ABSTRACT
Freedom is a liberty that our society cherishes—a badge of honor that we carry, demonstrating that the current civilization has triumphed. Any ideal presented in the guise of freedom is easy to sell in our age. It is not surprising, then, that ‘freedom from interest’ is the catchphrase of Islamic finance. The prohibition is portrayed as liberation—freedom from the enslavement of debt swirling due to the excess rate charged. The power of the compounding interest was challenged by Islamic finance. It promised an alternative rate that would be anchored in ‘real’ markets, and not the hyper-reality of finance. It would be fairer than the ‘other’ it aspired to replace. It brought the promise of blessings for the faithful and justice for all. If it were a human, it would have the sincerest of all intentions—a heart of gold. As the abstraction morphed into reality, when the Islamic rate emerged in the real world it took the form of the very evil it abhorred. A sheep in a wolf’s clothing; maybe in a good way. The form is determined by the rules of the game and the norms of the market. It’s like a beauty contest, where the inner beauty is of little value. The contenders are judged on external attributes. Creating a pressure to comply with the outer forms of the others, the inner beauty of the Islamic rate had to converge with the ugliness of the form it detested.
