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Abrahamic Finance: Economic Reasons for Prohibition of Usury/Interest Rate

Abrahamic Finance: Economic Reasons for Prohibition of Usury/Interest Rate
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Author(s): Muhammad Mazhar Iqbal (Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Pakistan)
Copyright: 2026
Pages: 38
Source title: Social Impact, Ethics, and Practice in Abrahamic Finance
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Camille Silla Paldi (Colgate University, USA), Phillip Lieberman (United States Naval Academy, USA & Vanderbilt University, USA), Mohammad Kabir Hassan (University of New Orleans, USA)and Isaac Lifshitz (Shalem College, Israel)
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3373-6706-4.ch006

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Abstract

This chapter explores the economic foundations of the prohibition of usury and interest in the Abrahamic faiths; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It revisits the historical context in which usury and interest rates were initially used interchangeably and how the emergence of goldsmith banking led to a formal separation between the two. Nonetheless, this chapter contends that their distinction based on a specified interest rate that changes over time and place is economically weak. It argues that the economically stronger way is to highlight the fact that interest rates, unlike price, fail to function as true equilibrating variables in loanable funds markets due to their conceptual complexity and practical distortions. The chapter presents four core critiques.

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