Murabahah, in its original Islamic connotation, is simply a sale. The only feature distinguishing it from other kinds of sale is that the seller in murabahah expressly tells the purchaser how much cost he has incurred and how much profit he is going to charge in addition to the cost.
"Murabahah" is, in fact, a term of Islamic Fiqh and it refers to a particular kind of sale having nothing to do with financing in its original sense. If a seller agrees with his purchaser to provide him a specific commodity on a certain profit added to his cost, it is called a "murabahah" transaction.
Murabahah when used as a mode of financing is always effected on the basis of deferred payment. The financier purchases the commodity on cash payment and sells it to the client on credit. While selling the commodity on credit, he takes into account the period in which the price is to be paid by the client and increases the price accordingly. The longer the maturity of the murabahah payment, the higher the price. Therefore the price in a murabahah transaction, as practiced by the Islamic banks, is always higher than the market price.
The basic ingredient of "murabahah" is that the seller discloses the actual cost he has incurred in acquiring the commodity, and then adds some profit thereon. This profit may be in lump sum or may be based on a percentage. If a person sells a commodity for a lump sum price without any reference to the cost, this is not a murabahah, even though he is earning some profit on his cost because the sale is not based on a "cost-plus" concept. In this case, the sale is called "Musawamah".
Most of the Islamic banks and financial institutions are using "Murabahah" as an Islamic mode of financing, and most of their financing operations are based on "Murabahah". That is why this term has been taken in the economic circles today as a method of banking operations, while the original concept of "Murabahah" is different from this assumption.
According to Mufti Taqi Usmani- "The payment in the case of murabahah may be at spot, and may be on a subsequent date agreed upon by the parties. Therefore, murabahah does not necessarily imply the concept of deferred payment, as generally believed by some people who are not acquainted with the Islamic jurisprudence and who have heard about murabahah only in relation with the banking transactions.
Basic features of Murabahah Financing: -
- Murabahah is not a loan given on interest. It is the sale of a commodity for a deferred price which includes an agreed profit added to the cost.
- Being a sale, and not a loan, the murabahah should fulfill all the conditions necessary for a valid sale, especially those enumerated earlier in this chapter.
- Murabahah cannot be used as a mode of financing except where the client needs funds to actually purchase some commodities. For example, if he wants funds to purchase cotton as a raw material for his ginning factory, the Bank can sell him the cotton on the basis of murabahah. But where the funds are required for some other purposes, like paying the price of commodities already purchased by him, or the bills of electricity or other utilities or for paying the salaries of his staff, murabahah cannot be effected, because murabahah requires a real sale of some commodities and not merely advancing a loan.
- The financier must have owned the commodity before he sells it to his client.
- The commodity must come into the possession of the financier, whether physical or constructive, in the sense that the commodity must be in his risk, though for a short period.
- The best way for murabahah, according to Shariah, is that the financier himself purchases the commodity and keeps it in his own possession, or purchases the commodity through a third person appointed by him as agent, before he sells it to the customer. However, in exceptional cases, where direct purchase from the supplier is not practicable for some reason, it is also allowed that he makes the customer himself his agent to buy the commodity on his behalf. In this case the client first purchases the commodity on behalf of his financier and takes its possession as such. Thereafter, he purchases the commodity from the financier for a deferred price. His possession over the commodity in the first instance is in the capacity of an agent of his financier. In this capacity he is only a trustee, while the ownership vests in the financier and the risk of the commodity is also borne by him as a logical consequence of the ownership. But when the client purchases the commodity from his financier, the ownership, as well as the risk, is Murabahah transferred to the client.
- According to the Islamic principle of sale, a sale cannot take place unless the commodity comes into the possession of the seller, but the seller can promise to sell even when the commodity is not in his possession. The same rule is applicable to Murabahah.
- In the light of the aforementioned principles, a financial institution can use the Murabahah as a mode of finance by adopting the following procedure:
Firstly: The client and the institution sign an over-all agreement whereby the institution promises to sell and the client promises to buy the commodities from time to time on an agreed ratio of profit added to the cost. This agreement may specify the limit upto which the facility may be availed.
Secondly: When a specific commodity is required by the customer, the institution appoints the client as his agent for purchasing the commodity on its behalf, and an agreement of agency is signed by both the parties.
Thirdly: The client purchases the commodity on behalf of the institution and takes its possession as an agent of the institution.
Fourthly: The client informs the institution that he has purchased the commodity on his behalf, and at the same time, makes an offer to purchase it from the institution.
Fifthly: The institution accepts the offer and the sale is concluded whereby the ownership as well as the risk of the commodity is transferred to the client.
All these five stages are necessary to effect a valid murabahah. If the institution purchases the commodity directly from the supplier (which is preferable) it does not need any agency agreement. In this case, the second phase will be dropped and at the third stage the institution itself will purchase the commodity from the supplier, and the fourth phase will be restricted to making an offer by the client. The most essential element of the transaction is that the commodity must remain in the risk of the institution during the period between the third and the fifth stage. This is the only feature of murabahah which can distinguish it from an interest-based transaction. Therefore, it must be observed with due diligence at all costs, otherwise the murabahah transaction becomes invalid according to Shari'ah.
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It is also a necessary condition for the validity of murabahah that the commodity is purchased from a third party. The purchase of the commodity from the client himself on 'buy back' agreement is not allowed in Shari'ah. Thus murabahah based on 'buy back' agreement is nothing more than an interest based transaction.
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The above mentioned procedure of the murabahah financing is a complex transaction where the parties involved have different capacities at different stages:
(a) At the first stage, the institution and the client promise to sell and purchase a commodity in future. This is not an actual sale. It is just a promise to effect a sale in future on murabahah basis. Thus at this stage the relation between the institution and the client is that of a promisor and a promise.
(b) At the second stage, the relation between the parties is that of a principal and an agent.
(c) At the third stage, the relation between the institution and the supplier is that of a buyer and seller.
(d) At the fourth and fifth stage, the relation of buyer and seller comes into operation between the institution and the client, and since the sale is effected on deferred payment basis, the relation of a debtor and creditor also emerges between them simultaneously. All these capacities must be kept in mind and must come into operation with all their consequential effects, each at its relevant stage, and these different capacities should never be mixed up or confused with each other.
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The institution may ask the client to furnish a security to its satisfaction for the prompt payment of the deferred price. He may also ask him to sign a promissory note or a bill of exchange, but it must be after the actual sale takes place, i.e. at the fifth stage mentioned above. The reason is that the promissory note is signed by a debtor in favor of his creditor, but the relation of debtor and creditor between the institution and the client begins only at the fifth stage, whereupon the actual sale takes place between them. In the case of default by the buyer in the payment of price at the due date, the price cannot be increased. However, if he has undertaken, in the agreement to pay an amount for a charitable purpose, as mentioned in the rules of Bai' Mu'ajjal, he shall be liable to pay the amount undertaken by him. But the amount so recovered from the buyer shall not form part of the income of the seller / the financier. He is bound to spend it for a charitable purpose on behalf of the buyer.
Risks associated with Murabahah:
i. Risks related to change in price of goods owned by the bank prior to sale to the client. No specific length of time is required by Shari'ah. What is necessary, however, is that ownership as defined by Shari'ah is sustained i.e. the object of murabahah should be in constructive possession of the bank and duration of possession is not specified in the Shari'ah. Hence this particular risk can be reduced through efficient procedures.
ii. Another problem in murabahah financing is that if the client defaults in payment of the price at the due date, the price cannot be increased. In interest-based loans, the amount of loan keeps on increasing according to the period of default. But in murabahah financing, once the price is fixed, it cannot be increased. This restriction is sometimes exploited by dishonest clients who deliberately avoid paying the price at its due date, because they know that they will not have to pay any additional amount on account of default. In order to solve this problem, some contemporary scholars have suggested that the dishonest clients who default in payment deliberately should be made liable to pay compensation to the Islamic bank for the loss it may have suffered on account of default. They suggest that the amount of this compensation may be equal to the profit given by that bank to its depositors during the period of default. For example, the defaulter has paid the price three months after the due date. If the bank has given to its depositors a profit at the rate of 5%, the client has to pay 5% more as compensation for the loss of the bank. However, the scholars who allow this compensation make it subject to the following conditions:
(a) The defaulter should be given a grace period of at least one month after the maturity date during which he must be given weekly notices warning him that he should pay the price, otherwise he will have to pay compensation.
(b) It is proved beyond doubt that the client is defaulting without valid excuse. If it appears that his default is due to poverty, no compensation can be claimed from him. Indeed, he must be given respite until he is able to pay, because the Holy Qur'an has expressly said, "And if he (the debtor) is short of funds, then he must be given respite until he is well off. "(2:280).
(c) The compensation is allowed only if the investment account of the Islamic bank has earned some profit to be distributed to the depositors. If the investment account of the bank has not earned profit during the period of default, no compensation shall be claimed from the client.
iii. Murabahah is a fixed type of finance. It is naturally exposed to interest rate risk. Because of this, most Murabahahs in Islamic banks are short term.
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