taking credit was a normal occurrence (as in Shakespeare's Merchant ofVenice). These dealings were between equals and in the market when a lender today may be borrower tomorrow, and terms would be equitable and affordable. The Quran describes RIBA as extortionate, excessive, rapacious,exploitative, doubling and quadrupling, and expropriating the borrower's property. And the Quran vigorously contrasts it with charity in which is great merit to the extent that it is best for you to not only forgo the profit but also the principal! Why? In effect it means that here was a person deserving charity from you but you have extorted RIBA, RIBA rates were 50 to 100% per year then. 1000$ at 50% would become 3600 at simple interest and 8600 at compound in 5 years while at bank interest of 10% it would be 1500 and 1650. The difference is obvious! The two are indeed related, but it is if you were on a 100 rung ladder, the lowest 5 are interest and the top 80 to 100 are RIBA. Nobody seems to have noted verse Al-Baqarah 282 in which it is stated that you must write down the terms, with proper witnesses, whenever you give or take credit. When you do not get any profit and may even forgo the principal would any sane person lend money ( of course he can give as charity )  Surely if the Quran  then allows credit it must mean that there are two types of credit - RIBA  from the weak and In need and the other applying to business between equals. Is there any evidence that terms and rules of business were changed after these verses? Because they should have caused a severe upheaval in business affecting even international commerce. Indeed if ordinary business lending and RIBA were synonymous the Quran could simply have said that all credit is RIBA and thus forbidden (of course more elegantly ) instead of explaining at some length what RIBA implies. It must also be stressed that the bank has no interest in exploiting you, it wants you to flourish and to be able to pay the bank dues --it has no use in taking over a failed business or a house that it cannot sell. --Thinker25 (talk) 02:20, 20 September 2011 (UTC)