Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Investment returns are not usury - see sharia banking



>Originally, usury meant interest of any kind.[0]

For example, here's Aristotle on usury[1]:

>There are two sorts of wealth-getting, as I have said; one is a part of household management, the other is retail trade: the former necessary and honorable, while that which consists in exchange is justly censured; for it is unnatural, and a mode by which men gain from one another. The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of an modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury

[1] http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html


How does "not to increase at interest" rule out investing in trade ?




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: