Apparently al azhar has legalised interest for Islamic states.
Personally I dont think thats such a bad idea. Comments? Rebuttals?
Whats forbidden in Quran is not changeable.
[002.275] Those who devour usury will not stand except as stands one whom the Evil One by his touch hath driven to madness. That is because they say: "Trade is like usury," but Allah hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for Allah (to judge); but those who repeat (the offence) are Companions of the Fire; they will abide therein (forever).
[004.161] And their taking usury though indeed they were forbidden it and their devouring the property of people falsely, and We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful chastisement.
thanks.
thats pretty straightforward.
wonder what those guys were thinking. maybe theres other elaboration in Quran/Sunnah..that convinced them to vote 21-1 in favour of legalising it?
Excerpt from the link above :
**"Religious jurisprudence means change, and it is illogical to remain frozen while the world changes around us," Sheikh Saber Talaab, head of the research committee secretariat, told AFP.
"So long as we do not go against what is written (in the Koran) or the Sunna (Islamic tradition), we have a clear conscience."**
i guess al azhar looked at it from the perspective whether interest is teh same thing as riba, or is riba more akin to predatory lending and loan sharking.
there was some discussion before.
with a 21-1 vote, i suppose we can argue against it by saying that we know more than the 21 ppl who voted for it.
How many of those 22 were appointed by the (secular) Egyptian government, or appointed by goverment appointees?
I was reading an interesting book about the Mughals, where Emperor Akbar found himself having 8 wives (8 full wives, not 4 plus concubines) and, being the leader of a nominally Islamic state, needed to prove it was not haraam.
He actually got a fatwa from a commitee of learned senior Muslim scholars of Hindustan saying that when the Quran said you can take up to 4 wives, it actually meant you could have up to 8, or even 9 wives 
The morale of the story is that even committees of the senior scholars of the land can issues fatwas that are total bull****, particularly in an autocratic state (such as Egypt, or the Mughal Empire).
^^ :k:
A time will come when people will devour usury, calling it “trade.” (Bukhari, Muslim).
It's pretty easy to ditch a fatwa by saying it was staged and then use the authority of same scholars in other incidences. Consequently, general public doesn’t have any faith in these Fatwas!
I want to know what possible benefit will Egypt get by making Al-Azhar people issue such a fatwa? Do they have a network of interest based businesses in the Muslim world?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ahmadjee: *
It's pretty easy to ditch a fatwa by saying it was staged and then use the authority of same scholars in other incidences. Consequently, general public doesn’t have any faith in these Fatwas!
I want to know what possible benefit will Egypt get by making Al-Azhar people issue such a fatwa? Do they have a network of interest based businesses in the Muslim world?
[/QUOTE]
I have great faith in these Fatwas, until however they break or cross an Islamic injunction to my knowledge...Then they are as worthless as the paper they were written on...
The best thing about a Fatwa is that if you were to follow it and it was wrong to begin with, you are free from blame, as the wreath of guilt falls on the shoulders of the Mufti...