Question: Can
a Muslim maintain a checking account in a bank?
Answer: In
my opinion - Yes! Checking accounts do not normally pay interest. One should,
however, make sure with one's bank. One should not, however, maintain an
average monthly balance in a checking account greater than the amount needed to
clear whatsoever checks may be written out each month. There are two reasons
for this: firstly, the bank would lend your money on interest and you would
thus be making a contribution (which could have been avoided) towards
maintaining the System of riba banking; secondly, paper money is riba,
it will collapse one day according to the prophecy of the Prophet (s).
Muslims should take all possible steps to protect themselves from that crash.
One way they can do that is to keep the minimum currency possible in paper
money. I hope it will be possible for us to mint gold and silver coins one day.
When that is done then currency can be stored in dinars and dirhams. When the
crash occurs, those whose savings are kept in dinars dirham will suffer no loss!
Question:
Can a Muslim rid himself of riba money through giving it in
charity?
Answer:
No! What is haram for a Muslim is also haram, for his brother.
Question:
Can riba money he given when donations are being made for the
masjid?
Answer:
No! Not even the pagan Arab, who worshiped idols would accept riba
money for the masjid al-haram (when the kaaba was being rebuilt before the call
of Islam).
Question:
Well then, if riba money cannot be used for any personal benefit,
and if it cannot be given in charity, what should we do with it?
Answer:
This is, my reply to a letter I received on the subject from a Muslim sister
who had made an investment prior to entering into Islam and had realized some
return on the investment. She wanted to know whether the money she had made was
riba and if it was riba, then what could she do
with it:
Dear Sister ....
Thank you for your letter.
It warms my heart to find such fear of Allah as way revealed in your letter. I am
also so very happy that the booklet on 'The Importance of the Prohibition of riba
in Islam' should have provoked such a positive development in your own life.
Alhamdu lillah!
Your investment is such that
while the amount of profit can fluctuate, there is no corresponding possible of
loss. Such a transaction is not ba‘i (business or trade). It is clearly riba.
You are therefore involved in very great sin and should take immediate steps to
get out of it. If you committed the sin in a state of ignorance, and then took
immediate steps to correct yourself as soon as you learnt of the sin, then you
would have fulfilled one of the requirements for the forgiveness of Allah i.e.
tauba.
How can you dispose of the riba
money which has accumulated through this investment? Firstly, it cannot be used
for your own personal benefit. Secondly it cannot be given to others as charity
since what is haram for you (riba) is haram for all of mankind.
Perhaps the only possibility
open to you (i.e. for disposal of the riba money), which may also
enhance your chances of being forgiven by Allah is the following;
The enemies of Allah are
waging war against all of mankind, in general and against Muslims in particular,
with riba in that state of war which now exists in the economic
life of mankind because of riba, it might, perhaps be permissible
to use riba money to fight riba!
If you accept our opinion
you may use that riba money which has accumulated from your
investment to print books on riba for free distribution. When
people read such books and then make the effort to free themselves from the
great sin of riba, it is possible that Allah may forgive you your
great sin of entering into riba.
And Allah knows best.
This is my opinion. It is
also the opinion of my brother Shaikh Imam Alfahim Jobe. whom I have consulted.
We may be right. We may also be wrong. And Allah knows best.
I remain,
your brother-in-Islam.
I.N.H
Question:
Can a Muslim participate in a pyramid scheme of marketing; i.e. you market a
commodity for a company and you get a commission for recruiting a customer? Or
your masjid gets a commission for your recruiting a customer?
Answer: If
the customer is targeted on the basis of friendship, or because of his sense of
loyalty to his masjid or Islamic Center etc., then the customer's business
decision to purchase a particular commodity (such as subscribing to a long
distance telephone company) will be made on the basis of considerations not all
of which belong to a free market.
A commodity should compete
in the market in fair and free competition. An exploitation of ties of
friendship; or love for one religion as a marketing strategy, represents a
corruption of the free and fair market. Such a marketing strategy would thus
represent a form of riba.
Question:
The Prophet has prophesied the collapse of the international monetary system
based on paper, plastic and electronic money. We are all enveloped in paper
money today. What can we do about it?
Answer: The
real solution will be possible only when the Islamic movement takes control of
a territory. The Islamic government would then take steps which would
eventually result in the elimination of paper money. The Islamic government
would enact legislation which would make gold dinars and silver dirhams legal
lender. The Islamic government would also establish mints which would mint the
gold and silver coins for the public. When gold and silver dinars and dirhams
have been given the status of legal tender, the result will be that labor will
now negotiate wages in real money rather than artificial money.
Goods, property, real estate,
and services will now witness sellers demanding real money in such sales.
The introduction of gold
dinars and silver dirhams as legal tender will result in a continuous fall in
the value of paper money. The more that value falls, and the faster it falls,
will result in greater public perception of the superiority of real money over
artificial money. Eventually paper money will collapse on its own. When it does,
the greatest losses will be sustained, not by the poor masses, but by the
predatory elite.
Until such time when real
money is restored as legal tender Muslims should seek to protect their savings
by keeping savings in gold and silver coins rather than paper money!
to be continued . . . .
