Speculative
transactions based on privileged Insider information is pure riba.
When commerce and industry
is established on a speculative basis, and when the masters of riba
have access to insider information, the result is that what is withdrawn from
the land by industry (and sweat) will slip through the hands and pass into
speculation, and that puts it into the hands of the intelligent cunning satanic
masters of riba! The wealth which was accumulated through
generations of hard work will slip into their hands in a single day through
speculative transactions based on insider information and the manipulation of
the market.
9. Options. Sometimes a
speculative transaction can result in a disappointment. The price was expected
to rise but it did not. The spectator does not want his money to be tied up in
a transaction which may go wrong. So what He does is to buy from the owner of
the goods an option to purchase the goods during a specific time frame for a
price agreed upon. He pays a non-refundable fee for the purchase of this
option. If the price does rise during the period of the option he exercises his
option, buys the goods and immediately resells it at a profit. If the price
does not rise he simply chooses not to exercise his option. His only loss will
then be the fee he paid to purchase the option.
In a free and fair market
the rise and fall of prices will be determined by Allah the Most High! He can
use it for distributing and redistributing wealth. Options constitute a means
of bypassing Allah's prerogative of fixing prices. It is thus haram!
10 - Bribery and corruption.
Riba sometimes cakes the form of a bribe, or of patronage which
is dispensed in order to win influence or control over individuals and
institutions. Take the example of a huge prize of five bundled thousand dollars
(US) which is awarded by Saudi Arabia, to a scholar of Islam chosen by the
Saudis. When an Islamic scholar accepts that prize be has, in effect, been
imprisoned. He and the movement which he leads, are neutralized. They cannot
participate in any effort towards liberating that country from the influence
and control of the enemies of Islam and restoring its freedom. This has already
occurred! This is the triumph of the enemy. Indeed they boast of their success:
Our triumph has been
rendered vaster by the fact that in our relations with the men whom wanted we
have always worked upon the most sensitive chords of the human mind, upon the
cash account upon their cupidity, upon the insatiability of the material needs
of man: and each one of these human weaknesses, taken alone, is sufficient to
paralyze initiative, for if hands over the will of men to the disposition of
him who has bought their activities!
Theodor Herzl, the
originator of Zionism, said of the Jewish people in his book “The Jewish State':
When we sink we become a revolutionary proletariat, the subordinate officers
of the revolutionary party: when we rise, there rises also our terrible power
of the purse.
11 - Pyramid schemes. The
last twenty ‘five years have witnessed the emergence of new devilish schemes
through which truly evil forces exploit human greed in order to rob people of
their wealth. Many people, innocent and gullible or greedy; have lost their
money in such schemes as the 'pyramid' scheme.
A finance company is
established which offers financial investors a significantly higher return on
their investments than that offered for fixed deposits in banks. The finance
company uses the deposits which have been invested with it for the purpose of
paying the high dividends promised to investors. As word spreads that the
company is indeed paying the high dividends, greed enters the bloodstream of
the masses and they flock to invest their savings. When a large enough amount
of cash investments have been realized the company, which has reached the
pyramid simply folds up (either through a disappearing act or by filing for
bankruptcy) and the investors are robbed of their money. This also, is riba.
And this is precisely what occurred in Albania, a majority Muslim country!
12 - Lottery. We now live in
an age in which governments around the world are using State lotteries or
national lotteries as a means of skimming money from the masses. The principle
involved in the scheme tailed lottery is the same as in the pyramid scheme, - to
wit, to exploit greed and fantasy in the human psyche. The masses pour in their
money as the lottery grows in the size of the prize. Fantasy was stroked when
some poor or middle class person won a previous lottery and suddenly became
fabulously rich. Everyone who now purchases a lottery ticket fantasizes that he
or she will win the lottery and suddenly become fabulously rich.
In fact what occurs is that
the State, which organized the lottery, ripped off the masses to realize an
unearned income through deception. It is a rip off since only a fraction of the
money received is paid as prize money. The State usually attempts to give a
humane welfare appearance to the lottery by spending part of the proceeds on
such high-profile emotionally charged projects as education (e.g., building
schools). But this essentially constitutes an attempt to camouflage the predatory
nature of the Lottery. And so lotteries operate on the basis of riba.
There are many other forms
of riba in the world today which are readily identifiable by
businessmen. Some of them constitute new forms of riba. Muslims
must make themselves aware of the different forms of riba, and
must exercise the greatest care to avoid them.
to be continued . . . .
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