It is a commonplace among the Muslims that Allah has declared war on usury, but the reality is much more serious than that: Allah, exalted is He, has declared war on believers who will not give up usury. He says in His Noble Book:
277 You who have iman! have taqwa of Allah
and forgo any remaining riba
if you are muminun.
278 If you do not, know that it means war from Allah
and His Messenger.
(translation of meanings from The Noble Qur’an, Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley)
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Abdassamad Clarke is from Ulster and was formally educated at Edinburgh University in Mathematics and Physics. He accepted Islam at the hands of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi in 1973, and, at his suggestion, studied Arabic and tajwid and other Islamic sciences in Cairo for a period. In the 80s he was secretary to the imam of the Dublin Mosque, and in the early 90s one of the imams khatib of the Norwich Mosque, and again from 2002-2016.
He has translated, edited and typeset a number of classical texts. He currently resides with his wife in Denmark and occasionally teaches there.
14 May, 2023 0:03
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Practically speaking even paying interest and bearing witness to a interest based transaction is haram, yet we Muslims continue to empower their system, by getting involved and attached to it, saying it is ‘necessary’ and ‘we have no choice’ but to take out a mortgage, (even renting pays someone elses ‘buy to let’ mortgage), how can we get ourselves out of the mess without getting into difficulties? Is it just a case of Trusting in Allah seeking the halal and to bear the difficulties as a door which leads towards Allah subhana wa ta ala?
Muhammad – As long as you are not one of the 4 (lender, borrower, sribe, witness) you should trust that Allah will be mercifull to you with regards to Ribah. Hence in you transaction to rent a house, you are not included in the owners’ contract of ribah.
Also it should be noted that the Prophet, s.a.w, said that All of mankind will be engulfed in ribah and those who claim to be free of it, verily the dust of it will be on them. So we see that it is not possible, in the preset age, to be free of ribah beyond the shadow of a doubt!
I have often pondered on the first part of the verse myself! And this then would explain much of the present and soon to be expanded war in the Middle east. Where once they at least tried to conceal it, the financial crises has brought to fore level of involvement and complicity of many “muslim”/arab countries in interest based banking!
By their actions they have revealed themselves :
UAE Central Bank Extends new $14Bil credit line.
http://tinyurl.com/6r2d3g
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Saudi bailout draws UBS investors’ ire
UBS sign in Geneva, Switzerland
The Swiss bank UBS has sold a slice of itself to Singapore and to Saudi Arabia. Its shareholders in Europe are making a big fuss about the Saudi investment. Jill Barshay reports.
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Of course the point of the ayat is that if Allah even makes war on those He addresses as believers, then He is certainly at war with anyone else who practices usury, especially if they are kuffar.
Muhammad Amin, the problem is that we see debt and usury as ‘private’ matters whereas they are social and affect everyone. Our first step is to return to a social view of Islam, which means to restore community under leadership. Then we will tackle usury and debt in a different way.
Abdassamad