The Shaykh al-Halabi’s interjection regarding examples of forbidden banking transactions.

Al-Halabi : Two days ago, I added a few points on the subject, just to put things in their proper place, as they say. The day before yesterday, a caller asked me about a certificate he wanted to use to testify for a man who wanted to take money from the Islamic bank. I asked him, “By what right do you take this money?” He said he wanted it for marriage. I said, “So it is a benevolent loan?” He said, “It is probably a benevolent loan.” I told him, “It is not acceptable to say ‘probably’; one must know for sure. If it is a benevolent loan, the matter of the loan is easier than others, even though there are issues with it, but it remains far from the issue of riba (usury or interest) and the profits and murabahah (a cost-plus sale) that they call it. A little later, he called and said, “It has turned out that it is not a benevolent loan.” He said, “In reality, it is a murabahah, but a deception. He wants to agree with someone in a formal, superficial way, take a thousand from the bank, and return to the bank one thousand and three hundred and fifty, or one thousand and four hundred dinars. I mean, as they say, ‘your eye, your eye’ (a reference to the deceptive nature of the transaction)."

The Shaykh : Allah is the Helper.