A Critical Examination of the View that Bank Deposits Constitute a Wadīʻah or a Qarḍ

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student, Department of Law and Islamic Sciences, Al-Mustafa International University, Khorasan Branch, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Al-Mustafa International University, Khorasan Branch, Mashhad.

Abstract

Regarding the reality of deposit-making, particularly interest-bearing deposits in banks, various viewpoints have been proposed, such as wadīʿah, qarḍ, muḍārabah, wakālah, and being a new contract. Undoubtedly, the Sharīʿah and legal rulings and conditions thereof will also differ based on each of the aforementioned transactions. One of the longstanding opinions is that deposit-making in banks constitutes wadīʿah, while in contrast, the prevailing opinion among jurists and legal scholars is that deposits constitute qarḍ. The most important implication of deposits being qarḍ is the application of the prohibition of ribā qarḍī with respect to receiving interest in this type of banking transaction. In this article, employing an analytical-descriptive method, after elucidating some necessary concepts, the two viewpoints of deposit-making as wadīʿah and as qarḍ are examined, evaluated, and critiqued. The most important finding of this research is that deposit-making in banks is not a wadīʿah contract. Furthermore, although deposit-making in banks as qarḍ is the common viewpoint, it is not established with certainty. Consequently, the implications and rulings of these two fiqhī titles do not apply to deposit-making. Of course, it is evident that the general conditions and regulations of transactions must be observed in these cases.

Keywords

References

The Noble Qurʾān with translation by Āyatullāh Makārim Shīrāzī. (in Persian)
Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad ibn Mukarram. (1997 AD). Lisān al-ʿArab. Beirut: Dār Ṣād.
Aḥsāʾī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm. (1403 AH / 1983 AD). ʿAwālī al-Liʾālī (Edited by Āqā Mujtabā ʿIrāqī). Qom: Maṭbaʿat Sayyid al-Shuhadāʾ. (in Persian)
Aḥmadī, Ḥusayn ʿAlī. (1374 Sh. / 1995 AD). “Ribā wa Manfaʿat dar ʿUqūd Bānkī” [Usury and Benefit in Banking Contracts]. In Majmūʿeh Āthār Kongreh-ye Barrasī-ye Mabānī-ye Fiqhī-ye Imām Khomeinī, Masāʾil-e Mustaḥdathah (Vol. 1, pp. 279–350). Qom: Muʾassasat Tanzīm wa Nashr Āthār Imām Khomeinī. (in Persian)
Imāmī, Ḥasan. (1380 Sh. / 2001 AD). Ḥuqūq-i Madanī (15th ed.) [Civil Law]. Tehran: Intishārāt Islāmiyyah. (in Persian)
Tūtūnchīān, Īraj. (1375 Sh. / 1996 AD). Iqtiṣād, Pūl wa Bānk-dārī [Economics, Money, and Banking]. Tehran: Muʾassasat Taḥqīqāt-i Pūlī wa Bānkī. (in Persian)
Ḥusaynī Wāsiṭī Zabīdī, Muḥammad. (1414 AH / 1994 AD). Tāj al-ʿArūs. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. (in Persian)
Ḥillī, Ḥusayn. (n.d.). Buḥūth Fiqhiyyah. Edited by ʿIzz al-Dīn Baḥr al-ʿUlūm. [n.p.]: Muʾassasat al-Manār. (in Persian)
Khomeinī, Sayyid Rūḥullāh. (1365 Sh. / 1986 AD). Taḥrīr al-Wasīlah (5th ed.) [The Composition of the Means]. Tehran: Maktabat Iʿtimād al-Kāẓimī. (in Persian)
Khūrī Shartūnī Lebanese, Saʿīd. (1416 AH / 1996 AD). Aqrab al-Mawārid fī Fuṣḥ al-ʿArabiyyah wa al-Shawārid. Qom: Dār al-ʾUswah. (in Persian)
Khūyī, Abū al-Qāsim. (1408 AH / 1988 AD). Al-Mabānī fī Sharḥ al-ʿUrwah al-Wuthqā, Kitāb al-Muḍārabah [The Foundations on the Explanation of the Firm Handle, The Book of Profit-Sharing]. Qom. (in Persian)
Dihḵudā, ʿAlī Akbar. (1377 Sh. / 1998 AD). Lughatnāmah-ye Dihḵudā (2nd ed. of new edition) [Dihḵudā’s Dictionary]. Tehran: Nashr va Chaap Dāneshgāh-i Tehran. (in Persian)
Rimānī, Zayd Muḥammad. (n.d.). “ʿAqd al-Muḍārabah wa Madāy-e Taṭbīq Aḥkām-hā dar al-Masārif” [Profit-Sharing Contract and Scope of Application of Its Rules in Banks]. Fiqh-Pūzhūhī, Vol. 7, Fiqh wa Iqtiṣād, Vol. 14 (Economic Innovations 5: Checks – Stocks – Banks – Stock Market), pp. 311–377. (in Persian)
Sanhūrī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Aḥmad. (1998 AD). Al-Wasīṭ fī Sharḥ al-Qānūn al-Madanī al-Jadīd [The Mediator in the Explanation of the New Civil Code]. Beirut: Manshūrāt al-Ḥalabī al-Ḥuqūqiyyah.
Sīstānī, Sayyid ʿAlī Ḥusaynī. (1421 AH / 2000 AD). Minhāj al-Ṣāliḥīn. Qom: Maṭbaʿat Ṣadr.
Shahīd Thānī, Zayn al-Dīn ibn ʿAlī. (1414 AH / 1993 AD). Masālik al-Afhām ilā Tanqīḥ Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām. Qom: Muʾassasat Maʿārif Islāmīyyah. (in Persian)
Ṣadr, Muḥammad Bāqir. (n.d.). Bānk al-Islāmī [Islamic Bank]. Translated by Ḥ. A. Khanjī. (in Persian)
Ṭabāṭabāʾī Ḥakīm, Muḥsin. (1392 Sh. / 2013 AD). Mustamsak al-ʿUrwah al-Wuthqā. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. (in Persian)
Ṭurayḥī, Fakhr al-Dīn. (1421 AH / 2000 AD). Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn (latest ed.). Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Hilāl. (in Persian)
ʿAbdullāh Amīn, Ḥasan. (1367 Sh. / 1988 AD). “Sepordehā-ye Naqdī va Rāhhā-ye Estefādeh az Ān dar Islām” [Cash Deposits and Ways of Using Them in Islam]. Translated by Muḥammad Rakhshandeh. Tehran: Intishārāt Amīrkabīr. (in Persian)
Farāhānī-fard, Saʿīd. (1378 Sh. / 1999 AD). Siyāsat-hā-ye Pūlī dar Bānk-dārī Bedūn Ribā [Monetary Policies in Interest-Free Banking]. Qom: Markaz Intishārāt Daftar Tablīgh Islāmī. (in Persian)
Kāshānī, Maḥmūd. (1376 Sh. / 1997 AD). “Barrasī-ye Ḥuqūqī-ye Chārčūb-e Qānūn ʿAmalīyāt-e Bānk-dārī Bedūn Ribā” [Legal Review of the Framework of the Interest-Free Banking Operations Law]. In Majmūʿeh Sokhanrānī-hā wa Maqālāt-e Hashtomin Seminār-e Bānk-dārī Islāmī [Proceedings and Articles of the 8th Islamic Banking Seminar], pp. 81–120. Tehran: Muʾassasat ʿĀlī-ye Bānk-dārī Irān. (in Persian)
Muḥaqqiq Dāmād, Muṣṭafā. (1374 Sh. / 1995 AD). Qawāʿid Fiqh Madanī, Qism 2 [Rules of Civil Jurisprudence, Part 2]. Tehran: Samt. (in Persian)
Muqaddas Ardabīlī, Aḥmad. (1416 AH / 1995 AD). Majmaʿ al-Fāʾidah wa al-Burhān fī Sharḥ Irshād al-Adhhān [The Collection of Benefit and Proof in Commentary on the Guidance of Minds]. Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī. (in Persian)
Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāsir. (1376 Sh. / 1997 AD). Ribā wa Bānk-dārī Islāmī [Usury and Islamic Banking]. Prepared and Edited by Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlīyān Nezhād. Qom: Madraseh Imām ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿalayh al-salām). (in Persian)
Muntaz̤arī, Ḥusayn ʿAlī. (1362 Sh. / 1983 AD). Tawḍīḥ al-Masāʾil [Clarification of Issues]. Qom: Markaz Intishārāt Daftar Tablīgh Islāmī. (in Persian)
Mūsawī Bojnourdī, Muḥammad. (1385 Sh. / 2006 AD). Qawāʿid Fiqhiyyah [Jurisprudential Rules]. Tehran: Majmaʿ ʿIlmī va Farhangī Majd. (in Persian)
Mūsavīyān, ʿAbbās. (1381 Sh. / 2002 AD). Bānk-dārī Islāmī [Islamic Banking]. Tehran: Pužūhishkadah Pūlī va Bānkī. (in Persian)
Muʾassasah-ye Muṭālaʿāt-e Muntaz̤arān-e Mawʿūd. (1381 Sh. / 2002 AD). (Muḥammad Taqī Bahjat and Muḥammad Fāḍil Lankarānī). Risālah-ye Tawḍīḥ al-Masāʾil Maḥshī Imām Khomeinī [Explanatory Treatise on Imām Khomeinī's Jurisprudential Issues]. Mashhad: Intishārāt Hātef. (in Persian)
Nāʾīnī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. (1417 AH / 1996 AD). Fawāʾid al-Uṣūl (6th ed.; Edited by Muḥammad ʿAlī Kāẓimī Khorāsānī). Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī. (in Persian)
Najafī, Muḥammad Ḥasan. (1981 AD). Jawāhir al-Kalām fī Sharḥ Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām (7th ed.) [Jewels of Discourse in the Explanation of Islamic Laws]. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. (in Persian)
Nūrī, Mīrzā Ḥusayn. (1408 AH / 1988 AD). Mustadrak Wāsiʿ al-Shīʿah [The Supplementary Means of the Shīʿah]. Qom: Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt. (in Persian)
Wahīd Khorāsānī, Ḥusayn. (1379 Sh. / 2000 AD). Tawḍīḥ al-Masāʾil [Clarification of Issues]. Qom: Madrasat Bāqir al-Ulūm. (in Persian)

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics