Usury seems to be prohibited between Jewish people only, however, it is not prohibited between Jews and non-Jews. (Exodus 22-24; Leviticus 25: 33-38; Deuteronomy 23: 20-21) (Fox 1995, 382, 631, 957) How have these Torah verses been interpreted? One Mishnah says, “Moreover Hillel used to say, “A woman may not lend a loaf of bread to her neighbor unless she determines its value in money, lest wheat should rise in price and they are found to be engaging in usury.” (Mishnah Bava Metzia 5:9) (Sefaria) In Islam, this can be seen as a kind of riba (usury) of excess or riba al Fadl. If the woman wants to avoid usury, she should determine the price of the bread in money at the time of delivery to avoid riba of excess in case the price of wheat should rise and she might receive back something worth more than what she lent.
Islamically speaking, “If there is exchange among the same species of ribawi goods, it has to be done on the spot and should be of equal quantities. If the quantities exchanged differ, even in spot transactions, then it will constitute riba of excess (Riba al fadl) or surplus riba. Rules of riba of excess also prohibit the exchange of dissimilar quantities of a genus with different qualities (such as exchanging one unit of high-quality dates with two units of low-quality dates). According to Visser, there is a ban on exchanging, for example, two low-quality dates for one high-quality date, even if it is permitted to sell the low-quality dates for money and use the receipts for buying a high-quality date.” (Paldi 2014, 252) “Zuhayli says that ‘Surplus riba is the sale of similar items with a disparity in amount in the six canonically-forbidden categories of goods: gold, silver, wheat, barley, salt, and dry dates.’ It is the violation of the ‘equal for equal’ rule in spot transactions of the same goods of a particular genus. Zuhayli explains that, “This type of riba is forbidden in order to prevent it being used as a pretext to committing credit riba, such that a person sells gold, for example, on credit, then pays back in silver more than the equivalent of what he had taken in gold.” To avoid riba, the commodity has to be exchanged with some other genus and then traded with the desired commodity (high-quality dates with wheat or silver and then wheat or silver with low quality dates).””(Paldi 2014, 252).
“Narrated by Abu Said Al-Khudri and Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle appointed somebody as a governor of Khaibar. That governor brought to him an excellent kind of dates (from Khaibar). The Prophet asked, ‘Are all the dates of Khaibar like this?’ He replied, ‘By Allah, no, Oh Allah’s Apostle! But we bartered one Sa of this type (type of dates) for two Sas of dates of ours and two Sas of it for three of ours.’ Allah’s Apostle said, ‘Do not do so (as this is a kind of usury) but sell the mixed dates (of inferior quality) for money, and then buy good dates with that money’” (Bukhari, vol. 3, book 34, no. 405; see also Muslim, book 10, number 3875)(Paldi 2014, 252).
Either the woman should give the bread a monetary price upon loaning it or exchange the bread for money and then give the money as a loan. As I have demonstrated, the concept of riba corresponds and correlates between the Abrahamic religions and this connection deserves to be explored further.
Bibliography
Camille Paldi, “Judaism as an Interpretative Religion Model Does Not Conflict with Christianity or Islam,” Holy Book Finance (blog), October 25, 2023, http://holybookfinance.com/blog.
Camille Paldi, “What is Religion and What Constitutes Judaism?” Holy Book Finance (blog), October 25, 2023, http://holybookfinance.com/blog.
Camille Paldi, “Judaism as a Ritual System is Similar to Islam,” Holy Book Finance (blog), October 25, 2023, http://holybookfinance.com/blog.
Camille Paldi, “Understanding Riba and Gharar in Islamic Finance,” Journal of Islamic Banking and Finance Vol. 2, No. 1 (2014): 249-259, Microsoft Word – 15.docx (jibfnet.com).
Sefaria; Sefaria’s “Usury” entry, accessed October 27, 2023, http://www.sefaria.org.
Journal of Islamic Banking and Finance (JIBF)
http://www.sefaria.org