We also believe from numerous Hadith's that the money comes back in double for those that give. As they say, you can't take with your palms closed.
* Lending with interest is forbidden (which also rules out investment in traditional bonds)
* Zakat is a mandatory annual 2.5% wealth tax
As you might imagine, the latter makes it very difficult to retire without some sort of pension system.
> There are banks in the Muslim world that have thought about this, and one thing you can do is replace interest with something like a rent payment. The customer, the person who wants to buy the house, doesn't own it right away. Instead, the bank buys the house and puts it in a legal entity called a trust. Then, the customer makes monthly payments for, say, 30 years. Each month, they own a little bit more of that trust until, finally, the house is all theirs.
So that's pretty much a conventional mortgage, except you don't own it immediately. So it's not a loan because you only own the portion you've paid for, I guess.
> Now, not all Muslim scholars are OK with this. Some say this is just interest by another name. It's a religious loophole.
What happens if you don't or can't?