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The thrust for Islamic
Banking is founded on the desire to submit to the Divine
Instructions on all transactions, particularly those involving
exchange of money for money. However, it would be quite unfair
to limit Islamic Banking to elimination of Riba
only.
Riba
is but one of the major undesirable elements of an economic
transaction, the others being Gharar
(uncertainty) and Qimar
(speculation). While elimination of these objectionable
aspects in a transaction is indeed a critical aim of Islamic
banking system, it is by no means its ultimate objective.
At the heart of
Islamic Banking is a system of commercial transactions that
not only provides Halal modes of commercial
transactions by avoiding that which is obnoxious and
objectionable, but also fosters ethical, fair and just
practices.
A key element of
Islamic economics is distribution of equitable rewards to the
different factors of production. Islamic economic system seeks
system of Redistributive justice where concentration of wealth
in a few hands is countered and flow of money into economy is
fluent. Islamic Banking is, therefore, seen as a lynchpin to
achieving the economic and social goals of the Islamic
economic system.
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