Ostensible PLS trading contracts a comparative analysis of early usury circumventions in Judaism with contemporary Islamic financial institutions’ practices
Authors: Kamal Islam Mohamed 
Published: November 2024

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the historical foundations of ostensible profit and loss-sharing (PLS) trading contracts used in most Islamic financial institutions, and it investigates the potential origins of these contracts in an earlier Abrahamic religion, Judaism.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is conceptual in nature, using a historical analytical review to examine religious interpretations within Jewish and Islamic jurisprudential literature that sought to mitigate usury restrictions, with a particular focus on ostensible PLS trading contracts. To fulfil the research objective, the paper investigates the underpinning foundation of usury prohibition in both Islam and Judaism, through analysing prohibition scriptures in primary legislation sources in Islam (Qur’an and Sunnah) and Judaism (Torah and Talmud), as well as the various interpretations of these scriptures. The paper then delves into particular interpretations that have been used to evade the ban on usury, resulting in the development of ostensible PLS trading contracts, among both religions’ adherents, as a suspected roundabout to bypass the usury prohibition.

Findings

The ostensible PLS trading or quasi-debt contracts were found and used in Judaism for the purpose of circumventing the usury prohibition. Although the context of ostensible PLS trading contracts contradicts genuine Islamic teachings and principles, and even their akin was opposed by early Islamic jurisprudence; nonetheless, these contracts’ echoes can be found in many arrangements used in modern Islamic financial institutions. Furthermore, the comparative analysis showed remarkable similarities between Jewish and Islamic finance literature regarding the usury circumvention progression; although the underlying premises regarding this discourse might be different across both religions’ jurisprudence, yet the resemblance still noteworthy.

Research limitations/implications

The research is confined to Islamic primary legislation sources, Qur’an and Sunnah, and Judaism basic legislation sources, Torah and Talmud, examining the history of theologians’ interpretations respondent to the laity pressure toward slacking usury prohibition. If similarity is apparent, the issue may depart from the ontological analysis of Islamic financial institutions toward a deeper epistemological investigation of usury prohibition theory, with the aim of restricting ostensible PLS contracts in Islamic financial institutions.

Originality/value

The Islamic finance literature has attempted substantially to explain the gap between the theoretical context of Islamic finance and the discrepant practices adopted in most Islamic financial institutions. As the used approach was usually keen to address the issue ontologically as a practice problem, outward built-in solutions such as corporate governance and shari’ah compliance monitoring were prevalent in the literature. Nonetheless, despite their practical essence, such explanations have not solved the practicing problem, in addition to their lack of theoretical premises. This research contributes to enhancing the theory of Islamic finance and scoping the premises behind the problematic current practices of Islamic financial institutions. It sheds light on the early origins of the ostensible PLS or quasi-debt contracts used in Islamic financial institutions as PLS trading contracts, while genuinely, they are not.