Usury

In the present age, it seems that it is only within Islam, and in a few minor Christian and Jewish groups, that teachings prohibiting dealing in usury remain intact. Elsewhere such teachings have either been long abandoned or been subject to human caprice as the following excerpt shows:

"‎400 BC - 65 AD in Ancient Rome and Greece - The infamous philosophers who condemned Usury were Plato, Aristotle, the two Catos, Cicero, Seneca and Plutarch.

One of the first recorded History of Usury was in India, the Hindu's Vedic in 2000 - 1400 B.C. By 600 B.C, the Buddhist's Jakkata shows contempt for Usury saying “hypocritical ascetics are accused of practising it.” During this time, Vasishtha, a well known Hindu law-maker of that time, made a special law which forbade the higher castes of Brahmanas (priests) and Kshatriyas (warriors) from being usurers or lenders at interest. By 2nd century AD the concept of Usury was diluted, and today in India it is "condemned in principle, usury refers only to interest charged above the prevailing socially accepted range and is no longer prohibited or controlled in any significant way."

The Prophet Ezekiel includes usury in a list of “abominable things,” along with rape, murder, robbery and idolatry. Ezekiel 18:19-13. Jews are forbidden to lend at interest to one another. Exodus 22:25; Deuteronomy 23:19-20, Leviticus 25:35-37."

From Islamicity