Banking Practices in Prophet Muhammad PbAbuh (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) Era

I am so interested in learning Islamic Banking and Finance. I started by reading some Indonesian's book. Until right now, I am still like a baby in learning this knowledge. Now, I would like to share to you about the history of Islamic Banking.

All of you know the 3 functions of Bank:
1. Accepting deposits
2. Giving Finance
3. Giving Service

The question is whether Bank is new concept in Islam or already exist since Prophet Muhammad PbAbuh????

As we know, Prophet Muhammad PbAbuh well known as al-Amin which means reliable in Makkah citizens for saving their assets (deposits). As a consequence, before he moved (Hijrah) to Madinah, he asked Ali Bin Abu Thalib r.a. to return all of Makkah citizens' assets (deposits) without charging anything. In this concept, the party who are entrusted the assets (depositos) could not use the assets (deposits).

A Prophet Muhammad PbAbuh's best friend (sahabat), Zubair bin al-Awwam r.a., chose did not accept the deposits. He prefer accepted that as a LOAN. Zubair 's action appeared different implication:
1. By taking the deposits (money) as a loan, hence he has right to use it.
2. Since its form is a loan, he obliged to return it intact (not more or less).

In another history, Ibnu Abbas r.a. ever send money to Kufah and Abdullah bin Zubair r.a. sent money from Makkah to Mis'ab bin Zubair's little brother who lived in Irak.

Using check also already well known simultenously with increasing trades between Syam Country and Yemen. In addition, in his reign, Khalifah Umar bin Khattab r.a. used check for paying allowance to them who reserved the right. Besides that, he used the check to take wheat in Baitul Mal that was imported from Egypt. Moreiver, giving finance based on sharing profit such as mudharabah, muzara'ah, musaqah already implemented in the Muhajirin and The Anshar.

It is clear that Banking function already implemented in Prophet Muhammad PbAbuh, eventhough they did not implement all of Banking function. What they did, as follow:
1. Accepting deposits
2. Sending money
3. Giving Finance

In some term in modern Banking are derived from Fiqh, such as credit (giving finance) was derived from qard (giving finance based on trust). Check (a usual tool for transaction in market) for was derived from suq (market).



reference:
Karim, Adiwarman. 2009. Bank Islam Analisis Fiqih dan Keuangan. Jakarta: PT.Raja Grafindo Persada.
by Gerry Octaviano