What is Riba? (English)

A number of works deal with the issue of riba (usury) in Islam, but none of them is as comprehensive as this work which first appeared in 1936. This new edited version, together with Arabic and English translations, has been brought out in order to enrich the debate on this vital issue. The author, Allamah Iqbal Suhail (d. 1955), was a highly learned scholar of Islam and had deep knowledge of modern issues. He is known in the Subcontinent as a distinguished Urdu poet, freedom fighter and lawyer. With this background, he was most suited to deal with religious issues in the light of the requirements of the modern age. Allamah Suhail discusses the opinions of the fuqaha in detail and shows that they confused riba with muratala (barter) and sarf (exchange) which have little to do with riba. He shows that riba concerns only the bai al-salaf (credit/deferred) transactions. After a thorough discussion of the Islamic texts on the issue, Suhail puts forward his authoritative definition of riba and where it is applicable.