Islamic approach to banking some conceptual an operational aspects

Abstract

The bank is to the modern industrial capitalist society what the Church was to the Medieval Christentom - the centre of real power and influence. If any one institution can be described as the mainstay of the Western economy it is the banking system. That is why Islam's adhorence for interest, the institution on which Western banking system is based, cannot be treated as perepheral question. Islam challenges the very foundations of the capitalist banking system and Islamic resurgence would remain a hope and a dream unless an alerenate banking system is evolved which is capable of meeting the complex needs of a modern economy without compromising on any of the principles and norms of Islam.