Saturday, 17 July 2021

The Prohibition of Riba (Interest)




CHAPTER EIGHT


CONCLUSION

We live today in a world in which the overwhelming majority of those who buy houses, or cars etc., or who pay for college education, do so on the basis of bank loans which involve the payment of interest. Most of those who use credit cards also incur loans with interest. In fact I know of cases where Muslims took bank loans on interest in order to meet the cost of performing the hajj or, worse yet, to establish a masjid!.

The overwhelming majority of such people has gone on to invest their savings in investments such as fixed deposits in banks, bonds etc. which yield interest.

What most of such people do not know, and would not know were it not for the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (s), is that every time they borrow money on interest, or take the interest which the bank pays them for a fixed deposit, they commit a sin worse than rape. In addition, they are either being ripped-off and oppressed, or are participating in a rip-off or an act of oppression, or are legitimizing a system of oppression and exploitation! When they borrow money on interest they support a system of legalized theft and oppression which sucks the blood of mankind. As such they bear responsibility for the whole system of blood-sucking,

This is clear from the fact that the Prophet cursed all four, the taker of riba, the giver of riba the scribe who records the transaction, and the two witnesses, and declared that they were all equally guilty.
(Sahih Muslim)

It is our responsibility to explain this to them. This book should assist us in doing so. The reason why mankind is largely unaware of the divine prohibition of riba (interest or usury) is because the scriptures sent by Allah the Most High, were rewritten and changed to modify the prohibition of riba!

This happened with the Torah sent to Moses (s) and the Gospel sent to Jesus (s). And so Allah sent the Qur’an which declared riba to be haram (prohibited by Allah the Most High). And Prophet Muhammad (s) explained that all those involved in such transactions (whether as borrower, lender, administrative personnel, or witnesses to the transaction) would be committing a very great sin for which they would be severely punished by Allah the Most High, The Prophet (s) informed the world that he saw people in hell with huge protruding transparent bellies filled with snakes. He was told that they were people who consumed riba!

It matters not whether the people involved in such transactions are Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, part-time Muslims or any other people, it would still be a sin, and they would still be severely punished. This is so because Prophet Muhammad (s) was sent as the final prophet of Allah the Most High, to all mankind; and the divine guidance in the Qur’an is addressed to all mankind. Thus the prohibition of riba applies to all Americans, all Chinese, indeed all mankind!

We have made the point, in this book, that the Qur'an simply restored and reaffirmed the prohibition of riba in all divine scriptures revealed previously to Moses, David, and Jesus (peace and blessings of Allah be upon them).

So great is the sin of riba that there are, perhaps, very few sins which a human being can commit which can be greater than it, such would be the sin of worshiping a god or gods other than Allah the Most High, such as idols, or a god who is male or female, or a god who appeared in the person of a man in Bethlehem or Chicago etc. Such also would be the sin of assuming divine powers and changing and rewriting the revealed Word of Allah the Most High; (which was done to the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel in respect of the prohibition of riba) etc.

Our examination of the subject has revealed riba to be any economic advantage or material gain which is derived by way of deception through means which are unjust, such as ripping off, cheating, bribing, corrupt exploitation of influence or authority for unjust advantage, deception in trade, speculative transactions, living off the sweat of others etc.

Riba sometimes takes the form of a system of legalized theft as in a banking system based on interest and usury, or a monetary system based on non-redeemable artificial paper money. Because of riba money itself, which is basically a store and measure of value and a medium of exchange, is replaced with an artificial substitute which becomes a commodity traded in a market. The currency markets, as well as so many other markets, are skillfully manipulated for the value of paper money to constantly decrease. The US dollar, for example has lost 92% of its value in the last 25 years. Very few people are even conscious of this fact. Every time artificial money loses value the masses lose and predatory elite gains. That is riba!

Because of riba wealth is sucked from the masses and is concentrated in a predatory global elite. Society eventually becomes polarized between 'haves' and 'have nots'. Wealth then circulates only amongst the wealthy while the poor are condemned to be imprisoned in permanent poverty. The predators then move to the security of the well-protected suburbs to escape the violence which now ravages those societies which, have been sucked dry of their wealth. European civilization has already witnessed this. The predators in European civilization have left behind their Euro-Jewish synagogues and Euro-Christian churches, and have abandoned their dead in their Euro-cemeteries located in inner cities which have been ravaged by riba.


Riba thus constitutes various forms of economic exploitation and oppression made possible through the corruption of the free and fair market. Because of riba a new sophisticated form of slavery is descending upon all mankind. And European civilization continues to be the slave-masters. The supreme slave-masters today are, however, those Jewish people who are the masters of riba.

In Capitalism wealth must constantly increase, by means fair or foul. More than anything else it is riba which ensures that increase. The rich grow richer and the poor grew poorer. In Islam the goal is to ensure that wealth circulates throughout the economy and not circulate only amongst the rich (Qur’an 59:7). What a difference! (i.e. community of believers) and the Imam (i.e. the Ameer or leader of the jama’at) whose authority is constituted through the act of baiya’ah or pledge of allegiance, thus that community and its leader will live their lives in conformity with the Qur’an and Sunnah and, as a consequence, would be rightly guided.

I said: if there is neither a jamaa’at nor an Imam? He said; Then turn away from all those firaq (i.e. misguided Muslim groups which, since they have failed to constitute, themselves as a jama’at without an Imam/Ameer whose authority is established through baiya’ah are denounced as sects) even if you were to bite (eat) the roots of a tree till death over-takes you while you are in that state.
(Bukhari, Muslim)

And so, the best protection against riba that one can take is to be a member of the jama’ah which is led by an Imam who has knowledge of the Deen and is leading jama’ah in accordance with the guidance and injunctions in the Qur’an and Sunnah. One should give the pledge of obedience to such an Imam and then live in accordance with the discipline which he enforces.

May Allah the Most High, grant His protection from the great sin of riba to all those who follow the advice of the Prophet (s) to adhere to the jama’ah and to obey the Imam/Ameer. Ameen! 
And may He forgive any mistakes we may have made in treating this important and difficult subject. Ameen!

to be continued . . . . 

The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) by Imran Hosein



The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) (Q&A) by Imran Hosein



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