Are All Forms of Interest Prohibited?

The claim advanced by jurists of Islamic banks (represented by Shari'ah Supervisory/Control Boards, Fiqh Academy of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Makkah Academy) that interest on deferred sale transactions is a profit, or a profit margin, and the claim advanced by the jurists of conventional banks (Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the legal opinion issued by Al Azhar Research Academy, Egypt, in 1923H) that calls interest on loans or deposits a profit leads to unlimited profit, for profit has no limit neither in Islamic Shari'ah nor in western capitalism. Calling things by their true name, including interest, would lead to a limited interest rate, a rate that would be determined by the central banks, even in liberal capitalist countries. Interest rates are subject to pricing on two grounds: the first is related to the monetary and credit policy, the second is related to the man-made laws prevailing in the world, which distinguish between interest and usury (where usury here means exorbitant and unfair interest rate). Thus interest is limited and is determined by the central bank, whereas profit rates are unlimited. Dissociating the issue from interest and linking it to profit would delight the greedy financiers to a high degree; the victims would of course be the weak borrowers. Some jurists of Islamic banks are searching for an indicator, a yardstick other than the interest rate, but their search would be a waste of time and effort; victims will increase in number and those searching for this alternative yardstick will ultimately discover how futile their search has been, for they will never find an alternative indicator to interest.