Bitaqat al-I'timan
- Author died
- 1429 AH
- Editions
- Bitaqat al-I'timan
Bitaqat al-I'timan (The Credit Card) is a contemporary Islamic legal treatise authored by Bakr Abu Zayd (d. 1429 AH / 2008 CE), examining the mechanics, history, and legal ruling (hukm) of modern credit and debit cards in Islamic jurisprudence .
Background and Purpose
Abu Zayd completed the first edition of the work on 25 Rabi' al-Awwal 1416 AH (August 1995 CE), followed by a second edition written on 5 Jumada al-Ula 1417 AH (September 1996 CE) after the first had gone out of print . The treatise was written to analyze contemporary banking instruments and provide a unified legal assessment of credit cards, which Abu Zayd characterized as an interest-bearing loan disguised as an administrative payment card . He also aimed to encourage Islamic banking institutions to develop unified, Shariah-compliant alternatives approved by trusted legal scholars .
Structure and Content
The treatise is organized into thematic sections (mabahith) detailing the historical evolution of currency, contractual structures, and jurisprudential evaluations:
- Survey of Literature and Definition: Abu Zayd notes that modern juristic attention to credit cards began primarily with papers presented at the seventh (1412 AH) and eighth (1415 AH) sessions of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy . He cites the Academy's definition of a credit card as a magnetic card or document issued to an individual or legal entity enabling them to obtain goods and services without immediate payment due to the issuer's commitment to settle the cost .
- Historical Evolution: The author charts the development of payment mechanisms through barter, commodity money, gold and silver, paper fiat currencies, checks, and the eventual rise of credit cards, beginning with early hotel and restaurant loyalty tokens in 1914, the formation of the Diners Club in 1949, and the expansion of bank-issued cards like American Express and Visa in the 1950s and 1970s .
- Classification of Payment Cards: The work divides electronic cards into three primary categories:
- Standard ATM/Direct Debit Cards (bitaqat al-sarf al-ali): Linked directly to the holder's pre-existing account balance with instantaneous deductions .
- Charge Cards (bitaqat al-khasm al-shahri): Allowing purchases up to a defined credit line with full settlement required within approximately a month .
- Revolving Credit Cards (bitaqat al-i'timan al-qardiyyah): Allowing revolving credit, minimum balances, and deferred payments accompanied by periodic interest charges .
- Contractual Parties and Dynamics: Abu Zayd details the quadric-party relationships involving the issuing bank, the customer, the payment network organization, and the merchant . He analyzes the various fee structures, including membership fees, issuance fees, merchant discounts, currency conversion charges, and late penalty fees .
- Benefits and Harms: The author outlines the economic advantages (security from cash theft, merchant turnover, and travel convenience) alongside major individual and macroeconomic harms (overspending, consumer indebtedness, compounding default fees, and falling into forbidden usury) .
Legal Conclusions
Abu Zayd concludes that payment cards must be evaluated according to their total contractual reality rather than fragmented theoretical justifications :
- Debit cards that do not allow overdrafts and deduct directly from a customer's funded account are fundamentally permissible (halal) under the rules of agency (wakalah) .
- Conventional credit cards with revolving credit and delay penalties are prohibited (haram), as they involve explicit usury (riba) and penalties on debt, regardless of whether they are marketed by Visa, MasterCard, or American Express . Abu Zayd rejects attempts to characterize conventional credit card transactions as simple contracts of guaranty (daman), assignment of debt (hawalah), or paid agency (wakalah bi-ujrah), stating that they do not fulfill the required legal definitions of those classical contracts .
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