Islamic laws of finance a cushion in hard times - An Excerpt

Islamic laws of finance a cushion in hard times
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By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

The recession gripping the nation has taken less of a toll on American Muslims who follow age-old Islamic laws against paying – or charging – interest.

They've also been shielded by socially responsible retirement plans because Shariah– Islamic law – forbids investments in banks and mortgages as well as tobacco, alcohol, gambling, pornography or weapons.

"If everybody was Shariah-compliant, there would be no recession," said Farouk Fakira, a Yemeni immigrant who moderated a discussion on Islamic finance at Sacramento's Masjid Annur last week.

Fakira, 57, rents a home – like hundreds of other local Muslims – because "interest is pretty much forbidden. If you're making money off of money, the only person who benefits is you."

Shariah – 1,400 years of Islamic legal knowledge based on the words of the Prophet Muhammad – guides Muslims in daily life, said Imam Muhammed Abdul Azeez of Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims, or SALAM.

Shariah prohibits usury, which often took advantage of a desperate person who needed to feed or protect his family, Azeez said. "There's an element of exploitation here."

The bottom line for many Muslims is, "if I don't have the money to buy something, that means I can't afford it," said Deya Dean Elghassein, who's Palestinian American.

His family helped him buy his home in Folsom with cash. "I do use credit cards, but they have to be paid off in full at the end of the month," he said. He wouldn't invest in Costco because it sells pork and alcohol, but he and others shop there "out of necessity."

About 20 percent of the Sacramento area's 50,000 American Muslims closely follow Islamic rules of finance – especially the prohibition against interest – said Irfan Haq, an economist who's president of the Council of Sacramento Valley Islamic Organizations , an umbrella organization representing 10 mosques.

"Muslims in general have been much less affected by the recession because they're very cautious and conservative in matters of finance and take a longer-term view of life," Haq said. "They want to invest their funds in a way that pleases God so they can sleep peacefully – they care about the afterlife."

Along with avoiding interest, another tenet of Islamic finance is not to invest in enterprises that violate Shariah: alcohol, gambling, banking and weapons. Azeez counsels his Muslim flock not to buy businesses that sell alcohol because "you cannot be in the business of spreading sin: Drunk driving kills."

Mohammed Memon, a Pakistani American project manager for Oracle in Rocklin, has a 401(k) through Amana Mutual Funds – a Shariah-compliant fund based in Bellingham, Wash.

"They're relatively better than other funds; I'm down 15 to 20 percent while many of my friends are down over 50 percent," said Memon, 38.

Amana's income and growth funds avoid bonds and interest-paying securities.

"We screen about 5,500 stocks a month for our 75,000 shareholders, and 2,200 to 2,400 pass," said portfolio manager Nick Kaiser. "The growth fund's biggest holding is Apple Computer. We buy technology, health care stocks and stocks with low debt. The income fund focuses on drug companies, energy stocks, mining."

Shariah also prohibits gharar – the Arabic word for uncertainty or risk – and maysir – gambling – which includes real estate speculation.

Metwalli Amer, founder of SALAM, said he knows Muslims who speculated in real estate and lost their shirts.

Amer, 75, said Islamic finance is about living within your means and helping the needy. "If Muslims had followed that, we'd be much better off," said Amer, an Egyptian immigrant.

But he said the majority of Muslims he knows "became greedy."

Islam doesn't prohibit wealth as long as you give back, he said. "The Quran promotes going into business and trading ventures that share the profits and loss."

Amer said one Sacramento Muslim who was able to become a millionaire while adhering to Islamic financial principles is Kais Menoufy.

Menoufy left Egypt in 1976 and landed in California in 1985 after becoming vice president of a computer science company in Europe and saving his money by sleeping on floors.

"When I started my own company in Sacramento nine years ago, I rented an apartment for $800 a month in the Arden area and again was sleeping on a mattress on the floor," said Menoufy, 62.

By plowing the profits back into his business, Menoufy said he built Delegata Technology Consulting & Systems Integration into a multimillion-dollar company with about 100 employees. "You spend as much as you can make," said Menoufy.

He recently bought a home along the Garden Highway for cash.

While Islamic scholars generally say interest-based financial transactions are prohibited, sometimes American Muslims have no choice, said Azeez of SALAM. "Every day I get a question about interest and student loans – I tell them getting your education is an absolute necessity."

If a student can't get an interest-free federal loan, "get yourself a loan with an interest rate as close to inflation as possible – they cancel each other out," Azeez said.

Some scholars say the financial relationship between consumers and banks is OK if there's no exploitation.

Akhtar Khan, who has a doctorate in economics, bought his home with a conventional mortgage out of necessity, he said, but hopes to pay it off as soon as possible.

Muslims are allowed to buy a home directly from the owner with owner financing, some scholars believe.

Mohammed Memon bought his home from the builder. "No banks are involved – there can't be a third-party contract."

Hamza El-Nakhal, a retired microbiologist from Egypt, said he came to the United States with $10 in his pocket 40 years ago.

He got a bank loan to buy property here. "Many scholars say that if it's necessary to buy your home and take out a loan to survive in a foreign country, it's OK," said El-Nakhal, who is on the board of the Islamic Center of Davis. "There were no Islamic lending institutions when I bought. Now there is."

The Shariah-compliant Lariba Bank of Southern California, founded in 1987, lends money without interest – instead, it goes into partnership with its clients and then charges rent on the property.

Here's how Lariba works: If you borrow $80,000 from Lariba on a $100,000 home, you send a monthly payment to Lariba that has two components. The first is a portion of the money you owe Lariba. The second component is a rental payment that declines each month as you build up equity.

The first month, you pay 80 percent of the monthly rent to Lariba. Every month, you pay off a portion of the loan without interest, and then pay a smaller percentage of the rent based on your share of the principal.

"The approach is one of investment as opposed to just lending money," said Lariba's president Mike Abdelaaty.

Rather than checking to see if a client has the ability to pay back a loan, he said, "we use the rental value of the property in measuring whether it's a good investment."

The monthly rent is fixed over the term of the loan, which is competitive with other banks, said Yahya Abdur Rahman, Lariba's founder. "We've never kicked anybody out of their homes. We give them a three-month grace period, and then we tell them, 'Maybe your home is too big for you and you need to move to an apartment.' " If the house is sold, 100 percent of the profit goes to the customer, he said.

Other religions, including Judaism and Catholicism, also had prohibitions against usury, said Rahman, whose more than 3,000 clients span all faiths.

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When the Islamic Bank of Asia was established in Singapore in 2007 with Lee Hsien Yang,the brother of Singapore Prime Minister as one of its directors, several comments were received in the USA Today online report. These include the following :

Comments: (4)

shamrocker (1 friends, send message) wrote: 5/8/2007 4:08:35 AM
I'm sure there are fees and such since no business could survive without some type of profit. However, the lack of 'interest' (no pun intended), can only be beneficial to the customers since interest is just another word for "loan sharking". This sort of banking intrigues me... I'm a bit interested in learning more about this system. Do you have to be muslim?

babysue (0 friends, send message) wrote: 5/7/2007 3:43:50 PM
It's just another branch of organized crime. Where there is big money involved, there the mob will set up housekeeping!

Obummer (0 friends, send message) wrote: 5/7/2007 1:26:21 PM
How does it work?
Simple. Osama deposits millions and the 'bank' buys guns and missles from the North Koreans and keeps the change. Everybody is happy.

Sounds more like an International money laundry to me.

Only small time depositors will be required to send their children to be bombers. The rich don't deal with this stuff since they can buy their way into Alla Land pre-stocked with the virgins and all that. Kinda like Never-Land with a twist.

5of5 (0 friends, send message) wrote: 5/7/2007 10:02:57 AM
Hmmmm...since they won't be dealing with interest, I suppose that 'fees' will be the way the bank becomes profitable. It could work several ways.
You may borrow $100,000 (equivalent) and every month you will pay a 5% 'fee' on the remaining balance, but it WILL NOT BE INTEREST, since that is a Zionist thing.
Or, perhaps...oh..your checking balance fell below the require $2500 minimum, so you must pay an account maintenace fee of $500 per month.
All kidding aside, I look forward to hearing how this model will actually work.
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Understanding Islamic Finance
Published on:
Monday, April 06, 2009
Written by:
Syed Imad-ud-Din Asad

Islam is second largest religion in the world today, and smart investors and financial professionals will strive to understand and embrace the intricacies of Islamic finance. Syed Imad-ud-Din Asad specializes in Islamic law and finance, and he explains Islamic finance in the article below from JD Supra.
The Quran and the Sunnah are the principal sources of Islamic law. Islamic finance signifies financial services, mechanisms, practices, transactions, and instruments that comply with provisions given in these fundamental Islamic texts. Thus, Islamic finance not only includes banking, but also capital formation, capital markets and all types of financial intermediation.
While some of these norms are shared by Islamic and western financial systems, certain norms are exclusive to Islam.In fact, some Islamic financial restrictions are severe enough to render certain western financial practices and transactions absolutely void. This assertion of religious law in commercial sphere reaffirms the claim that Islam is an all encompassing system, not just a set of prayers, acts of worship, and declarations regarding God's existence and omnipotence.
Coming back to the topic, derived from the Quran and the Sunnah, some of the main features of Islamic finance, in brief are:
1. Riba is prohibited in the strongest terms. Riba literally means "an excess", and most of the present-day Islamic scholars agree that it includes both usury and interest. The prohibition of riba is generally considered to be the most important of all Islamic financial principles.
2. Gharar, which signifies ambiguity, uncertainty, or lack of specificity in the terms of a financial contract, is forbidden.
3. As riba is prohibited, suppliers of capital become investors instead of creditors.
4. Investment can only be made in permitted commodities and activities. For instance, one cannot deal in the import and export of alcohol. Similarly, it is not allowed to invest in a casino.
5. Market prices must be determined by the forces of demand and supply. In other words, Islam envisages a free market.
6. Information must be easily and equally accessible to all investors.
Based on the above-mentioned principles, there is a variety of Islamic financial instruments and transactions in vogue. Some of them are briefly explained below:
1. Musharaka: It is a business structure in which the investor not only makes a financial contribution to the enterprise, but may also participate in managing the venture. Profits are shared between the parties according to a pre-determined ratio and losses are borne by them in proportion to their capital contributions. In terms of classification, this is an equity-based transaction.
2. Mudaraba: In this arrangement, the investor provides the requisite financial resources, butdoes not participate in managing the enterprise. It is a form of partnership in which one partyprovides the funds while the other provides expertise and management. Profits are divided among the parties according to a mutually agreed ratio. Financial losses are borne by the investor alone. This is also an equity-based transaction.
3. Murabaha: In this transaction, the finance provider, instead of advancing a loan to the partywishing to purchase goods or equipment, purchases those items and sells them to that party at cost plus a declared profit.
4. Tawarruq: In it the finance provider buys an asset and immediately sells it to the client on a deferred payment basis. The client then sells the same to a third party for immediate delivery and payment. Consequently, the client receives a cash amount and has a deferred payment obligation for the marked-up price to the finance provider. The asset is typically a metal like copper or platinum.
5. Ijarah: It is the leasing or hiring of a physical asset, and it is one of the fastest growing activities of Islamic financial institutions.
6. Takaful: It is a form of insurance. It is an arrangement by a group of people to shield each other from loss or damage through the setting up of a defined pool of resources. Any member of the group who suffers such a loss is compensated in the form of monetary help from the common fund. In other words, it is a mutual self-help scheme between those who wish to support each other in difficult times.
7. Sukuk: Also called "Islamic bond", it signifies, speaking more accurately, an Islamic investment certificate. It is an asset-based investment as the investor owns an undivided interest in an underlying tangible asset that is proportionate to investment. The sukuk certificate is a proof of this ownership interest. The certificate holder is not only entitled to all the benefits that it entails including a share in the revenues generated by that asset, but is also entitled to share in the proceeds of the realization of the sukuk asset. Sukuk structures employ techniques that are well developed in conventional markets for structured finance, and have become a significant mechanism for raising finance in the international markets by institutions, corporations, and sovereign and state entities.
It must be mentioned that some of the prevalent transactions and instruments are not considered to be in conformity with Islamic law by all Muslim scholars. Those opposing these practices do so by pointing out the hidden or concealed elements of riba and gharar in them. For example, actual administrative fee is one thing and interest in the name of administrative fee is another. However, to most of the scholars, venture capital finance is closest to the actual Islamic finance. Thus, musharaka and mudaraba structures are favored by the majority.
In fact, every financial institution dealing in Islamic finance has a committee of Muslim scholars, called "shariah committee", that determines whether a product or practice complies with Islamic law. As there is no set of binding uniform rules, shariah committees, at times, give conflicting rulings. There can also be a difference between two countries or regions. For instance, in Malaysia, Islamic financial restrictions are interpreted more liberally than in the Gulf
Another shortcoming confronting Islamic finance is the shortage of qualified professionals. There are not many people who are equally skilled in conventional finance and Islamic law. A person well acquainted with conventional finance can easily understand any Islamic financial product; however, one cannot develop or market such a product without knowing the rules and logic unique to Islam.
To summarize, lack of uniformity in laws and procedures, and deficiency of skilled professionals are among the main hurdles faced by Islamic finance. However, the industry is growing — the Arab oil money being one of the main driving forces. This is evident not only from the number of banks and institutions established specifically for practicing shariah compliant finance, but also from the increasing number of western or conventional financial institutions engaging in
Islamic finance operations.
This article was oiginally posted on JD Supra.
Syed Imad-ud-Din Asad specializes in Islamic law, Islamic finance, corporations, securities law, and energy law.




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USURY - THE BIBLE VERSION :


No Usury to God�s People

Exodus 22:25 says, "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury."

Leviticus 25:35-38 is more specific. It states that we are to relieve our poor brethren, taking no usury or increase from them. Verse 37: "Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase." Why? Verses 38-39, because God brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery. Therefore, we are not to put our brothers into slavery to us. There is to be no increase at all when we loan to our brethren.

You May Lend With Usury to Strangers

However, Deuteronomy 23:19-20 adds another dimension: "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thy hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it."

Who is your stranger? Who is your brother? In the physical nation of Israel, the Israelites were brothers and Gentiles were strangers. Today, it applies in the spiritual sense: fellow believers are brethren and non-believers are strangers.

Lending can be a blessing, Deuteronomy 28:12, and borrowing a curse, Deuteronomy 28:43-44. Those who are blessed of God will be lending interest-free to their brethren, and even at times with usury to strangers.

Proverbs 28:8, "He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor." Even though some pray and fast, and seem to be following God, they exact all their labor, Isaiah 58:3.

Because people have transgressed God�s laws, the land shall be utterly emptied and spoiled, "as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him" Isaiah 24:1-6.

Usury creates ill feeling: "I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me" Jeremiah 15:10.

A mark of a just man is one that "hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man" Ezekiel 18:7, 8, and also 16-17.

Contrariwise, a mark of an unjust man is one that "hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live; he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him" Ezekiel 18:13.

In Ezekiel 22, those that have taken usury and increase (verse 12) are placed in the same category as Sabbath breakers, adulterers, those that engage in bribery, and extortion.

Jesus told the publicans to "exact no more than that which is appointed you" Luke 3:12-13.

Does God Require Interest?

The parable of the talents (Matthew 25) and pounds (Luke 19) show the Lord telling the wicked servant, who did nothing with what was given to him, "Thou oughtest therefore [at least] to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury" Matthew 25:27, and "Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?" Luke 19:23. Modern translations render "usury" as "interest."

Does this mean that God requires interest? In the spiritual sense, yes indeed! The "talents," spiritual gifts given to us from God, are not given for nothing. He expects a return on His investment. God has chosen us and ordained us that we should go and bring forth fruit that remains and lasts, John 15:16.

Mortgage Usury Produces Bondage

Peloubet�s Bible Dictionary, article "Usury" states that the "practice of mortgaging land, sometimes at exorbitant interest grew up among the Jews during the [Babylonian] captivity in direct violation of the law [of God]."

Nehemiah 5:1-13 shows the effect of mortgage usury. Some of the Jews who returned from captivity, had mortgaged their property so that they could buy corn during a drought, and others had borrowed money to pay the King�s tribute, with their property held on mortgage. Those under the yoke of mortgage were under bondage and many had lost their property. Truly as Proverbs 22:7 says, "the borrower is servant to the lender."

Nehemiah was angry when he heard about this. He said "ye exact usury, every one of his brother" Nehemiah 5:7. Calling an assembly to stop this practice, Nehemiah demanded the restoration of foreclosed property, the 1% interest on money charged, along with the produce counted as interest. To do these things to the brethren is a great sin! There should be no increase required.

Is a Little Interest Not Usury?

There are some who say that God only condemns excessive interest. Until recently, laws of several states forbid interest rates above 12%. Anyone who charged more was guilty of "usury."

Even Adam Clarke in his famous Bible Commentary agrees with this view. In his note under Exodus 22:25 he states, "It is evident that what is here said must be understood of accumulated usury, or what we call �compound interest� only; and accordingly neshech is mentioned with and distinguished from tarbith and marbith . . . . �interest� or �simple interest� . . . . Perhaps usury may be more properly defined �unlawful interest,� receiving more for the loan of money than it is really worth and more than the law allows."

Strong�s defines tarbith as "multiplication; i.e., percentage or bonus in addition to principal; increase, unjust gain." The related word marbith can mean "increase, or "interest on capital." Tarbith and marbith do not have the bite or sting as does nashak interest. Tarbith is used along with nashak (usury) in Leviticus 25:36, Proverbs 28:8, Ezekiel 18:8, 13, 17 and 22:12, as is marbith in Leviticus 25:37. The point Clarke misses is that God condemns them both! Any interest or increase from your brother is wrong. However, as we have seen, it is permissible to charge interest to outsiders.

Lend to Your Brother

Because interest or any gain cannot be exacted from one�s brethren, the tendency might be not to lend them anything at all. God commands us to lend to our brethren when they are in need.

Deuteronomy 24:10-13 assumes we will loan [nashak] things to our brethren. When we do, we must not take as pledge anything away from them that will leave them destitute. There is also a responsibility on the borrower to give of some of his time and energy in helping the lender out of thankfulness for the loan.

Deuteronomy 15:1-18 describes the year of release. Every creditor that lends (the word is nashak, "takes usury") unto his neighbor or his brother shall release it at the end of every seven years. If the loan is to a foreigner, it may be exacted again. Verses 7-11 command us to liberally lend to our brethren sufficient for their need, not thinking that we shouldn�t give him anything because the seventh year release is near. This statute adds another dimension to the Bible�s lending law: No loan with a brother is to be for more than a seven year period. It is to be released at the end of the seventh year.

See also Nehemiah 10:31.

A System of Slavery

Debt usury is one of the vilest forms of slavery. Every one that had a creditor (nashak) joined themselves with David, I Samuel 22:1-2. The widow with the oil begged Elisha to help her pay her dead husband�s creditor lest her two sons be taken as bondmen, II Kings 4:1-7.

David prayed that the extortioner (usurer) would seize all that his wicked enemy had, Psalm 109:1-20. On the other hand, God said in a vision to David that his enemy would not exact (extract usury) upon him, Psalm 89:18-24.

The Eternal said to rebellious Judah, "Where is the bill of your mother�s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away" Isaiah 50:1.

Debt Money the Foundation of Today�s Society

Like Israel of old, today�s Israel has likewise sold herself to her creditors. Interest and debt is the foundation of this world�s economic system, especially the Western world.

Many books and articles have been written about the Federal Reserve system, the Illuminati, the Bilderbergers, Council of Foreign Relations, Tri-Lateral Commission, Rockefeller�s and Rothschild�s, the big bankers who control most of the world through debt money. An excellent simplified short booklet is "Billions For the Bankers � Debts for the People. How Did It Happen?" by Sheldon Emry.

Article 1 of the United States Constitution states that "Congress shall have power to coin money and regulate the value thereof." Instead, since the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, Congress has abdicated this power to a private corporation of bankers, the "Federal" Reserve. No new money ever comes into the economic system without interest and debt.

Here�s how it works: If the Federal Government spends more money than it takes in, say $1,000,000, Congress authorizes the Treasury Department to print $1,000,000 in Federal Reserve notes, which are delivered to the Federal Reserve, which pays the cost of printing, perhaps only $500. The Government receives the paper money in exchange for its agreement to pay it back � with interest.

The government spends the money into circulation which eventually ends up in the hands of banks in the form of deposits. Then the banks of the Federal Reserve System can lend out another $10,000,000 to private and commercial customers with interest. They are required to keep only 10% as reserve. The Federal Reserve Board sets the interest rate charged to the citizens. Neither the chairman nor any of the Reserve Board members are elected. They are appointed by the President. This is an example of how the evil system of usury (debt money) works.

Righteous Lend � At No Interest!

Unlike the usurers who are in charge of this world�s economic system, the righteous will mercifully lend to those in need, expecting no gain or interest. Psalm 37:21, 26 (Living Bible): "Evil men borrow and �cannot pay it back�! But the good man returns what he owes with some extra besides . . . . the godly are able to be generous with their gifts and loans to others, and their children are a blessing." Psalm 112:5, "A good man shows favor, and lends."

Luke 6:27-38 outlines the basic instructions regarding lending: Give to every man that asks of you. If you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, you haven�t performed an act of mercy. As you are merciful to others, God shall be merciful to you. Matthew 5:42, "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." Matthew 6:12, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Luke 11:4, "And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." The parable of the unjust steward, Luke 16:1-12, doesn�t show that it is all right to cheat, but that we ought to be faithful in even the little things.

Let us not be like the unmerciful servant, who was forgiven by his master for a huge debt, and refused to forgive a fellowservant who owed him a small debt, Matthew 18:23-35.

Luke 7:41-43 shows that those who are forgiven the most should be the more thankful.

People in Jesus' time tried to get out of debt falsely, saying that unless they swore by the gold of the temple, they didn�t owe a debt, Matthew 23:16.

Those who have pity upon the poor are in reality lending to the Eternal. He will repay them for sure, Proverbs 19:17.

Avoid Debt, or Being Surety For Someone Else�s Debts

Proverbs 22:26-27, "Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?" See also Proverbs 20:16, 17:18, 6:1-2, 11:15. Judah was surety for Benjamin, Genesis 43:9, 44:32. Job was so down and out that nobody would loan him anything, Job 17:3. We need God to be our surety, Psalms 119:122.

Against Man�s Law Not to Have Interest!

Suppose a Christian brother has a house that he wants to sell to another believer. Attempting to follow God�s law, he wants to sell it under a "no interest" contract. Does the U.S. Internal Revenue Service accept zero interest loans? Believe it or not, NO!

One can initiate a zero interest real estate contract, but the Internal Revenue Service will impute "unstated interest." Recently, the imputed interest rate was ten percent. That is, if you sold a $50,000 house at no stated interest rate and the buyer makes $500 per month payments, you would have to declare interest income at 10% annual rate on the unpaid principal balance.

The Internal Revenue Service under Section 483 of the tax code, says that when there is no stated interest or unreasonably low interest, then in reality there is "interest" that is unstated. Unless one charges the statutory minimum interest rate (recently, 10%) the Internal Revenue Service says you must impute interest up to the minimum. Our whole society is based upon interest. It is illegal NOT to charge interest in today�s society!

Few real estate agents have ever heard of the law forbidding true "no-interest" loans. The fact that such a law exists shows the utter degeneracy of our debt-money society.

Relieving Our Spiritual Debts

Romans 4:4, "Now to him that worketh [tries to gain salvation by works] is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."

Galatians 5:3, "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law."

Romans 1:14-15, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."

Romans 8:12, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." Instead, we must be led by the Spirit, verse 14.

The Macedonian and Achaian churches made "a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things" Romans 15:26-27.

We have great spiritual debts that must be paid. Our sins have produced a great liability, or debt: death for all eternity. Unless the penalty is paid, our life will be forever quenched. But, praise the Almighty! The Savior died to set us free from our debt to sin. He rose that we might have a new life free of debt to sin and Satan.

God will forgive us of our debts only as we forgive our debtors, Matthew 6:12. We cannot expect the Eternal to forgive us our debts if we are guilty of usury. Psalms 15 answers the question: who shall dwell in the Lord�s holy hill? He that walks uprightly, does not backbite or do evil to his neighbor, keeps his promises even to his own hurt, puts not his money to usury, nor takes from the needy. He that does these things shall never be moved.

NOTE: We recommend that you obtain the booklet, "Billions For the Bankers: Debts For the People" by Sheldon Emry, by sending $1.50 to: America�s Promise Ministries, P.O. Box 157, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864. W