CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
When the poor are
permanently poor and the rich, permanently rich, that is oppression! All around
the world today that economic oppression exists and is constantly increasing. -
the poor grow poorer and the rich, richer. Riba is the cause! A
predatory global elite, centered in the West, but also present around the
world, is constantly sucking the wealth of mankind and impoverishing the masses
through riba. Their ultimate objective is to utterly enslave all
of mankind in a new sophisticated slavery. Political, legislative, judicial and
legal systems, the media etc., are all created by the oppressor and all
function to preserve the system of economic oppression. Television is used to
transport the masses to fantasy- land so that they remain unaware while riba
is used to enslave them.
Riba is
usury. Usury is commonly understood as the lending of money at illegally high
rates of interest. But riba or usury in Islam is the lending of
money on interest regardless of the rate of interest! When money is lent on
interest, then money by itself, independent of any labor or effort or the
assumption of any risk, increases over time. The increase is realized through
the exploitation of labor, goods or property since Allah the Most High, has
unambiguously declared that nothing can be had without effort or labor (Qur’an 53:39)
The exploitation of labor, goods or property is manifested through the decrease
in their value - something which Allah the Most High, has specifically prohibited
in several verses of the Qur’an. (6:85, 11:85. 26:183, etc.)
Riba is
also at work when wealth is sucked from the raises through deception and other
forms of fraud. Such, for example, is the case of paper, plastic and electronic
money. There is also riba in speculative transactions. More than
60% of all money transfers in the world economy today represent speculative
transactions.
Allah the Most High, has
strictly prohibited riba. Yet the world today, including the
Muslim world, is saturated with riba. This has confirmed the
ominous prophecy of Prophet Muhammad (s) who prophesied, in a hadith
received from Abu Hurairah (ra), the following:
There will
come a time, he said, when you will not be able to find a single person in the
world who will not be consuming riba. And if anyone claims that he is
not consuming riba then surely the vapor of riba (In another text
the dust of riba) will reach him.
(Abu Daud, Mishkat)
What should
we do about this state of affairs?
Not only must the true
believer wage the greatest possible struggle to keep himself and his family
free from riba, but also he must exert himself to bring relief
(ma‘oun) to suffering humanity. That requires that a revolutionary struggle be
first waged to extricate the world of Islam from the venomous bloodstained
clutches of riba. If a believer does not struggle to guard
himself from riba and if he does not respond appropriately to
oppression in the world (which includes the oppression caused by riba)
then his faith is hollow! The Qur’an gives precisely that warning in Surah al
- Ma’oun (Chapter 107)
To preserve faith in this
age of riba, and to respond appropriately to oppression in the world,
the believers must ensure that they belong to the Jama’ah (community of
Muslims) which is struggling against riba. The Jama'ah must function
under the leadership of a competent Ameer (leader) who has an adequate
knowledge of the subject. The believers must pledge themselves to listen to and
obey that Ameer. They must then conform to the discipline of the Jama’ah. There
is no other way for Muslims to preserve faith in this age of riba!
In a riba-based
economy the possessors of capital will not only remain permanently rich, since
they eliminate the possibility of suffering losses, but they will grow constantly
richer, since they will be sucking the wealth which belongs to others. They
will grow richer at the expense of those who, if not already poor, will have to
pay the price of becoming impoverished through the system of ‘risk free
investments’. Risk-free investments are legalized theft. The number of poor
will constantly increase. And the level of poverty will descend lower and lower
until it reaches destitution. Prophet Muhammad (s) said that, people who
live in a state of destitution can lose their faith in Allah the Most High, Riba-based
capitalism has today reduced the overwhelming majority of mankind to poverty.
It thus forms part of the grand strategy through which today’s dominant godless
civilization seeks to reduce all of mankind to godlessness!
Thus, unless the believers
respond appropriately to the challenge of riba, the overwhelming
majority of Muslims around the world can lose their faith.
When Islam assumes the role
of a liberating force to liberate those who are being exploited and oppressed,
it is subjected to relentless and intense demonization. The reason for this
should be clear. The media is controlled by those who have established and who
sustain a world economy based on riba and who are themselves oppressing
mankind! It is they who demonize authentic Islam as fundamentalism, a corrupt
version of Islam. However, which does not recognize bank interest for example
as riba. And which consequently does not challenge the predatory
elite for its economic oppression is warmly recognized in the media as the true
version of the religion.
If a truly evil people were
to engage in riba for the purposes of sucking the wealth of
mankind, they can achieve more than just the accumulation of fabulous wealth.
They can in fact, succeed in enslaving all of mankind. This would be riba
as economic warfare. This book will endeavor to demonstrate using the Torah,
that this is the precise goal of those who corrupted the Torah in order to make
riba permissible for them in their dealings with the rest of humanity.
It is because riba
is in fact, warfare that Allah the Most High, has declared war on those who
consume riba:
....
and if you do not do it (i.e. if you do not give up your demand for the
interest due to you) then take notice of (a declaration of} war from Allah and
His Messenger.
(Qur’an: al-Baqarah:-2:229)
If we do not heed the warnings
from the Qur’an and hadith, then it will only be a matter of time before we are
enslaved by a world government controlled by the predatory elite. We will be powerless
to resist that slavery because riba would have sucked us dry of
our wealth. Our poverty and helplessness will be exploited by our slave-masters
to destroy our faith in Islam. There are some who will argue that we have
already been enslaved.
Our purpose in witting this
book is to alert the believers to the fact that the predatory elite has already
achieved considerable success in its devilish grand design of waging war on
mankind. The prophecy of our Prophet (s) concerning the universal
consumption of riba has already been fulfilled. The Prophet (s)
made it abundantly clear that the greatest danger to the integrity of the ummah
and of the iman (faith) of the believers would come from riba.
This confirmed the warning from Allah the Most High, Himself which was
pronounced in the choice of riba as the subject of the last
revelation.
Not only has the prophecy of
the Prophet (s) concerning the prevalence of riba today
been fulfilled, it has been fulfilled in our own miserable life time!
Specifically it has been fulfilled during the seventy years which have now
elapsed since the Ottoman khilafat was abolished in 1924. Up to 1924 riba-based
Capitalist Europe could succeed in penetrating only the regimes which presided
over the affairs of Muslims. The Ottoman khalifa, for example had borrowed
money on interest from Europe to such an extent that he was forced in l857, to
succumb to European financial blackmail and as a consequence to abolish jizyah and ahl adh-dhimmah in all the territories of the Ottoman Empire as a
quid-pro-qua for debt arid interest payments relief. This incidentally was a
classic example of the financial imperialism which is today so common place.
But it was also the beginning of the process of the dismantling of the sacred
model of a public order (or State) in the world of Islam (dar al-Islam) and of
replacing it with the secular European model in which sovereignty was taken
away from Allah the Most High, and given to the State. And- that was an act of
shirk! Since 1924 however, riba has penetrated the total economic
life of Muslims all around the world. The financial imperialism inherent in riba
has delivered the entire world of Islam by its very throat into the hands of
enemies with sharpened knives. Indeed all of mankind is now trapped in the
world of riba.
If we struggle to understand
the truth in the Qur’an and Sunnah, particularly as it pertains to the
prohibition of riba and to be faithful to it regardless of the
price we may have to pay, it may still be possible for us to protect ourselves
from that enemy who is waging economic warfare on us through riba.
After all did our Prophet (s) not warn us of seven great sins which we
should avoid:
"Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet said: Avoid the
seven great destructive sin. They (the people) asked: O Allah s Apostle! What
are they? He said:
- To join partners in worship with Allah;
- to practice sorcery;
- to kill the life which Allah has forbidden except for a just cause (according to Islamic law);
- to consume riba,
- to consume the property of an orphan;
- to give one’s back to the enemy and fleeing from the battlefield at the time of fighting and
- to accuse chaste women who never even think of anything which violates chastity and are good believers. "
(Bukhari)
We live today in a world in which
the practice of riba has once again brought great economic
oppression upon an unsuspecting mankind. And the oppression grows worse every
day. The twenty-five years which have elapsed since 1971, when the Bretton
Woods Accord collapsed have witnessed the virtual enslavement by a predatory
global elite of the periphery of the usurious world economy. The warning of the
book published in New York in 1997 and written from an essentially Qur'aanic
perspective is that the next twenty-five years are likely to confirm the
economic enslavement of all humanity by that predatory global elite.
This book attempts to
explain the claim that only Islam can liberate mankind from the economic
oppression caused by riba.
African-Americans who of all
people should be most interested in the subject of the prohibition of riba,
have expressed themselves time and again on the subject of economic oppression.
Yet the oppression of the African-American people in North America persists and
it grows worse. Racial, religious and political oppression of people identified
on the basis of their black color persists. But it is in economic oppression
that the greatest danger lies.
Dr. Martin Luther King led
his famous march of the oppressed to Washington D.C. in 1963 and spoke eloquently
of his dream of a world free from oppression. He advocated nonviolent
resistance to oppression as his basic philosophy for the liberation of the
oppressed. That philosophy of course was borrowed from the Hindu Indian leader
Gandhi. Malcolm X went to Washington D.C. but did not participate in that march
of 1963. He remained skeptical that a march and the basic philosophy of
nonviolent resistance to oppression which inspired it would result in any
positive change in tre condition of the oppressed. He was right! In fact the
night before the march he made gentle fun of the whole occasion. Scotch and bourbon
splashed; Malcolm watched, smiled and reminded everyone that the first result
of the march was not the delivery of the blacks but the closing of the saloons.
No firewater for the Indians tomorrow he teased.
Dr. King's dream has
remained but a dream! The African-Americans are economically worse off today
than they were at the time of that march. Dr. King was killed and so was
Malcolm. And oppression has increased. The noose around the neck of the
oppressed masses is growing tighter! Not only has the economic condition of the
oppressed in North America further deteriorated, but it has also weakened their
capacity to resist. And a universal collapse of morals and values in the
essentially decadent modem secular society indicates that the oppressed lack
even more, today the capacity to perceive and the inner power, moral fibre and
integrity with which to resist oppression.
More than twenty-five years
ago in 1970, non-European humanity dreamed of and spoke of the establishment of
a New International Economic Order (NIEO) which would bring greater economic
justice to mankind than obtained at that time. But that hope also, for a new
(just) international economic order (NIEO), has turned out to have been but a
dream. It has never emerged! The UN was used as a forum within which a struggle
could be waged. That effort has failed. That forum has failed. It is now
twenty-five years later and the rich have grown richer while the poor are
poorer. The poor masses and the poor countries are in debt today that they are
in effect, imprisoned by their creditors.
The fact is that the
condition of the oppressed continues to deteriorate and their leaders including
Louis Farrakhan, do not have a clue as to the way they should proceed if the
oppressed are to be liberated from economic oppression. As this book is being
written the first anniversary of the million-man-march has come and gone, and
nothing really has changed for the oppressed.
It is our view that all
efforts at achieving economic justice will continue to fail until mankind turns
for guidance to the uncorrupted truth which is in the Qur’an. Only the Qur’an
can restore for mankind a world of justice and peace because it is only in the Qur’an
that mankind can learn the truth about riba! This book reveals
the secret weapon used by the oppressor to tighten the rope of oppression
around the necks of mankind as riba! And the leaders of the
oppressed have little or no knowledge whatsoever of this subject. The knowledge
which they need to have is in Islam. The knowledge about the subject of riba
is to be found in the uncorrupted Truth of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of Allah’s
last messenger, Muhammad (s)!
It is a matter of supreme
significance for example, that the Qur’an has called on the Muslims to wage war;
when all peaceful efforts have failed, to liberate the oppressed from that
economic oppression called riba. (Qur’an-2:279). The Qur’anic
call for war has emerged in the context of Allah's great anger against
oppression. The very substance and foundation of Islam, the way of life of
Truth, is opposition to oppression. Sincere Muslims who are associated with
such sectarian Islamic movements as the tableeghi jamaat and the modern-day
salafis need to take careful note of the fact that the Qur’an itself (Ch-107)
has declared non-participation in the struggle to bring relief to weak, vulnerable
suffering humanity, to be the negation and repudiation of Islam (Kazb al-Din).
The Qur’an not only
prohibits riba but also declares that the Torah and the Gospel
were altered to modify the divine prohibition of riba. As a
consequence riba has survived and because of riba
among other things, we live today in an age in which values are collapsing.
Honesty, integrity, truthfulness, character and faith are fast disappearing
from the world. Prophet Muhammad (s) has spoken of the coining of such
an age as a sign of the coming of the last day. He said:
... A man
would sleep and honesty (or faith) would be taken from his heart and only its
trace will remain in his heart like the trace of a dark spot; then the man will
go to sleep during which honesty will decrease further still, so that its trace
will resettle the trace of a blister as when an ember is dropped on one's foot
which would make it swell, and one would see it swollen but there would be
nothing inside. People would he carrying out their trade but hardly will there
be a trustworthy person. It will be said: In such-and-such a tribe there is an
honest man and later it would be said about some man: 'What a wise, polite and
strong man he is - though he will not have faith equal even to a mustard seed
in his heart . . .
(Bukhari)
There are many today who
would readily agree that the conditions described in this hadith are now
fulfilled. And so the prevalence of riba itself constitutes a
sign of the coming of the last day! Riba has destroyed values.
None can be trusted! A corrupted mankind, corrupted by unquenchable greed,
would steal even the wealth of orphans today.
Muhammad Asad saw amongst
modem Europeans the greed which the Qur’an described in Surah al-Kahf
(Chapter 18) and else-where. There is a powerful passage in ’Road to Mecca' in
which he recorded what he saw:
“At all times people have known greed: but at no time before this had greed outgrown a mere eagerness to acquire things and become an obsession that blurred the sight of everything else: an irresistible craving to get to do, to contrive more and more - more today than yesterday and more tomorrow than today: a demon riding on the necks of men and whipping their hearts forward toward goals that tauntingly glitter in the distance but dissolve into contemptible nothingness as soon as they are reached, always holding out the premise of new goals ahead - goals still more brilliant, more tempting as long as they lie on the horizon and bound to wither into further nothingness as soon as they come within grasp: and that hunger, that insatiable hunger forever new goals gnawing at man’s soul : Nay! if you but knew it you would set the bell you are in . . . .”
“At all times people have known greed: but at no time before this had greed outgrown a mere eagerness to acquire things and become an obsession that blurred the sight of everything else: an irresistible craving to get to do, to contrive more and more - more today than yesterday and more tomorrow than today: a demon riding on the necks of men and whipping their hearts forward toward goals that tauntingly glitter in the distance but dissolve into contemptible nothingness as soon as they are reached, always holding out the premise of new goals ahead - goals still more brilliant, more tempting as long as they lie on the horizon and bound to wither into further nothingness as soon as they come within grasp: and that hunger, that insatiable hunger forever new goals gnawing at man’s soul : Nay! if you but knew it you would set the bell you are in . . . .”
[Muhammad Asad, Road to
Mecca, Islamic Book Trust Kuala Lumpur, 1996, p.310. The statement: Nay, if you
but knew if you would see the hell you are in refers to the Qur’anic chapter
(102) which declared:
“You are obsessed by greed
for more and more
Until you go down to your
graves.
Nay, but you will come to
know!
Nay, but you will come to
know!
Nay, if you but knew it with
the knowledge of certainty.
You would indeed see the
hell you are in.
In time, indeed you shall
see it with the eye of certainty;
And on that Day you will be
asked what you have done with the boon of life.”]
This is the world created by
riba. It corrupts and destroys. And so, now more than ever before,
it is important that mankind should seek guidance from the uncorrupted revealed
Truth. -Truth which had previously been revealed in the Torah to Moses (s)
in the Psalms to David (s) and in the Gospel to Jesus(s), but
which had been corrupted. - Truth which was restored, and which is now
eternally preserved in the Qur’an (revealed) to Muhammad (s).
The most important function
of knowledge of the divine guidance in this age in which we live - the last
stage of history, is to preserve faith in Allah the Most High, and in the Truth
which has come from Him (iman). In order to preserve faith in this age people
have been advised to show endurance. This was the advice of the blessed
Prophet (s). The most destructive force in the world today destroying
the very foundations of faith is riba! Nowhere else is there
greater need for Muslims to show endurance than in resisting riba!
Our view is that the subject
of foe prohibition of riba constitutes a litmus test with which
the true guides of mankind can be recognized, guides who truly know the Truth
and know how to guide and protect the sheep from the wolves of this age. One
learned believer; said Prophet Muhammad (s), is harder on Satan than a thousand
ignorant worshippers (ignorant that is, of the revealed Truth) - and so
learned a Muslim was the Prophet's companion. Umar (r) that the Prophet said of
him: When Umar walks on one side of the street. Satan takes the other side.
There are those today who
claim to be shepherds and who cannot even recognize the wolves. Others still
receive their salaries from the wolves and fraternize with them. As a
consequence they lead the sheep directly into the jaws of the wolves. Even the
governments which today control the world of Islam have callously betrayed
Islam and entered into riba to such an extent that most Muslim
countries now have riba debts which literally render them slaves
to their creditors! Unless mankind turns to true guides with expert knowledge
of the subject of the prohibition of riba, guides who faithfully
present the guidance located in the Qur’an and Sunnah, mankind will not only remain
in a state of loss, but also will descend into greater poverty, destitution,
oppression, suffering, violence and bloodshed! Indeed a new slavery will
descend upon mankind. It is the learned followers of Muhammad, the Prophet (s)
who must take the responsibility to expose to mankind the great curse of riba
which has been brought upon the world today by those who corrupted the Torah.
Psalms and Gospel. It is they who must lead the struggle against riba.
(Lest there be any misunderstanding, this writer is certainly not suggesting
that he is one of those true guides).
to be continued . . . .
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