Rami Ibrahim
0641174
BADM 4370 – History of Business
Instructor: Michael Morrone
Individual Assignment
Loans with Interest in Early Christianity and Islam
February 7, 2012 When an individual thinks of religion, the first thing that comes to a believer’s mind is the nonnegotiable worship of a supreme being(s) as a source of tranquility whenever he/she is in distress. On the other hand, to a pro-secularization individual, religion only causes pricey conflicts between different cultures and is considered an outdated practice which should not have a place in today’s society. What people in general tend to forget about religion is that it their respective figures like Prophet Muhammad and Jesus wanted to promote a way of life that …show more content…

Aristotle adopted the view, later followed by the Physiocrats, that the natural way to get wealth is by skillful management of house and land. Usury was diabolical and clearly the worst way of making money. But there was also something degraded about trading and exchanging things rather than actually making them,as summed up in the medieval saying,‘Homo mercator vix aut numquam Deo placerepotest’– the merchant can scarcely or never be pleasing to God. By contrast, the Holy Qur’an endorsed trade, so long as it was not usurious.” (Lewis, 2007) On the contrary, with the when Islam and Muhammad did rise to power in the Arabian region, trade was something the Arabs were known for and was also religiously encouraged; there were virtually no disputes or new philosophies. A lack of a solid implementation of the no usury rule (which only strictly existed in Early Christianity) lead to more lenient rule as times changed and the numerous Scriptures were considered more and more ambiguous. As the ages progressed since early Christianity, it went from no exceptions to usury to exceptions made such as allowed usury as long as the interest rate for the loan was fair and reasonable. In one of Ruston’s books he mentioned; “usury passed from