Glossary
Murabaha
مرابحةDefinition
A cost-plus sale: the seller discloses the cost of an item and adds an agreed mark-up.
Murabaha became the most widely used structure in modern Islamic banking. A bank buys an asset (typically a commodity) and immediately resells it to the client at cost plus an agreed margin, often payable in installments.
Critics argue that the way some banks execute murabaha makes it economically indistinguishable from an interest loan. Scholars generally accept it when the bank takes genuine ownership risk, however briefly.