Difference Between Usury & Interest?

Erm, I just realised the enormity of this aspect. I have 8 books on th Islamic economy - EIGHT!

Therefore, I think the answer is going to be of significant size and will take some time ( I spent about an hour last night researching 2 translations and Sahih Al-Bukhari in relation to this topic - and those only cover a small amount [3 or so specific ayats]. I've go 8 books left to read - each fully detailing the aspects of interest and economy!) This is going to take some time that's for sure!

8 books - yikes!!!!
have read the link from gator and part of the link from ahsan. (thanks both!). ahsan - your link looks pretty comprehensive and i'm going to try to read it all.
in all the qur'anic verses given, the word "riba" (and not "faeda") is used, as crayon said. and they do seem to point to usury = devouring - charging excessive fees. yet i find that many muslims think interest is haram, full stop. (as you brits say) some even go so far as to say it is forbidden to work in a bank. if you followed this it would mean that you could probably never buy a house or even a car to get to work.
i can see that this is indeed a vast subject and there are many different opinions. even islamqa (which is normally pretty black and white IMO), allows that:

"does that means that the scholars are agreed on all forms of riba? The answer is no; there is a difference of opinion concerning some forms of it. This is like what we have said about zakaah being obligatory according to consensus, but despite that there is no consensus on every form of it."

http://www.islamqa.com/index.php?ref=22339&ln=eng

by the way - the article on islamqa also raises another intersting question. i was really surprised to read this. it says that:
"The belief that the well-known obligations are obligatory and that the well-known prohibitions are forbidden is one of the most important basic principles of faith, and the one who rejects that is a kaafir according to scholarly consensus."

is that true? i thought it was only a few specific things that took you outside of islam.

"The belief that the well-known obligations are obligatory and that the well-known prohibitions are forbidden is one of the most important basic principles of faith, and the one who rejects that is a kaafir according to scholarly consensus."

Yes it's true - don't you see it says according to the scholarly consensus?

Just before that quote, it said:

because the basic principle is that whoever rejects something on which there is obvious scholarly consensus is guilty of kufr.

If there is consensus that means there can be no doubt regarding the validity of the ruling - it must be true. Therefore is a person rejects a true consensus (the article says obvious) then the person is rejecting something that is 100% from Islam, and this is an act of kufr and takes a person out of Islam, just like how rejecting a verse from the Quran takes a person out of Islam.

This statement explained it better:

Ibn Qudaamah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

Whoever believes that something is permissible when there is consensus that it is forbidden and the ruling thereon is well known among the Muslims and the texts leave no room for doubt concerning it – such as pig meat, adultery and the like, concerning which there is no difference of scholarly opinion – is guilty of kufr.

format_quote Originally Posted by snakelegs

some even go so far as to say it is forbidden to work in a bank.

I don't know anything about whether it's all types of interest are haram or not, but it is definitely forbidden to work in a bank that deals with interest. Even if you aren't involved with the actual interest, you're still supporting the bank which is doing something haram. It's like a muslim that doesn't drink alcohol working as a bar tender; they're not actually drinking the alcohol, but they are involved in promoting it.

Aamirsaab,

Remember that Yusuf Ali has no formal Islamic education and therefore his commentary contains a lot of errors.

I'm not saying that he was wrong in this instance (I don't know), but just be wary!

format_quote Originally Posted by crayon

I don't know anything about whether it's all types of interest are haram or not, but it is definitely forbidden to work in a bank that deals with interest. Even if you aren't involved with the actual interest, you're still supporting the bank which is doing something haram. It's like a muslim that doesn't drink alcohol working as a bar tender; they're not actually drinking the alcohol, but they are involved in promoting it.

I have heard the view that if you work for a bank in a job that has nothing to do with the actual transactions - like as a car driver, or security gaurd - then that is fine.