The document discusses the history of prohibitions on interest and usury in various ancient civilizations from 3300 BC to the modern era. It notes that interest rates in early civilizations like Mesopotamia could be as high as 30-50% and often led to debt slavery. Laws later emerged in places like Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, and India prohibiting or limiting usury due to its social and economic harms. Over time, the term 'interest' replaced 'usury' as rates became regulated differently depending on location and era, though the concepts remained linked to excessive or exploitative lending.

1. Prohibition of Interest:
Evidences from Different
Civilizations
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2. Synonyms of Interest
 Usury
 Interest
 Riba
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3. Usury: Origins
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4. Usury: Definition
USURY: MEANING
Ancient Ages (3300 BC-1400 BC):
 Any premium for a loan of money, or of
any kind of property
 The gain of anything above the principal,
or that which was lent whether it be in
money, corn, wares or the like."
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5. Usury: Definition
Modern Ages (1400 AD -2015 AD):
 Interest at unreasonably high rates

 Interest rate at Usurious rate
 Interest rate above the rate fixed by the
govt./Law
 Interest rate above the legal rate
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6. Interest: Definition
Meaning of Interest:
 A premium for a loan of money
 Extra amount charged on principal
money in lending and borrowing
 Extra amount on Loan- Legally
approved by the state
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7. Interest as a substitute for usury
(14th -21st century)
 The word ‘Interest’- First appeared in the
fourteenth century
 End of the 13th century: declining the
influence of the Orthodox Church
 Development of trade and commerce,
investment
 Interest on loans for commercial and
productive purposes
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8. Interest as a substitute for usury
(14th -21st century)
 1483-1546: Reforms movement Led by
Reformist Luther and Zwingli
 Mid-16th century: Calvin and Molinaeus
 1545: the King (and the Church) of
England fixed a legal maximum interest;
any amount in excess of the maximum
was usury
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9. Interest as a substitute for usury
(14th -21st century)
Proposal of Calvin and Molinaeus: Mid-
16th century:
 interest on commercial loans- Permitted
 interest on loans to the needy-forbidden
 They are responsible for modern interest
rate (for all including needy)
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10. Interest as a substitute for usury
(14th -21st century)
1620s-1780s: Age of Enlightenment/ Enlightenment Movement/
Age of Reason:
 Religion vs. Secularism
 Emphasized on reason, analysis, and
individualism
 Separations of religions and ethics from
practical life
 Interest is common practice in the world
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11. Riba: Definition
 Arabic term
 Wider concept than Usury or Interest
 Literally Meaning: to excess, addition
and surplus
 Terminology of the Shariah: An addition,
however slight, over and above the
principal of a loan or debt
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12. Riba: Characteristics
 Positive and fixed ex-ante;
 Tied to the time period and the amount of
the loan;
 Payment is guaranteed regardless of the
outcome or the purposes for which the
principal was borrowed;
 The state apparatus sanctions and
enforces its collection
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13. Riba: Types
1. Riba al - nasiah deals with riba in
money- to – money
exchanges(Money Riba)
2. Riba al- fadl deals with hand - to -
hand or barter exchange (Commodity
Riba)
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14. Limit of interest rate and Usury:
Commercial Loans Only,Usury Law:
England
Year interest rate Usury
1540 12% above 12%
1545-1571 10% above 10%
1624 8% above 8%
1651 6% above 6%
1713 5% above 5%
1757 3% above 3%
1854 abolition of the usury laws
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15. Interest rate vs. Usury: Modern day
 Modern day Banking Interest rate: 16-
18%
 Isn’t usury?
 Yes: So it is haram
 No!!!!!! Double standard???
 The legal rate of Interest in Islam is Zero
 So interest=Usury=Riba
 All are Haram
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16. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Mesopotamian: 3300 – 750 BC
 Babylonia: The legal interest rate : 30 %
(money), 50 % (grain)
 Assyria: no upper limit for interest rate.
 Sumeria: 20 % (money), 33 % (grain)
Consequence:
 The farmers were often so deep in debt that they
starved to death along with their families.
 If failed to pay interest, Slavery is the ultimate
fate
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17. Mesopotamian: 3300 – 750 BC
Example of cruelty
City of Uruk in Sumer:
 There lived two brothers who lent money with interest.
 When a borrower no longer could repay his loan,
 He lost his house and had to start working for free for
the brothers.
 The slave could be lent also to other employers.
 Slaves are Sold to overseas
 This is a classical example of economic slavery.
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18. Prohibition of interest in
Mesopotamia
 By the ruler of Babylon,
Hammurabi (1848-1805 B.C.)
 Legal acts (containing 93 paragraphs)
 Severe punishment for Breaking the
law
 Halakhic ruling: money disappears if
charging interest
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19. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Persian: 730-330 BC
 Collateral: land and vineyards
 The Greek moneychangers-money lender
 They acquired huge property by lending money
 Become influential in Persian Empire
 445 BC: Nehemiah, the governor of Judea, prohibited
interest
 Nehemiah builds a wall around Jerusalem to save his
people from money changers
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20. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Greek: 2700BC-600 AD
 Interest rate: 12 - 24 %
 Small proprietors or metayers, became
indebted to the rich
 Debtor were practically slaves
 Usury had given all the power of the state to
a small plutocracy
 594 BC: Solon's laws contained many
provisions for the relief of poor debtors
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21. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Greek: 2700 BC-600 AD
 Charging interest was regulated, but not forbidden
 Prohibited and condemned by philosopher and
Lawmakers
Aristotle:
 Usury is the unnatural breeding of money from money
 Contrary to justice and the Natural Law
 Medium of exchange, not commodity
 It could not beget another piece of money
Plato:
 Usury is the social evils
 It showed a lack of generosity toward poor a
 Contrary to the welfare
 Setting one class against the other
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22. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Roman: 600BC-400 AD
 Jews of Rome was
moneychangers/usurer
 Money-changers monopolized usury,
 Monopolized the precious mineral
trade
 Start the businesses of prostitution
(including pedophilia and
homosexuality),
 Start the slavery
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23. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Roman: 600BC-400 AD
Effects:
 98-117 A.D: the reign of Trajan: high
taxes for borrowing money at interest
 Reversal of its earlier commerce policies
 High taxes, pervasive regulation and
debasement of the currency
 Rome was bankrupt and was collapsing
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24. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Roman: 600BC-400 AD
Prohibition:
 342 BC: Prohibited by Law Genucia
 325AD: by Constantine, the Roman emperor
 Canon and ecumenical councils forbade the
interest for clergy and laity
 212 AD: by the Law Caracalla: confine rights of
Jews in the Roman Empire,
 Up to 14th century: also prohibited by Church,
pope, Pope Clement V,
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25. Prohibition of Usury In England
 1189-1275 AD: debtors massacred the Jews usurer at London and
York
 1275 AD: king Edward I: Law-Statute of Jewry: usury illegal and
linked it to blasphemy
 Scores of English Jews were arrested,
 300 were hanged
 Their property went to the Crown
 1290 AD: all Jews were expelled from England,
 Allowed to take only what they could carry;
 The rest of their property became the Crown's
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26. Interest in Ancient Civilizations:
Ancient India: 3000BC-500 BC
Prohibition
 2000–1400 BC: Vedic Hindu texts in Ancient India
 700–100 BC: Sutra texts
 600–400 BC: Buddhist Jatakas- hypocritical manner
 usurer” (kusidin)
 Vasishtha-Hindu Law Maker forbade interest
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27. Adverse effects of usury on the
civilizations:
 Babylon loaned much money at interest (usury) to Persia
(Iran)
 Persia conquered Babylon to eliminate its debt and acquire
Babylon's gold
 Persia loaned Greece much money at interest (usury) and
Greece conquered Persia.
 Greece loaned Rome much money at interest (usury). Rome
conquered Greece
 After the fall of Imperial Rome, the various nations of Europe
were kept in bondage and poverty by the AB's (Anti-God
Banksters) for many centuries, known as the "Dark Ages"
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28. Inadequate distribution of wealth:
an impact of usury
Collapse of
civilization
Concentration of Total
wealth to
Babylonian 3% of the people
Persia 2% of the people
Greece 0.5% of the people
Roman Empire 2,000 people
America 2% of the people control
90% of the wealth
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