April 23, 2006
A contractum trinius was a set of contracts devised by European bankers and merchants in the Middle Ages as a method of circumventing canon law edicts prohibiting usury. At the time, most Christian nations heavily incorporated scripture into their laws, and as such it was illegal for any person to charge interest on a loan of money.
To get around this, a set of three separate contracts were presented to someone seeking a loan: an investment, a sale of profit and an insurance contract. Each of these contracts were permissible under Church law, but together replicated the effect of an interest-paying loan.
The way this procedure worked was as follows: The loaner would invest a sum equal to the amount to be borrowed to the loanee for one year. The loaner would then purchase insurance for the investment from the loanee, and finally sell back the right to any profit made over a pre-arranged percentage of the investment to them. This system replicated the effects of a loan with any interest rate agreed between the two, and provided protection to the loaner against defaulting, while the loanee remained under the protection of the law when it came to collection of the money by threats or force (loan sharking).
The Church proved utterly unable to legislate against the contractum trinius, and the idea quickly spread to merchants and bankers across Christendom. It helped in part to improve public perception of the practice of usury by moneylenders, and ultimately the doctrine was rewritten by the School of Salamanca, and the ban overturned in many Protestant countries, starting with England by Henry VIII.
The practice has recently, and somewhat controversially, been revived by Islamic banks in a slightly modified form, again as a method of working around a ban of ribaa (usury) in religious scripture.
Source: Wikipedia
October 15, 2006 at 1:32 pm
So you’re saying this is essentially what nabeyuna Muhammad [saws] warned us about - the Ummah engaging in roundabout ways of ribaa’? al-3ainah?
October 26, 2006 at 12:54 pm
The Prophet Muhammad, salallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, said that we would follow the people that came before us so much so that if they were to enter into a snake hole, we would follow them there. When the sahaabah asked if he meant the Jews & the Christians, he responded, “Whom else?”.
Jazaak Allaahu khayran for posting this reminder, akhee.
November 18, 2006 at 1:17 pm
this time the jews have made a smarter strike keeping the religion controlers (Ulema e Sue) on their side paying them high ammount of money.
June 27, 2007 at 1:21 am
innamal aamalu binniyaat.
many of these islamic banks are sincerely striving to create halal alternatives for muslims living in usury ridden societies. may Allah s.w.t guide us all. Aameen.
October 9, 2007 at 1:44 am
Its really true that the BIG game by European and Jewish bankers, is at its peak. They have obviously become successful in deceiving the innocent Muslims to believe that Islamic Banking is another Halal (permissible) option for them to do banking. I have worked for nearly 8 years for different Islamic Banks and I know that its definately not Islamic, the way these Islamic Banks are operating worldwide under the supervision of the misguided Ulemas (Scholars) of Islam. Once again Muslims are being exploited in the name of their great religion “Islam” and by none other than their own brothers, the misguided religious scholars. Islamic banking is nothing but ‘distortion of facts’ and the work of ‘dajjal’ the false masiah.