 In this module, we would be studying Sharia treatment of credit and credit card. Not only in this module, actually this would be our focus in the next 10 or 11 module. It is an important topic hence we would be spending some considerable time on understanding the treatment of credit slash debt slash loan in Islam and its implications for the offering of Islamic credit cards. What is credit? Let's go back to the basics and try to understand the nature of credit. On a lighter note, we say in Urdu it is called a big credit. I am not talking about that credit. I am talking about the credit which we use in financial markets. In its simplest form credit is a debt, loan or receivable. This is basically when I buy something on a deferred payment basis then this could be called a credit sale. We have studied that credit sale is permissible in Islamic law. Actually that is an example of credit sale and this is acceptable in an Islamic banking and finance framework. There are quite a number of products which are based on this principle. While trade can take place, trade of commodities, trade of goods and services, it can take place on the basis of credit sale. Money can only be given on credit or IE can be lent but without charging extra which is deemed as prohibited interest. This is a very clear difference of treatment of credit sale and money on credit. We would look into these differences with the help of some diagrams. Let us see, there is a party A and there is a party B and they want to exchange a commodity X for a price P. We have time dimension here. This is time dimension and this is time dimension. If party B gives commodity X to party A at T naught meaning spot now and party A gives the price at the same time to party B that would be considered as a spot sale. And a lot of sales actually are spot sales. Whenever I go to a shop, to a store, to a selling place, I actually do these spot sales. This is okay. Now if party A gives the commodity X to party B at T naught and party B actually pays the price at a future date T1, we call it a credit sale. And as I mentioned previously, that would be bad module. Then we have another possibility whereby party A actually delivers the commodity later while receiving the price from party B now. So party B is paying the price now to party A and party B delivers the commodity at T1. This is a depiction of Bacellum which we have already studied. This is the case of Baistisna. The price is paid by party B i.e. the buyer in installments at T naught, T1, T2. So party B is paying the price now after some time with the progression of the project. And the commodity is delivered by the seller on a future date when it has been made on order. So that is the case of Baistisna. When it comes to money, if money is exchanged dollars for dollars, if they are exchanged on spot. So party A is giving dollars now and party B is giving the dollars at the same time. That would be the spot exchange of dollars. Thus dollars abhi die or thus dollars abhi le li. You might be thinking that I am crazy. What kind of an exchange is this one? Actually this happens many a times without realizing that this is what we are doing. Do you have any example in mind? Many a times people exchange Nai note with Purane note. Same price in some cases with different quantities and we will come to that one. Now if this party is delivering dollars now and party B is paying the same amount of dollars in future. That is called as loan. Now the situation changes when we have two different currencies. If party A gives dollars to party B now and party B actually gives rupees to party A at the same time. That is called spot currency exchange. What happens when party A gives dollars now in exchange for party B delivering rupees later on? This is prohibited in Islam. The previous example there is acceptance or there is provision for acceptance in an Islamic legal framework. But if I receive ten dollars today in exchange for an amount in rupees after one week, after one month. That would not be considered acceptable in an Islamic economic or Islamic financial or Islamic legal framework. Now this remains prohibited even when I receive dollars now in lump sum and I am required to pay rupees in easy installments over a certain time period. That is not acceptable either. And this information, general information is crucial to our understanding of the treatment of credit and credit cards in Islamic banking and finance. And this is something we would be covering in the next few modules.