Some Introductory Remarks

The Introduction presents the concept of interest as an ever-present and much-debated phenomenon since ancient times. Although interest has always existed, many societies have condemned it and regulated interest-based transactions due to various concerns. The chapter introduces the issue in aspects of its history; the perceptions of people; the reasons and ways of arrangements made to regulate it; the efforts of scholars to explain the cause of its existence, particularly the ones on time preference; and the claimed distortive effects of interest rate control, a form of price control, on the market. It asserts that Islamic economics is the most cited interest-free economic system with its numerous supporters, relatively extensive literature, a growing market, and actively operating instruments. Hence, it is worth evaluating the Islamic economists’ interpretations of time preference and consequences of interest rate control. The chapter concludes by overviewing the content of the book.