Ba’i Muajjal is a credit transaction

THE PROHIBITION OF RIBA IN THE QUR’AN AND SUNNAH

NOTE ON BA’I MUAJJAL

Ba’i Muajjal is a credit transaction. An article is purchased on credit, i.e. with the price of the article purchased to be paid at a later time. But this does not always constitute riba. The Prophet (s) himself purchased food-grain on credit. (See hadith quoted here-under). But it was not riba! It is important for us to note, however that this credit (bai muajjal) was quite different from today’s ordinary credit transactions because of the following:

i) there was no increase in price in consideration of credit. The reader should please note that all mortgages for the purchase of cars or houses, etc., today are such that there is an increase in price in consideration of credit. And that is riba!

ii) the debt was secured through a mortgage, i.e. the price of the article purchased on credit was essentially guaranteed in an article which was mortgaged. In the event that the buyer of the article (on credit) were to die before the debt was redeemed, he would die without a debt - since the mortgaged article would be sold in order to recover the price of the article in the original sale.

iii) the article which was purchased on credit was not such as admitted the possibility of future complications and conflicts (such as a mango crop which was not yet ready to be harvested).

As a consequence, there was no riba in such a credit transition (ba’i muajjal). Thus we find that the Prophet (s) himself entered into such a credit-cum-mortgage transaction:

Aisha (the wife of the Prophet) said that Allah’s Messenger bought food grains from a Jew on the basis of deferred payment and mortgaged his armor to him.

(Bukhari. Muslim)

She said that when Allah’s Messenger died his coat of mail was mortgaged to a Jew for thirty sa's of barley (a sa’ being a measure of weight).

(Bukhari)

Credit involves debt. A Muslim should never enter into debt which he does not possess the means to liquidate, unless it be for grave necessity (i.e. for matters pertaining to basic biological needs). Unsecured debt is something to be feared! Secondly debt should not remain outstanding indefinitely. If a debtor cannot repay a debt then the creditor is urged to accept whatever the debtor can pay and to remit the balance (i.e. to write it off). Alternatively the debt should be remitted after a reasonable period of time. In fact the Torah decreed a period of seven yews for remission of debts.

There is however, an ominous double standard in the prescription of the Torah which laudably requires that:

Every seventh year you shall practice remission of debts. This shall be the nature of the remission, - every creditor shall remit the due which he claim from his neighbor; he shall not dun (i.e. insistently demand of the debtor the payment of a debt; even to the extent of constant annoyance) his neighbor or kinsman (i.e. a fellow Jew) for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord

(Deuteronomy:- 15:1)

but which then goes on to declare a free hand with those who are not Jews:

You may dun the foreigner (i.e. those who are not Jews); but you must remit whatever is due from your kinsman.

(Deuteronomy:-! 5:1)

There is also a clear indication of financial imperialism in what follows:

For the Lord your God will bless you as He promised you: you will extend loans to many nations (i.e. non-Jews), but require none yourself (i.e. from those who are not Jews); you will (as a consequence) dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you.

(Deuteronomy:- 15:6)

Whoever did the rewriting of the Torah which appears above must have had Satan himself as a guide! Verses like these are the true Satanic Verses. What those ghost writers wrote constitute a recipe for all of mankind to hate Jews; and for Judaism itself to self-destruct. Those who are teamed and pious need to act decisively to retrieve the pure religion of Abraham and the Truth revealed to Moses! The pure religion of Abraham and the Truth revealed to Moses were corrupted and now do not exist anywhere else in the world but in the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (s).

2 - Increasing the price of an article in consideration of deferred payment. This credit transaction is known as riba al-nasi'ah;

From Usama bin Zaid: The Prophet said: There is no riba except in nasi'ah (waiting).

(Bukhari)

This was the most common form of riba in Makkah. The principle involved was that if you had to wait for your money you deserved to get an additional amount. A debtor was given an extension in time because he could not pay his debt on time. The amount he owed was increased, however in consideration for the extension in time.

If capital can increase in consideration of time then money earn by itself, generate more money. No effort will be required. But the Qur’an teaches that such is not possible. (Qur’an: 53:39) Money cannot increase without effort. When the law permits money to be lent on interest thus recognizing that time equals money, then the lender lives of the sweat of the borrower in much the same way that a pimp lives of the sweat of a prostitute. When this form of riba permeates the economy then the predatory elite lives of the sweat of the prostitutes. Money in such an economy, will equate with power. Money will be king! And the value of human labor will continuously diminish until labor will find itself at the mercy of capital! That is the world today! Hunger creates the opportunity for capital to rule the worker more surely than it was given to the aristocracy by the legal authority of kings. All people are chained down to heavy toil by poverty more firmly than ever they were chained by slavery and serfdom

The principle of price increase in consideration of credit operates all over the modem capitalist economy.

Some may question our opposition to "money increasing because of time” as a result of their perception that the value of property and of goods also increase over time. In fact the increase of price of an article, through inflation, does not indicate an increase in value. Indeed in some instances a higher price may mask a lower value. Price increase, because of inflation, is an indication that the value of paper money is falling. The fall in the value of paper-money is itself a form of riba since the one who possesses his wealth in the form of paper-money will suddenly have lost pan of his wealth. 

Source: IMRAN N. HOSEIN

to be continued . . . . 

The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) by Imran Hosein

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

The Prophet and different forms of riba

THE PROHIBITION OF RIBA IN THE QUR’AN AND SUNNAH

THE PROPHET AND DIFFERENT FORMS OF RIBA

While the Qur’an had identified ‘lending on interest’ as riba, it was left to the Prophet (s) to elaborate and to explain the many different forms of riba. Perhaps the most important of such explanations given by the Prophet (s) is the hadith reported by Jabir:

The Messenger of Allah (s) cursed the one who takes (i.e. consumes) riba, the one who gives (i.e. pays) riba, the one who records the transaction and the two witnesses thereof He said: They are all equally guilty.

(Muslim)

A similar statement of the Prophet is reported by Abu Juhaifa:

The Prophet cursed the lady who practices tattooing and the one who gets herself tattooed and the one who consumes riba and the one who gives it. And he prohibited taking the price of a dog, and the money earned by prostitution, and cursed the makers of pictures.

(Bukhari)

Thus every time a Muslim writes out a check to pay the installment of a riba-loan (i.e. a loan on interest) which he has taken from a bank for purchasing a house or car etc., he should be aware that he is engaged in riba and that the Prophet Muhammad (s) has cursed him! If he dies without making tauba and without making every possible effort to extricate himself from riba, then he could end up in the fire of hell!

DIFFERENT FORMS OF RIBA

The Prophet (s) declared that there are seventy different kinds or forms of riba;

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger as saying: Riba has seventy parts, the least serious being equivalent to a man marrying his own mother (which is the polite language of the Prophet with which to describe the abominable act of a man having with his own mother).

(Sunan Ibn Majah)

But he did not identify all seventy. In fact he described only a few of the different forms of riba. The implication, therefore was that there are, or will be, forms of riba existing in the world which have not been specifically identified as such by the Prophet (s). Indeed Umar (r) lamented the fact that the Prophet (s) died without specifically identifying all the different types of riba:

Ibn Umar said: Umar delivered a sermon on the pulpit of Allah’s Apostle saying ..... I wish Allah's Messenger had not left us before he had given us definite verdicts concerning three matters, i.e. how much a grandfather may inherit (of his grandson), the inheritance of al-kalala (the deceased person among heirs there is no father or son) and the various types of riba.

(Bukhari)

It remains for the scholars of Islam to use inference and analogy to locate other forms of riba not identified by the Prophet (s) and which may not have appeared as yet in the world at the time of the Prophet (s), but have now made their appearance, particularly in this evil age which has witnessed the transcendental release of ya’jooj, ma’jooj and al-Masih al-Dajjal! Muhammad Asad has envisaged a creative role for Islamic scholarship in this respect. He observes:

... while the Qur’anic condemnation of the concept and practice of riba is unequivocal and final, every successive Muslim generation is faced with the challenge of giving new dimensions and a fresh economic meaning to this term which, for want of a better word, may be rendered as 'usury’. 

Here are some of the forms of riba described by the Prophet (s):

1 - Credit transactions (bai muajjal). There are some credit transactions which have been prohibited by the Prophet (s) because they involve riba:

Usama bin Zaid reported the Prophet as saying: Credit involves riba. In another version he said: There is no riba when payment is made on the spot.

(Bukhari, Muslim)

Such a credit transaction would, for example, be one in which an animal is traded for another animal:

Samura b. Jundub said that the Prophet forbade selling of animals for animals when payment was to be made at a later date.

(Tirmidhi, Abu Daud, Nasai, Ibn Majah ami Darimi)

The reason for the prohibition appears to be the element of uncertainty in which death, for example, might occur to an animal, or it may fail ill etc. Such an occurrence can lead to disagreement and conflict between the parties to the credit agreement. Credit is also discouraged because when payment is to be made at a later date one may not be able to make the payment and that could have serious consequences. In Latin America the white plantation owners deliberately encouraged the Indian peasants to take credit and when they could not pay on time they had to give their labor instead. And so the latifundia or Latin American plantation economy was built on a scarcely disguised form of slavery. One of the most powerful statements we have ever heard during our five years in New York came from Tracy Riggs, in African-American inmate at the Morristown Prison in the State of New Jersey. Credit, he said to me, is the first step back to slavery.

The system of riba creates its own self-generating and self-sustaining apparatus in the form of credit-worthiness of individuals. A person has good or bad credit. The system forces every individual to struggle to establish and sustain a good credit record. It does so by punishing those who have bad credit! If someone has never borrowed money on interest and as a consequence, does not possess a credit record, he is looked upon with grave suspicion! 

Source: IMRAN N. HOSEIN

to be continued . . . . 

The Prohibition of Riba (Interest) by Imran Hosein

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