CHAPTER FOUR
THE PROHIBITION OF
RIBA IN THE SUNNAH
THE STRONG LANGUAGE OF THE PROPHET
ON RIBA
The Prophet (Allah's
blessings be upon him) emphasized the extreme danger inherent in riba
by himself using the strongest possible language in order to warn mankind and
Muslims about it He said:
Abu
Huraira said that the Messenger of Allah said: Riba is of seventy different
kinds the least grave being equivalent to a man marrying (i.e. having sexual
intercourse with) his own mother.
(Ibn Majah, Baihaqi)
(I know of people who have
accumulated wealth through riba and who, instead of responding
with terror in their hearts, are highly offended by the above hadith).
Abdullah
Ibn Hanzala reported that the Messenger of Allah said: A dirham (silver coin) of
riba, which a man receives knowingly is worse than committing adultery
thirty-six times.
(Ahmad)
Baihaqi
transmitted it, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, with the addition that the
Prophet continued to say: Hell is more fitting for him whose flesh is nourished
by what is haram.
Abu
Hurairah reported Allah's Messenger as saying; On the night I was taken up to
heaven I came upon people whose bellies were like houses which contained snakes
which could be seen from outside their bellies. I asked Gabriel who they were
and he told me that they were people who had consumed riba.
(Ahmad, Ibn Majah)
Abu
Huraira reported that the prophet said; Allah would be justified in not
allowing four persons (i.e. four kinds of people) to enter paradise or to taste
its blessings: he who drinks habitually, he who takes riba, he who usurps an
orphan’s property without right and he who is unmindful to his parents.
(Mustadrak al-Hakim. Kitab
al-Buyu'}
Samara
bin Jundab reported that the Messenger of Allah said. This night I dreamt that
two men came and took me to a holy land whence we proceeded on till we reached
a river of blood, where a man was standing and on its bank was standing another
man with stones in his hand. The man in the middle of the river tried to come
out, but the other threw a stone in his mouth and forced him to go back to his
original place. Whenever he tried to come out the other would throw a stone in
his mouth and force him to go back. I asked: who is this? I was told: The
person in the river was one who consumed riba.
(Bukhari)
We are here reminded of an
incident which occurred at an Egyptian cemetery in late seventies and which was
narrated by the late blind Egyptian Shaikh, Abdul Hameed Kishk, in one of his
public lectures (before the Egyptian government shamelessly silenced him). Here
is the story:
An Egyptian grave-digger
does not always have to dig a grave. He sometimes only opens vaults into which
dead bodies are placed. This is recognized as a form of burial. After the dead
body has been interred, the door of the vault is sealed until the next dead
body arrives.
Shaikh Kishk narrated the
incident in which a grave-digger was one day on a routine job of opening a
vault and preparing it to receive a dead body. The funeral was to take place
later in the day arid so the vault had to be prepared. As he opened the door he
was terrified to see a huge snake inside the vault. He quickly shut the door of
that vault and fled in terror! After regaining his composure he attempted to
open another vault, and again the same huge snake was inside. Again he fled in
terror, but since he had a job to perform for his very livelihood, and a
limited amount of time at his disposal to prepare the vault for the burial, he
was forced to return and to open a third vault. When he found the same snake in
the third vault as well his exasperation knew no limits. His terror gave way to
anger. He spoke to the snake and demanded that he be allowed to bury the dead.
The snake appeared to understand what was spoken for it promptly left the
vault. The moment the burial was completed however, and the vault was about to
be closed; the snake reappeared and dashed into the vault just as it was being
closed. As the door of the vault came down the grave-digger heard the jaws of
the snake crunching the very bones of the dead man.
The grave-digger was certain
that there must be an explanation for that horrible scene he had witnessed. He
inquired from the dead man’s family as to his way of life and his means of livelihood
and was told that the dead man was a money-lender who lent money on interest (riba)
and consumed the riba he derived from his loans. Through lending
money on interest he had been able to amass a fortune! For this reason a snake
from the hell-fire was waiting for him in his grave, and the punishment of
Allah, the Most High, was truly dreadful. That was the story!
The ahadith of the Prophet
which we have quoted have amply demonstrated the extent of the divine anger at
the oppression caused through riba.
The Prophet (s) also
reaffirmed the declaration of war from Allah the Most High, and His Messenger
in connection with the prohibition of riba in the following hadith:
Jabir
bin Abdullah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: If any one of you does
not leave mukhabarah he should take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger.
Zaid bin Thabit said: I asked: What is mukhabarah? He replied: That you have
the band for cultivation for a half, a third, or a quarter (of the produce). (The
danger here is that it leads, deceptively, to slave labor).
(Abu Daud)
The above hadith should open
the eyes of the reader to the enormous dangers involved in riba.
It can lead to slavery. Most of the arable land in Pakistan is owned by big
absentee landlords. They employ peasant labor to cultivate the land and ensure
that such labor is not only permanently available, but is available to them at
a heavily discounted price. They employ the system of mukhabarah for
literally imprisoning the peasants in a system of permanent poverty. That is riba.
And it has produced a system of slavery in Pakistan. If ever the Islamic
Movement wins power in Pakistan it will have to move quickly and forcefully to
dispossess the big absentee landlords of their tide to the agricultural lands
of Pakistan.
to be continued . . . .
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