Recently Islamic banking system becomes so much popular that a major number of commercial bank’s in Bangladesh introducing their Islamic banking branches in all important areas. As the advancement of the satellite channel every one can know about the benefits of Islamic banking, and in Bangladesh more over 90% people believes in Islam. So for attracting the huge number of population every commercial bank’s of the country try to perform the Islamic banking. For the persons who are interested about the Islamic banking and for others it is need to know something about the Shariah based banking.

The Islamic banking concept is started from the golden stage of Islam. During the Islamic Golden Age, early forms of proto-capitalism and free markets were present in the Caliphate, where an early market economy and an early form of mercantilism were developed between the 8th-12th centuries, which some refer to as "Islamic capitalism".

Before establishment of the Islamic banking concept, some other issues was established to control that economy which include, bills of exchange, the first forms of partnership (mufawada) such as limited partnerships (mudaraba), and the earliest forms of capital (al-mal), capital accumulation (nama al-mal), cheques, promissory notes, trusts (see Waqf), transactional accounts and loaning. On the basis of these concepts the modern Islamic banking concept is established. In the early stage of 1946 the first Islamic banking concept is thinking by the Anwar Qureshi. On the basis of his proposed interest free banking at present we get this modern banking concept.

At present we define Islamic Bank as “An Islamic Bank is a Financial Institution whose statutes, rules, and regulations expressly state its commitments to the Principles of Islamic Shariah and to the banning of the receipt and payment of interest on any of its operation” According to Islamic Banking Act 1983 of Malaysia: “An Islamic Bank is a company which carrying on Islamic Banking Business. …Islamic Banking Business means banking business whose aims and operations do not involve any element which is not approved by the Religion of Islam.” Riba and Shariah is the most common word of Islamic bank, let’s see what its means, The word "Riba" means excess, increase or addition, which according to Shariah terminology, implies any excess compensation without due consideration (consideration does not include time value of money).

The definition of riba in classical Islamic jurisprudence was "surplus value without counterpart", or "to ensure equivalency in real value", and that "numerical value was immaterial." And the Shariah is the Islamic rules enforced in the banking. The rules of Shariah are known as Fiqh al-Muamalat (Islamic rules on transactions).

The basic difference between the conventional banking and the Islamic banking are, the Islamic banking system is based on the profit loss based, where the conventional banking system is purely based on the interest based. In the conventional banking all liabilities are carried by the banks and the customers are not treated as their partner but in the Islamic banking system the customers are treated as the partners of the banks and for the all the liabilities are carried by the both the customers and the banks.

There are some principals of Islamic banks are available, which include

• The absence of interest-based (riba) transactions;
• The avoidance of economic activities involving oppression.
• The avoidance of economic activities involving speculation
• The introduction of an Islamic tax, zakat;
• The discouragement of the production of goods and services which contradict the Islamic value (haram)

With out this there are others differences are available, by seeing these one can easily differentiate the Islamic banking system from the conventional banking system, these includes, 

Conventional Banks

1. The functions and operating modes of conventional banks are based on fully manmade principles.
2. It does not deal with Zakat.
3. The investor is assured of a predetermined rate of interest.
4. A conventional bank has to guarantee all its deposits.
5. Lending money and getting it back with compounding interest is the fundamental function of the conventional banks.
6. It can charge additional money (penalty and compounded interest) in case of defaulters.
7. Very often it results in the bank’s own interest becoming prominent. It makes no effort to ensure growth with equity.
8. For interest-based commercial banks, borrowing from the money market is relatively easier.
9. Since income from the advances is fixed, it gives little importance to developing expertise in project appraisal and evaluations.
10. The conventional banks give greater emphasis on credit-worthiness of the clients.
11. The status of a conventional bank, in relation to its clients, is that of creditor and debtors.
12. It aims at maximizing profit without any restriction.

Islamic Banks

1. The functions and operating modes of Islamic banks are based on the principles of Islamic Shariah.
2. In the modern Islamic banking system, it has become one of the service-oriented functions of the Islamic banks to be a Zakat Collection Centre and they also pay out their Zakat.
3. In contrast, it promotes risk sharing between provider of capital (investor) and the user of funds (entrepreneur).
4. Islamic bank can only guarantee deposits for deposit account, which is based on the principle of al-wadiah, thus the depositors are guaranteed repayment of their funds, however if the account is based on the mudarabah concept, client have to share in a loss position.
5. Participation in partnership business is the fundamental function of the Islamic banks. So we have to understand our customer’s business very well.
6. The Islamic banks have no provision to charge any extra money from the defaulters. Only small amount of compensation and these proceeds is given to charity. Rebates are give for early settlement at the Bank’s discretion.
7. It gives due importance to the public interest. Its ultimate aim is to ensure growth with equity.
8. For the Islamic banks, it must be based on a Shariah approved underlying transaction.
9. Since it shares profit and loss, the Islamic banks pay greater attention to developing project appraisal and evaluations.
10. The Islamic banks, on the other hand, give greater emphasis on the viability of the projects.
11. The status of Islamic bank in relation to its clients is that of partners, investors and trader, buyer and seller.
12. It also aims at maximizing profit but subject to Shariah restrictions.

By considering all aspects it can be said that, the Islamic banking concept is well balanced for the both owners and the customers. And this concept is well structured for the development of the society and it is beneficiary for all groups of people, for the equal balance of the social economy and help to build the strong economic structure of the country.

- Article Written By: Md. Mahfuzur Rahman , BankInfoBd