Interest on Money Lent

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful 

Almost every Muslim religious leader asserts that interest on money lent is حرام (prohibited) in Islam as الربا (Ar-Riba), in terms of Verse 2:275 of the Qur'aan. They equate Ar-Riba to interest. 

But I have found nothing in the Qur'aan to support this equation! The leaders say that the term is not defined in the Holy Book. 

 

How could they say so when the divine Book repeatedly reiterates that it is well explained within itself (Verses 17:12, 16:89, 6:55, 41:3, 11:1, 17:89, ...)? Are they not thus betraying their lack of faith in the Qur'aan being divine?

 

For further details on this, please refer to the web page What Is Ar-Riba! 

 

And for a comprehensive information on this topic, kindly read ISLAM AND INTEREST. 

 

Mohammad Shafi 

Friday, the 18th of June 2021.

 

O Muslims - 15

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

130. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo la ta/kuloo alrriba adAAafan mudaAAafatan waittaqoo Allaha laAAallakum tuflihoona

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3:130. O you who believe! Consume not Ar-Riba¹⁴³, doubled, and multiplied. And fear Allah, so that you attain salvation.

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143. …. Ar-Riba got totally prohibited under Verse 2:275, and Verse 3:130, the one we are studying now, was revealed earlier in chronological order of revelation. So, at the time of the revelation of Verse 3:130, Ar-Riba was not totally prohibited. But by this Verse, the believers were asked not to consume Ar-Riba at exorbitant rates. This is in line with the divine scheme of inducting prohibition of long-entrenched harmful human habits in gradual steps. Prohibition of intoxicants was also similarly done….

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Please read e-book ISLAM AND INTEREST or its Urdu Translation in this context.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 22^nd May 2020.

O Muslims - 10

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

278. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo ittaqoo Allaha watharoo ma baqiya mina alrriba in kuntum mu/mineena

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2:278. O you who believe! Fear Allah and give up what has remained of Ar-Riba, if you are indeed believers.⁵¹⁹

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519. Recall divine Rulings, Warnings and Directions made in Verses 2:275 and 2:276. The divine admonition, here in Verse 2:278, is in pursuance thereof.

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Kindly go through my e-book ISLAM & INTEREST in this context.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 17^th of April 2020.

Dreadful Warning

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Below is an extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I. The Qur’aanic Verse extracted follows One wherein Allah admonishes Believers to give up Ar-Riba accruing to their accounts, but not received by them till the promulgation of total prohibition against taking Ar-Riba vide Verse 2:275. ‘And if you do it not’ in the extract signifies, ‘And if you do not give up Ar-Riba so accrued’.

279. Fa-in lam tafAAaloo fa/thanoo biharbin mina Allahi warasoolihi wa-in tubtum falakum ruoosu amwalikum la tathlimoona wala tuthlamoona

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2:279. And if you do it not, take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger.^{520, 521} And if you return penitently to Allah, you are entitled to all that comes under heads of account of your property and/or dues, so that you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.⁵²²

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520. "Take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger"! What warning could be more dreadful than this divine one? It clearly shows that the All-knowing Allah has given a very great importance to eradication of economic ills from human societies. Ar-Riba is an economic ill that corrupts human society and eats into its body polity, like cancer. It deprives people of their dues to fill the coffers of the rich, thus creating a great economic divide between the rich and the poor. On a mega scale, we have examples in history wherein the divine notice of war was put to dreadful effect in such cases. In the French Revolution, the numerically vast poor populace, for long subjected to deprivation and oppression by the obscenely rich, took to violence, took control over the land and put every rich person, they could lay their hands on, to the guillotine. A similar thing happened when the Communists, under Lenin, overthrew the Czars in Russia. On the micro individual scale also, Allah punishes most of those indulging in Ar-Riba in this life itself first, after giving them a long rope. A genuine believer cannot but take heed of this dreadful divine warning. But what is the ground reality? Most Muslims are unaware of what Ar-Riba means. I've already given earlier in these Studies the example of a factory owner cheating his employees in their salaries to fatten his profit. The factory owner may apparently be a very pious Muslim, sporting a flowing beard and offering prayers regularly. With the fat profit he is getting from the sale of goods produced in his factory, he may be buying car after car for every member of his family, and he won't touch the haraam interest money by putting his money in a commercial bank. But he is blissfully unaware that by paying his employees less than their rightful dues, he is guilty of committing the real Ar-Riba.

521. And there are examples galore of Ar-Riba being indulged in, in every other walk of life. Employees cheat their employers by attending to their own private affairs, during office hours, but get their full salaries. Traders hoard goods to create an artificial scarcity to sell them at higher prices and get fatter margins of profit. Taxi drivers compel passengers to pay more than what the meters indicate. Tax-payers cheat the Government by hiding part of their income. But none of our religious leaders apprise us of Ar-Riba masquerading in any of the forms mentioned here. They are content with declaring again and again from their housetops that interest is 'haraam' 'haraam', and they remain blissfully ignorant of the real Ar-Riba growing luxuriantly in their own backyards.

522. If A lends B $1000, and B repays after a year, A is entitled to get his amwaal back, as this Verse clearly indicates. But money, per se, is not amwaal. It's only the present transitory value of amwaal. As such, if the cost of living has appreciated by 5% during the year, A is entitled to get $1050 from B. Otherwise A stands wronged. In addition, A is also entitled to a just, mutually agreed compensation for his being deprived of using $1000 for his personal purposes, for a year. It's another matter if A & B are friends, and A waives all the additions lawfully due to him.

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Please refer the preceding blog post ‘Prohibited Ar-Riba’ in this context.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 11^th of October 2019.

Prohibited Ar-Riba

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Prohibited Ar-Riba

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

275. Allatheena ya/kuloona alrriba la yaqoomoona illa kama yaqoomu allathee yatakhabbatuhu alshshaytanu mina almassi thalika bi-annahum qaloo innama albayAAu mithlu alrriba waahalla Allahu albayAAa waharrama alrriba faman jaahu mawAAithatun min rabbihi faintaha falahu ma salafa waamruhu ila Allahi waman AAada faola-ika as-habu alnnari hum feeha khalidoona

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2:275. Those who consume Ar-Riba⁵¹⁴ live not but like those whom Satan makes to stumble on in life, under his spell⁵¹⁵. That is because they assert, "Business is just like Ar-Riba.⁵¹⁶" And Allah has made business lawful and Ar-Riba unlawful. He, then, to whom admonition has come from his Lord and has since abstained from Ar-Riba – to him belongs what happened in the past. And to Allah returns his deed.⁵¹⁷ And those who rebel – they shall be inhabitants of the hellfire, therein to remain forever.

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514. In Verse 30:39, Allah declares, "That which you give at a premium, so that the gain accrued is on account of other people's properties, possessions or dues, such a gain has no approval of Allah ...." In that Verse, Allah has clearly expressed his disapproval of gains that are rightfully due to others, but manoeuvred to be usurped from them in day-to-day human dealings. An example can be given of a factory owner cheating the workers employed, in their salaries, to have a fatter profit for himself. Such gains, wrongfully usurped from others and disapproved of by Allah in Verse 30:39, are here in this Verse, 2:275, made totally unlawful. And such gains are termed as Ar-Riba, literally meaning the gain/increase, to distinguish it from lawfully obtained gains as through trading, giving services etc. It is unfortunate that most Muslim scholars have given a wrongly restrictive meaning of 'interest on money lent or borrowed' to the Qur'aanic term.

515. Under the satanic spell, people become reluctant to believe in any life after death. They therefore tend to believe that this worldly life is the be-all and end-all of human existence. And they try to get the most out of it. With no fear of any divine punishment, they stumble on from one wrongdoing to another and consume Ar-Riba to get rich quickly and enjoy all that money can buy. But the happiness and enjoyment, that they seek, ever eludes them like a mirage.

516. I have no knowledge of the people who said this at the time of revelation of this Verse. But I know people who say this now in this 21st Century (15th Century Hijri). I know people who say, 'Banking business is Ar-Riba', whereas Allah has categorically made business lawful and Ar-Riba unlawful. Business is an activity by a person or by a group of persons to make things or services conveniently available to the public. Manufacturing and trading businesses make goods conveniently available and there are firms, like those of solicitors, who provide services to the public. Likewise, banking business provides money for needful projects that an individual or a group of individuals undertake, but for which the individual, or the group, doesn't have all the necessary finance. Banking is therefore a legitimate business fulfilling a social need. Like other businesses, banking business too is legitimately entitled to a reasonable profit for itself. It is also entitled to recover expenses incurred like staff salaries, building rentals etc., on pro rata basis from its clientele. And a bank does recover its expenses plus profit and calls this recovery as interest. Such interest gets divinely sanctioned when this Verse 2:275 declares that Allah has made business lawful. But the Satan has succeeded in inducing many Muslim scholars in declaring such legitimate interest collected as Ar-Riba! Ar-Riba, I repeat, is wrongful usurpation, during transactions, of other people's properties, possessions or dues, in terms of Verse 30:39. Ar-Riba is not interest, as such.

517. Whatever Ar-Riba gains people had made before they became aware of the divine prohibition against it, could be retained with those people, provided they abided by the prohibition thereafter. Their matter is left for Allah Himself to deal with as He wished. Allah, in His mercy, may forgive them – but not those who consciously act against the divine prohibition.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 4^th of October 2019.

Judgment Analysed

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Judgment on Interest Analysed

The Qur’aanic word Ar-Riba is grossly misunderstood. It is assumed to have not been defined in the Qur’aan. That is a grievously wrong assumption.

Based on that wrong assumption, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had pronounced a judgment some years back.

I have analysed that judgment in Qur’aanic light. Click here to go to that full analysis. It will give the reader the complete picture of the traditional view as detailed in the judgment and why that view is in contravention of the Qur’aanic meaning.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 15^th of February 2019.

Islam & Interest

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

It's unfortunate that even some well-known Islamic scholars have been of the opinion that the Qur'aanic word Ar-Riba has not been defined in the Holy Book.

But the said word is defined in the Qur'an!

I have tried to examine the details in the book, ISLAM & INTEREST. The link to it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7whKwklZ1K3WHE3SlRRSlczSHc/view?usp=drivesdk

Now, my good friend, Janab Muhammad Aashiq, has kindly given us its Urdu translation. Link to PDF version of the same:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7whKwklZ1K3LUxxTWtvS20xWU5JVVVod2hzR3FXMFYydHJZ/view?usp=drivesdk

Mohammad Shafi

Ar-Riba

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from Index to QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I & PART II:

Ar-Riba: prohibited v2:275, divine blessings withdrawn from v2:276, fear Allah & give up Ar-Riba v2:278, before its total prohibition, believers were advised not to indulge in doubled/multiplied Ar-Riba v3:130, forbidden to Jews v4:161, defining Verse for v30:39, article What Is Ar-Riba?, ebook ISLAM & INTEREST.

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The entire Tafsir could not be accommodated in 1 volume. There were some technical problems. So, I had to split it into 2 parts. The Index for both, however, has been kept common. In this extract, the interlinks to the Verses named would not be working, but the reader can easily look up for the Verses referred to in any volume of the Qur’aan available with him/her. The interlinks to the article & ebook are working, and the reader can get them directly therefrom on his/her screen.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 22^nd of June 2018.

Ar-Riba

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Ar-Riba

Extract from Chapter 30 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

39. Wama ataytum min riban liyarbuwa fee amwali alnnasi fala yarboo AAinda Allahi wama ataytum min zakatin tureedoona wajha Allahi faola-ika humu almudAAifoona

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39. And what you give for profit so that the increase is at the cost of other people's amwaal (property, dues) then it is not a lawful increase/profit with Allah.⁷ And what you give in charity seeking Allah's pleasure – the givers of such charity are the ones who will get their return multiplied.

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7. Herein lies the Qur’aanic definition of Ar-Riba that gets prohibited in Verse 2:275. For further details in this regard please read What is Ar-Riba, a Chapter from the book ISLAM AND INTEREST. What Allah dislikes is a gain that is sought to be made by usurping the rightful amwaal (properties, earnings, dues) of others. Such gains are termed Ar-Riba wherever else the Qur’aan refers to these, as in Verses 2:275, 3:130, 4:161, etc.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 26^th January 2018.