Saturday 24 April 2021

History of Riba




Allah the Most High, provided us with an opportunity in 1973-74, to realize the fraudulent nature of paper money. Up to August 1971 the US dollar was convertible into gold, at the request of foreign governments (in accordance with the Britton Woods Agreement), at the rate of $35 for one ounce of gold. If Saudi Arabia had sold oil up to 1970 and had accumulated 35 billion US dollars from the sales. Saudi Arabia would know that it was worth 1 billion ounces of gold. Saudi Arabia may have chosen not to demand that the dollars be redeemed for gold because of trust in the Bretton Woods Agreement.

In August 1971 the US government reneged on the Bratton Woods Agreement and abandoned its obligation to redeem dollars for gold. Suddenly the 1 billion ounces of Saudi gold began to decrease. In Late 1973 the Egyptian army attacked Israel and won some significant initial victories. The US government then established an air bridge to supply Israeli with sufficient advanced weapons to reverse the tide of the war. The Muslim world responded to that with an oil boycott of USA. It created a tremendous shock to the capitalist stock markets and the value of the US dollar fell dramatically! Instead of an ounce of gold having a worth of $35, it was now worth more than $160.

What was the price which the Saudis, who led the boycott, had to pay? This was the price: Their one billion ounces of gold had suddenly evaporated with the collapse of the dollar. All that was left was a paltry 220 million ounces of gold (based on the new value of the dollar, i.e. $160 per ounce of gold). Almost 800 million ounces of gold had evaporated into thin air. The Saudis and the world of Islam had to pay an even bigger price when King Faisal (may Allah have mercy on him) was assassinated in a Mossadic operation bearing the same fingerprints as the World Trade Center bombing, the sting operation launched to attempt to silence the innocent blind Egyptian Shaikh Omar Abd al-Rahman.

In January 1989, at the time of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the price of gold rose to $850 an ounce. This meant that the US dollar had fallen to US$850 as the value of one ounce of gold. If Saudi Arabia had sold thirty-five billion dollars worth of oil in 1970 and assumed that their money was worth one billion ounces of gold, they awoke in January' 1989 to find that 96% of the gold had vanished, and that their thirty five billion dollars could now buy only 4 % of one billion ounces of gold! It is truly amazing that there are so-called Islamic scholars, experts in the subject of riba, who cannot recognize riba in paper (i.e. fiat) money.

The US dollar is presently trading at approximately $380 per ounce of gold. Our view is that if the Muslim world were to recover control of its oil resources. and even before it demands that oil be paid for in gold, the value of the US dollar will tumble catastrophically, as it did in 1974 and again in 1989. Muslims should not wait on that day to wake up to the reality of the gigantic fraud called inflation made possible through the use of paper money. Muslims at least, should return to the use of real money.

Eventually, Insha Allah, we will succeed in restoring Dar al-Islam when Imam al-Mahdi arises (or perhaps, before that) and then, in that territory, we will have to restore real money to the market. Some American political scientists and economist have the same goal. They wish to restore Integrity to money through another international agreement similar to the Bretton Woods Agreement. Personally I believe that the standard of public morality required for a return to monetary integrity no longer exists in western society. In fact the world has witnessed a return to the fraudulent economy of Madyan which confronted the Prophet Shuaib (s ). He preached to them:

Oh my people! Worship Allah! You have no other God besides Him! There has now come to you a clear sign from your Lord! Give just measure and weight, and do not diminish the value of the property of the people. And do not commit fasad on the earth after it has been set in order. . .
(Qur’an: al-'Araf: 7-85)

Allah the Most High destroyed Madyan with tumble earthquakes which left them dead inside their named homes. And Allah the Most High, warns in Surah al-Kahf that He will do the same to today’s world created by fraudulent riba-based capitalism:

Verily We shall reduce whatever is on (the earth) to barren dust.
(Qur’an: al-Kahf l8:8)

The argument that inflation justifies interest is thus false. It is also very dangerous! Scholars who adopt this argument are leading all their innocent sheep straight into the jaws of the wolves. Both the sheep and their shepherds should fear the fire of Hell! Indeed the Qur’an speaks of a people who were misled by their leaders and who when they ended up in hell asked Allah, the Most High, to give double punishment to those leaders who misguided them:

These Lord, are the men who led us astray. Let their punishment be doubled in the Fire.
(Qur’an: al-’Araf:-7;38)

The strategy of restoring integrity to money by restoring gold is a strategy which can be truly pursued only when Muslims take control of the State, i.e. Dar al-Islam. One of the reasons for this is because the freedom to own and keep gold bullion can be taken away, and has been taken away from the people by the State. In USA, for example, this freedom was taken away by the Roosevelt administration in 1933. Lincoln also took it away in the Civil War, and it was taken away twice before the signing of the US Constitution.

The Laws of gold confiscation are very clear. During any time of national crisis, it becomes illegal to buy, sell, or 'hoard’ gold bullion in any form. It is delineated under in Executive Order and can be administered as quickly as the assets in your checking account can be frozen. The penalties under US law, for violation are 10 years in prison, $10,000 fine, or both!

A national crisis can be as simple as astute in which a government is broke. It needs money to balance its books, to continue foreign trade etc. How does it solve the problem? Well, one way is by appropriating all available valuable assets, and having them re-appraised upward. Here as an example.

In 1933 the FDR Administration in USA confiscated all private gold. Government paid for the gold at $20.57 an ounce. Here is what the announcement looked like -

********************************************************************************************
Post Master Please Post in a Conspicuous Place
James A. Farley
Post Master General

UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT
issued April 5, 1933
all persons are required to deliver


ON OR BEFORE MAY 1. 1933

all Gold Coins, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates
now owned by them to a Federal Reserve Bank,
branch or agency, or so any member bank of the
Federal Reserve System.


Criminal Penalties for Violation of Executive Order
$10,000 fine or 10 year imprisonment or both, as
provided in Section 9 of the order.

Secretary of the Treasury


********************************************************************************************

Once the gold was gathered, the US Government announced that the new price of gold was $35 per ounce, an increase of approximately 70%. The US government solved its problem by cheating and robbing people of their wealth. It’s called riba? No Islamic government functioning in accordance with the laws of Islam, has ever cheated the people.

Today’s world of riba, in the form of artificial money, has witnessed the return of that age of evil which has been described in surah al-Kahf. There were young men who believed in Islam and who were being persecuted and tyrannized by a world which had no faith in Allah the Most High, and which committed shirk by worshipping others besides AIIah the Most High. Today’s world has created the State, Constitution, Parliament, Supreme Court and the U.N. Security Council etc., as the supreme authority instead of Allah, the Most High. Thus, like that age in Surah al-Kahf, this age also is an age of shirk! In order to preserve their faith in Islam the young men in Surah al Kahf fled to a cave where Allah the Most High, put them to sleep for three hundred (solar) years or more. When He roused them they felt hungry, and hunger drove them to send one of them to buy some (halal) food from the market. But when the Qur’an made mention of the money which the youth would take to buy the food it used the word wariqfkum. While this word is universally understood to mean silver coins, it is possible that this was hint of waraq (paper-money), indicating that the emergence of artificial paper money (fiat money) would be a sign of the return of the evil age described in Surah al Kahf. And Allah the Most High, knows best!

To conclude, artificial paper money is riba, and it functions as an important means through which mankind is ripped off of the wealth which is the fruit of their labor, and rizq from Allah, the Most High.

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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