Pengenalan Bank Syariah dan Konvensional

Introduction to Conventional and Islamic Banking

        Conventional banking in the Western world has been evolved about two and a quarter centuries ago, having contemporary with the emergence of industrial civilization. The industrial revolution saw a tremendous expansion in the number of traders, manufactures, industrialists and other entrepreneurs but whose own financial resources were not enough for them to embark on their respective industrial activities. Hence a method had to be found. Thus, the need of financial intermediates gave rise to the conventional banking which later became the backbone of the modern industrial and financial system. This is simply because the rate of economic development is always constrained by the availability of financial resources Economic development needs mobilization of financial resources and channelisation of these sources to appropriate interested sectors.

The banks in the conventional system, acting as intermediaries, accept deposits from the public and lend them to the borrowers, regardless of whether these borrowers are individuals or corporate entities. The bank's profits are mainly attributed to the difference between interest expended (paid) to depositors, and interest earned (received) from borrowers.

     Banking and financial houses in Islamic civilization are normally called masarif. Literally, sari means turning, sending and employing. In the technical usage, musarafah signifies the act of dealing, buying and selling and sometimes it has been attributed to change of money. The sarraf or the money changer became an essential feature of every Muslim market. A bank with headquarters in Baghdad and branches in other cities was mentioned in Arabic sources. They carried on business through an elaborate system of cheques and letters of credit which was so developed that is was possible to draw a cheque in Baghdad and cash in Morocco. Indeed, it was reported that in Basrah, the center of trade in the East where each merchant had his own bank account, payment were effected in cheques and never in cash.

         The idea of establishing an interest free bank goes back to as early as 1940s. However, the conditions then were not ready for actual establishment of an Islamic bank as not much thought had been given to technical details and actual operation of an Islamic bank. A pioneering experiment of putting the principles of Islamic banking into practice was conducted in Mit-Ghamr in Egypt from 1963-1967 with special emphasis in educating the rural Muslims on the operation of the banking system. In Mit-Ghamr project, a number of accounts were accepted, namely saving accounts, investment accounts and zakat accounts. In the saving accounts, no interest is payable to depositors but they were allowed to the withdrawals. Also, they were eligible for a small short term were allowed to the withdrawals. Also, they were eligible for a small short term free loan for productive purposes. The funds deposited in the investment account were subject to restricted withdrawals and were invested on the basis of profit and loss sharing. On the other hand, the zakat account attracted the payment of zakat to be distributed among the poor and needy. Mit-Ghamr experiment was short lived up to the year 1967 due to political reason.

         In short, the establishment of an Islamic bank at Mit-Ghamr in Egypt (1963), brought a remarkable impact on the real implementation of banking practices according to the Shari'ah principles. Twelve years later, through the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) an inter-governmental Islamic bank was established, known as the Islamic development bank. Later, many private Islamic banks were established by Muslim entrepreneurs including Dubai Islamic Bank (1975). Dar al-Mal al-Islami (1981), Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (1983) and a few other Islamic banking institutions operating on an international mandate in non-Muslim soil and environment such as the Dar al-Mal al-Islami (Geneva), Islamic Investment Company (Bahamas) and other places.

          Having said this, the philosophy and principles of Islamic banking date back to more than 1,400 years ago, to the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (s.a.w). At present, more than 150 Islamic financial institutions operating worldwide. Interestingly enough, Islamic banking is being discovered by western banks as a mechanism to gain access to the large pool of Muslim funds. It is not suprising, therefore, that there is an ever-increasing number of conventional banks providing Islamic investment services to their international clients.

            The development of Islamic banking in the twentieth century witnesses the emergence of such institutions in certain countries where such was possible. This development marked the widening of the practice of the Shari'ah principles beyond the boundary of the realm of devotional matters (ibadat) and family and matrimonial matters (al-ahwal al-shaksiyah). The raison d'etre of Islamic banks, generally speaking, is the followings:

         a. the absence of interest-nased transactions 

         b. the avoidance of commercial transactions involving gharar (uncertainty)

       c. discouragement of the production of goods and services which contradict  the value pattern of Islam; and

         d.the payment of an Islamic tax, the zakat.