HOW MUCH INTEREST CONSTITUTES RIBA?
In the very last revelation
of the Qur’an (2:273) Allah the Most High, addressed all those who still had riba
due to them (from loans extended prior to the prohibition of riba)
and ordered them to give it up (or write it off). In the event that such people
were to heed the divine command and make repentance (tauba) then, Allah the
Most High, declared they would be entitled to the return of only the principal
sum which had been lent. Allah the Most High, did not say that they would be
entitled to the return of the principal sum pins a service charge or plus a
reasonable amount of interest.
Thus it matters not whether
interest is small or large (1% or 25%), it would still be riba,
and would still be prohibited. In this respect riba is like
alcoholic beverages. Whether the glass contains, a small drink of whiskey or
whether you were offered a large drink, it makes no difference, it would still
be prohibited in Islam.
Muslims are faced, however
with the curious phenomenon in today's world of Islam, if so-called Islamic
scholars who are unable to grasp the simple fact that "interest" in
modern banking is riba! Christians are doubtless already
accustomed to that. Yet it should be as plain as daylight to anyone who has
studied the explanatory statements of the Prophet (s). And such so-called
scholars should recall that Allah the Most High, sent Prophet Muhammad (s)
and not them, nor the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), to leach the
meaning of the Qur’an. (SAMA invests all the Saudi petrodollars in riba
investments in western banks controlled by forces hostile to Islam).
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, whose
otherwise brilliant English translation and commentary of the Qur’an has won
widespread popularity, openly confesses that he disagrees with the ulama (i.e_
religious scholars), ancient and modern, in respect of their definition of riba:
“The definition I would accept would be: undue profit made, not in the way of
legitimate trade, out of loans of gold and silver, and necessary articles of
food, such as wheat, barley, dates and salt (according.to the list mentioned by
the Holy Apostle himself). My definition would include profiteering of all
kinds, but would exclude economic credit, the creature of modern banking and
finance.”
Abdullah Yusuf Ali (may
Allah have mercy on him) is most certainly in grave error. The Qur’an does
describe one form of riba as undue increase, i.e. when the rate
of interest is such that interest payments doubles and triples the principal
sum borrowed. (Qur’an, 3:130). But riba was never defined as undue
profit, neither in the Qur’an nor by the Prophet (s). In fact riba
even includes any material benefit whatsoever, over and above the capital sum
lent, which a lender may derive from a borrower. Banks do not lend money for
blessings. Nor do they charge interest for the purpose of recovering losses
sustained through inflation. They do it for profit! And what enormous profits
do they make! Thus economic credit. “the creature of modern banking” is most
definitely riba, regardless of whether the interest-rate is high
or low or compound or simple! Thus the Prophet said:
Anas ibn Malik reported that
the Messenger of Allah said: If you give a man a loan and he were to offer you
a meal do not eat it, because that is riba! - unless he used to invite
you for meals prior to the loan, in which case you may eat. And again he said:
If you give a man a loan and he offers you a ride on his animal, do not take
it, because that is riba! - unless he used to offer you rides on his
animal prior to the loan; in which case you may take it.
(Smart al-Bayhaqi)
Anas bin Malik also reported
the Prophet as saying: If a man extends a loan to someone, he should not accept
a gift (i.e. he should not accept a gift from the debtor while the loan is
still outstanding but may do so after the loan has been repaid to him).
(Bukhari}
Abu Burdah ibn Abi Musa
said: I came to Madinah and met Abdullah ibn Salaam (the Jewish Rabbi who
accepted Islam) who said: You (now) live in a country where riba is
rampant; hence if anyone owes you something and presents you with a load of hay
or a load of barley or a rope of straw, do not accept it for it is riba.
(Bukhari)
Fadalah ibn Ubayd said that
the Messenger of Allah said: The benefit derived from any loan is one of the
different aspects of riba.
(Sutton al-Bayhaqi)
Abu Umamah said that the
Prophet said: Whoever makes a recommendation for his brother and accepts a gift
offered by him has entered riba through one of its large gates.
(Abu Daud and Ahmad)
To make matters- worse we
also have the extraordinary blunder committed by Shaikh Muhammad Abduh, the
Rector of Al-Azhar University, Cairo, who toured Europe in the late nineteenth century
and then returned to Egypt to declare that in modem Europe he had found Islam,
but no Muslims, while in Egypt he found Muslims, but do Islam. Malcolm X would
never have made that mistake!
The Europe which Abduh
visited was a Europe which had just experienced the French revolution. That
event constituted the turning point in the transformation of Western European
civilization from one based on faith in Christianity, to an essentially godless
civilization.
In fact Europe which Abduh
perceived as one which was based on Islam, was a Europe which had become the
first target of evil forces created by Allah the Most High, (Qur’an:-113:2) and
released by Allah the Most High, in the age of fitan. The Prophet (s)
had described the last age before the end of the world as the age of fitan.
Fitan is the plural of fitnah, which means: temptation, trial,
charm, attractiveness, enchantment, captivation, fascination, enticement, infatuation, intrigue, sedition, riot, discord, dissension, civil
strife. Those evil forces were yajooj, ma‘jooj and al-Masih
al-Dajjal. The barrier which had been constructed by Dhul Qarnain
to contained those evil forces had been destroyed by Allah the Most High, and
the evil forces had been released. Their primary function was to employ
oppression and deception in order to destroy everything which was not pure
faith. (See my book: One Jama'ah - One Ameer: The Organization of a Muslim
Community in the Age of Fitan).
The secularization of
politics in Europe, which created the new secular democratic State, resulted in
the declaration that sovereignty now resided with the State rather than Allah
the Most High. And that was shirk! Indeed, the shirk was even
more fundamentally based on the new philosophical foundation of the civilization.
i.e. materialism. The definition of materialism was one which denied the
existence of any reality beyond material reality. Shaikh Muhammad Abduh, the
classically-educated Egyptian Islamic scholar, failed to see the new
philosophical foundations of European modernity. He was deceived by Dajjal.
He thus perceived the road to hell as the road to heaven. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal,
on the other hand, the modem-educated Indian Islamic scholar, was not deceived.
Abduh appears to have been
deceived by the superficial appearance of Truth. (i.e. Islam) at the foundation
of modern secular European society. He did not perceive that the European economy
was significantly altered in a direction away from Truth as a result of the
French revolution. The Catholic Church in particular, which had waged a five
hundred year Struggle against riba in Europe, had finally lost
the war to secularism, and riba now began to emerge as the very
foundation of the capitalist European economy. Abduh failed to see exploitation
in the interest which formed the foundation of the European banking system.
Since he did not notice it, he concluded that it was not them. That was his
extraordinary blunder! He returned to Egypt and delivered his famous (or
infamous) fatwa (juristic verdict) on the interest on savings accounts
opened with the Egyptian Post Office. He declared that the ‘interest’ from
those accounts was not riba!
Iqbal was not deceived by Dajjal.
He recognized that Islamic civilization had deviated significantly from the
path of Islam: but Islam - the Truth, was still there and could be restored.
When he viewed modern European civilization on the other hand. Iqbal’s vision
pierced beyond the external form of European ‘character’, ‘honesty’, ‘integrity’,
‘willingness to work hard for a specified good’, ‘good-natured behavior towards
other humans’, ‘trustworthiness’, etc. Here is his verdict on the new Europe: The
idealism of Europe never became a living factor in her life; and the result is
a perverted ego seeking itself through mutually intolerant democracies whose
sole Junction is to exploit the poor in the interest of the rich. [That is riba]
Believe me. Europe today is the greatest hindrance in the way of man's ethical
advancement.
The incapacity to penetrate
the essentially predatory nature of the interest-based capitalist economy and
to thus recognize riba at its very foundation, appears to have
been passed on from one generation of Egyptian Islamic scholars to another
Shaikh Tantawi, the former government-appointed Mufti of Egypt who is now
Shaikh al-Azhar, as well as Shaikh al-Ghazzali (may Allah have mercy on him),
both recent visitors to New York, appear to be similarly misguided. They have
both argued that bank interest not riba!
Let us not forget however,
that there have been many other prominent Egyptian Islamic scholars who have
declared ‘interest’ to be riba and have vigorously opposed it!
One of them, the blind and innocent Shaikh Omar Abdul Rahman, is paying the
price for his vigorous denunciation of oppression in Egypt. He is serving a
sentence of life-imprisonment in an American prison. The crime for which he was
found guilty was the preaching of Islam in a manner which incites people to
challenge their oppressors.
Classical higher Islamic
education in this age of fitan seems to have acquired some strange
deficiency making it difficult for so many classically-trained Islamic scholars
to perceive reality correctly. What Abduh, the classically trained Islamic
scholar could not see, Iqbal saw so clearly. Iqbal never had a classical
Islamic education. Our view is that something is significantly lacking in
the classical methodology of Qur’anic interpretation (usul al-tafseer). The
meaning of the Qur’an could not possibly have been exhausted by the early
Muslims (salaf). The classical works of tafseer, therefore cannot be said to
have delivered the final word on the meaning of the Qur’an. Rather the meaning
of the Qur’an continues to unfold as concrete reality changes. It is on the
basis of an acute observation of changing reality that one can discern new
meaning to verses of the Qur’an, - meanings which do not unfold until the new
reality has emerged. This is particularly true in respect the Qur’anic
treatment of the age of fitan. It is infact, on the basis of observation and
intuitive insight that one can arrive at the meanings of the Qur’an as they are
directly related to this age.
Abduh was influenced by the
arch nationalist, Syed Jamaluddin Afghani. Abduh in turn, influenced his
disciple Shaikh Rashid Rida. It appears that they may have innocently opened
the doors of Egypt to riba. And from that day to this the
Egyptians have continued to pay a terrible price for that poison which first
crippled, and then utterly destroyed the Egyptian economy. To make matters even
worse the rest of the world of Islam tamely followed Egypt into riba.
Some scholars have felt it
necessary to advise Muslims living in non-Muslim lands not to leave their riba
earnings in the hands of non-Muslims. They advise that such riba
money should be accepted and then given in charily. The terminology which they
use is suspicious! The shariah (i.e. the sacred law) does not address ‘non-Muslim
lands'. It recognizes dar al-Islam (i.e. territory over which the
believers have control. and in which they have the freedom to submit to the
supreme authority of Allah the Most High) and dar al-harb
(territory which commits acts of aggression or oppression). Imam Shafe’i
recognized territory which was in a state of contractual peace and
non-aggression with dar al Islam as dar al-ahd. Those
scholars should have used this classical terminology rather than suspiciously
introducing terminology - non-Muslim lands" - which has all the
appearances of legitimizing the present system of nation-states which has
replaced dar al-Islam.
If the non-Muslim land is
designated dar al-Harb it would then he possible for some to argue that there
is no riba in such a territory. But, until recently, no one ever
designated USA as dar al-Harb?
The argument concerning the
validity of giving riba as charity in non-Muslim lands is
therefore problematic, since what is haram (prohibited) for a believer to
consume, is haram for his brother to consume!
Dr. Jamal Badawi, the
learned scholar of Islam, rejects the opinion regarding the admissibility of
interest for housing etc. in USA, on the basis of the application of the
doctrine of necessity. His position is that ‘necessity’ does not apply in the
general conditions obtaining today. It can apply only in specific conditions.
The subjects of Riba and dar al-harb, and 'Riba and
the Doctrine of Necessity', are dealt with in chapters five and six of this
book.
to be continued . . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment