Comparative Study of Legitimacy of Usury Ruses in Islamic Religions

Famous Islamic jurists maintain that the legitimacy and permissibility of usury ruses is documented in the Qur'an and Islamic traditions. The present study intends to infer the reasons for the permissibility of usury ruses by applying jurisprudential methods from the Qur'an and hadith and to compare the reasons proposed by Shi'ah jurists with those proposed by Sunni jurists. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this paper shows that the legitimacy of the usury ruses can be proved by referring to the Book, Islamic traditions, and jurisprudential rules. In addition to the Imamiyyah jurisprudence which permits usury ruses based on the rules of "no harm", "no hardship", and "concomitance of wisdom and shari'ah", the Sunnis also have considered it legitimate in other forms such as the contracts of tavarruq sale, istighlal sale, and 'ainih sale. Therefore, only by considering the delicate points of usury ruses, one can eliminate the doubt of usury in the contracts and consider it to be legitimate.