يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ بِالْبَاطِلِ إِلَّا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً عَنْ تَرَاضٍ مِنْكُمْ (29:4).

O believers! Do not devour one another’s wealth by evil means except through trading by mutual consent. (4:29)

    This verse prohibits a person from devouring other people’s wealth through means which are against justice, honesty, fairness and against the good conventions of a society. It is this directive of the Qur’an which forms the basis of all prohibitions in Islam that pertain to economic matters. Obtaining money through illegal gratification, theft, extortion, lying, co-operation with evil, embezzlement, misappropriation, consuming unclaimed items without publicizing them, all come under it. These evils require no further discussion since they are universally acknowledged sins in every society and in every religion. Transactions and activities which become a source of deceit or damage for the parties involved are also corollaries of this directive. Their various forms which the Prophet forbade (sws) in his own times are:

    Selling something before its possession is taken.¹⁶
    Selling grain bought in mounds before bringing it to the place where it is sold.¹⁷
    Selling and purchasing done by a city dweller for a villager.18
    Increasing one’s bid in an auction just for deception.¹⁹
    Bargaining when someone else is bargaining.²⁰
    ‘محاقله’ (Muhaqalah): Selling crop when it is still in the spikes.²¹
    ‘مزابنه’ (Muzabanah): Selling the dates which are on a date-tree in exchange for plucked dates.²²
    ‘معاومه’ (Mu‘awamah): Selling the fruits of trees for many years.²³
    ‘ثنيا’ (Thaniya): Leaving an unspecified exception in a bargain. One of its forms, for example was that the seller would say: ‘I sell my grain to you, but I will take something out of it’.²⁴
    ‘ملامسه’ (Mulamasah): A deal in which a person, without thinking, just touches the other person’s cloth and a deal is made in this manner.²⁵
    ‘منابذه’ (Munabadhah): A deal in which people throw something towards one another and, in this way, a bargain is made.²⁶
    ‘بيع الى حبل الحبله ’ (Bay‘ ila Habl al-Hablah): A deal in which people sell camels by saying: ‘Whatever offspring this camel gives birth to and when that offspring gets pregnant, whatever it gives birth to, then the [last] offspring is bought by me’.²⁷
    ‘بيع الحصاة’ (Bay‘u’l-Hisah): In pre-Islamic times, such a bargain existed generally in two forms: (a) people would make a deal about a piece of land and then the buyer would throw a pebble; the distance covered by the pebble would be regarded as the length of the sold land, and (b) people would throw a pebble and say that whatever thing it touched would be considered as sold.²⁸
    Selling fruits of a tree before their quality and characteristics become evident.²⁹
    Selling spikes before they turn white and become safe from calamities.³⁰
    Selling a commodity which is defective, except when the buyer is informed of its defects.³¹
    Holding the milk of camels and goats in their udders before selling it.³²
    Intercepting tradesmen and buying their merchandise before they reach the markets.³³
    Making a deal by giving money in advance such that a person obtains the item after it is ready except if this transaction is carried out for a fixed measure, a specified weight and a definite period of time.³⁴
    ‘مخابره’ (Mukhabarah): Adopting methods of crop-sharing in which the profit of the landlord is fixed before hand.³⁵.
    Adopting methods of crop-sharing in which the production of a particular area of land is regarded as the right of the landlord.³⁶
    Selling jointly owned properties without giving the shareholders a chance to buy them except if the ownership divisions are determined and the paths are separated.³⁷
    Selling property which lies on a pathway that is common with a neighbor’s house without giving him the chance to purchase it.³⁸
    Storing commodities of general use to create a shortage and thereby increase their prices in the market. The Prophet (sws) utterly forbade this and is reported to have said:

مَنْ دَخَلَ فِي شَيْءٍ مِنْ أَسْعَارِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ لِيُغْلِيَهُ عَلَيْهِمْ فَإِنَّ حَقًّا عَلَى اللَّهِ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى أَنْ يُقْعِدَهُ بِعُظْمٍ مِنْ النَّارِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ. (مسندأحمد: رقم 19802).

Anyone who interfered in the markets of Muslims merely to increase the rates [of the commodities], then the Almighty has the right to make a big fire his abode on the Day of Judgment. (Musnad Ahmad: No. 19802)

    These are the various forms of sale and purchase and crop-sharing which the Prophet (sws) prohibited in his times. Since all the above mentioned directives are based on the underlying bases of deceit and damage, the directive of prohibition will stand dissolved in circumstances in which these bases no longer exist, just as if, as a result of evolution and development of civilizations, these bases emerge in some new economic activity, then those charged with authority can prohibit that activity.
    Gambling and interest also belong to this category of devouring wealth through evil means. This writer will now venture to elaborate the view of the Qur’an in detail on these two hideous crimes.

Gambling
    Gambling, everyone knows, is merely chancing one’s luck. The Qur’an has called it ‘رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ’ (from among the filthy works of Satan). Obviously, this expression has been employed because gambling gives rise to moral misconduct in a person which gradually encompasses his personality. The reason is that if an economic activity is based on rights and services and rational decisions, it develops a high moral character, and if an economic activity is based on mere chance, fortune and fortuity, it produces an attitude which is based on avoidance of hard work and service. This gives rise to such mean qualities as cowardice and faint-heartedness which subsequently eliminate the innate qualities of honor, integrity, sincerity and self-respect. As a result, a person becomes unmindful to the remembrance of the Almighty and to prayer, and instead of having love and affection for his fellow beings, he has nothing but enmity and hatred for them. The Qur’an says:

يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ  إِنَّمَا  يُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ  أَنْ يُوقِعَ بَيْنَكُمْ  الْعَدَاوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ فِي الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَعَنْ الصَّلَاةِ فَهَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُنتَهُونَ (5 :90-1).

O you who believe: this liquor and gambling and idols and these divining arrows are abominations devised by Satan. Avoid them that you may succeed. Satan seeks to stir up enmity and hatred among you by means of liquor and gambling and to keep you from the remembrance of Allah and from the prayer. Will you not then abstain from them? (5:90-1)

    An important point to note is that gambling in pre-Islamic times was a means through which the rich showed their generosity and helped the poor and needy. In winters, when cold winds blew in and caused conditions akin to drought, the courageous would gather at various places, drink liquor and in their state of inebriation would slaughter any camels they could get hold of. They would pay the owner of the camels whatever price he demanded. They would then gamble on the meat of the slaughtered camels. Whatever parts of meat a person won in this gambling, he would generously distribute them among the poor who would gather around them on such occasions. In pre-Islamic Arabia, this was a matter of great honor and people who took part in this activity were considered very philanthropic and generous. The poets would narrate the accounts of their benevolence in their odes. On the other hand, people who stayed away from this activity would be called ‘Barm’ (stingy).
    It was this very utility of liquor and gambling which prompted people to inquire when they were regarded as prohibited items. The Qur’an asserted in its reply that in spite of possessing this benefit, they were instrumental in producing moral misconduct in an individual, which in no case can be allowed:

يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنْ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِنْ نَفْعِهِمَا (219:2).

They ask you about liquor and gambling. Tell them: there is great sin in them and some profits as well for people. But their sin is greater than their profit. (2:219)

Interest
    Interest is also a similar sin that morally pollutes a person as well as the institutions involved in its transactions. Those who lend on interest totally safeguard their capital by not risking it in any way and extort profit from the poor borrower. In Arabic, it is called Riba and the Qur’an has used this very word for it. Everyone who understands Arabic, knows that it implies a fixed increase which a lender demands from the borrower just because he has given him the permission to use his money for a certain period. The Qur’an has vehemently prohibited it in the following words:

الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَا لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُهُ الشَّيْطَانُ مِنْ الْمَسِّ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا الْبَيْعُ مِثْلُ الرِّبَا وَأَحَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا فَمَنْ جَاءَهُ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ فَانتَهَى فَلَهُ مَا سَلَفَ وَأَمْرُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَأُوْلَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ (275:2).

Those who devour interest will rise up on the Day of Judgment like the man whom Satan has driven to madness by his touch because they claim that trading is like interest and how strange it is that Allah has permitted trading and forbidden interest. Consequently, he who received this warning from the Almighty and desisted [in obedience thereto], then whatever he has taken in the past belongs to him and his fate is in the hands of Allah. And those who repeat [the offence] will be companions of the Fire and will abide therein forever. (2:275)

    It is further stated:

يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنْ الرِّبَا إِنْ كُنتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِنْ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَإِنْ تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ (2: 279-80).

O you who believe! Fear Allah and give up what remains of your demand for interest. If you do it not, beware of war from Allah and His Prophet. And if you repent, then you can have your principal amount. Neither will you be allowed to deal unjustly nor will you be dealt with unjustly. (2:278-9)

    The reason why devourers of interest will be raised up on the Day of Judgment as madmen owes itself to their expression of amazement on the fact that the Almighty has not prohibited trading while He has prohibited interest, whereas there is no difference between the two. They maintain that if a trader can demand profit on his capital, why can’t a lender on interest demand profit on his capital. According to the Qur’an, only a madman can give such an insane statement and such insanity demands that its reward be no different than insanity itself. So in accordance with the law of similarity between the deed and its reward, such people would be raised up as madmen on the Day of Judgment.
    Imam Amin Ahsan Islahi, while commenting on this expression of amazement of interest-devourers, remarks:

It is evident from the objection raised by the interest devourers that the breed of people who regard interest and trading as analogous to one another is not very rare after all. It was found even in olden times. The Qur’an has not even commented on this foolish objection since its baseless nature is self evident and only sheds light on the insanity of those who raise it. A trader invests his capital in a trade which is in demand from the people. He makes his merchandise available to people through hard work and by taking a lot of risk. These people, in the first place, were not in a position to produce this merchandise themselves, and if they were able to then it was only at a heavy cost. Moreover, a trader spews his capital in the open market for competition and his profit is determined by the low and high trends of the market itself. He may end up losing all his money due to these trends and he may be able to make some profit. So his hands are tied in this enterprise as he cannot earn a single penny of profit in selling his merchandise until  his invested capital enters the market after being exposed to the risks and fluctuations of the market forces and after once again providing service to society.

So how can the enterprise of a trader, who takes risk and provides service to the society when he invests his capital, be compared to that of an interest devourer whose enterprise is mean, callous, cowardly and hostile to humanity in its very nature. He is a person who is not willing to take the slightest risk with his capital but is very eager to extort profit.³⁹

    It is because of this fiendish nature of interest that the Prophet (sws) is reported to have said:

الرِّبَا سَبْعُونَ حُوبًا أَيْسَرُهَا أَنْ يَنْكِحَ الرَّجُلُ أُمَّهُ (ابنِ ماجه: رقم 2304).

So great a sin is interest that if it is divided into seventy parts, then the lightest of these parts is equal in its extent to fornication with one’s mother. (Ibn Majah: No. 2304)

    Here it should be kept in mind that the Qur’an has prohibited only the charging of interest; it has not prohibited the giving of interest. People who have to pay interest on a loan they have acquired in fact suffer injustice at the hands of the interest-devourers.
    What also needs to be appreciated is that without any genuine reason a person who acts as an agent of an interest-devourer or writes down its transaction or bears witness to it, must be regarded as an equal criminal on the principle of ‘تعاون على الاثم’ (co-operation with evil). It is narrated by Jabir (rta):

لَعَنَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ آكِلَ الرِّبَا وَمُؤْكِلَهُ وَكَاتِبَهُ وَشَاهِدَيْهِ وَقَالَ هُمْ سَوَاءٌ (مسلم: رقم 1598).

The Prophet has severely condemned the devourer of interest and the one who pays interest and those who write an agreement [for such lending] and the two who are the witnesses to this document and has said: ‘All of them are equal’. (Muslim: No. 1598)

    The Prophet (sws) has emphatically directed people to refrain from the slightest possible trace of interest while borrowing in barter as well:

الذَّهَبُ بِالذَّهَبِ وَزْنًا بِوَزْنٍ مِثْلًا بِمِثْلٍ وَالْفِضَّةُ بِالْفِضَّةِ وَزْنًا بِوَزْنٍ مِثْلًا بِمِثْلٍ فَمَنْ زَادَ أَوْ اسْتَزَادَ فَهُوَ رِبًا (مسلم: رقم 1588).

If you lend gold, then take back the same type and the same amount of gold; and if you lend silver, then take back the same type and the same amount of silver; for he who gave more or desired more, then this is precisely what is interest. (Muslim: No. 1588)

الْوَرَقُ بِالذَّهَبِ رِبًا إِلَّا هَاءَ وَهَاءَ وَالْبُرُّ بِالْبُرِّ رِبًا إِلَّا هَاءَ وَهَاءَ وَالشَّعِيرُ بِالشَّعِيرِ رِبًا إِلَّا هَاءَ وَهَاءَ وَالتَّمْرُ بِالتَّمْرِ رِبًا إِلَّا هَاءَ وَهَاءَ (مسلم: رقم 1586).

If you lend gold in exchange for silver, then there is a possibility of interest in this.⁴⁰ Similarly, for wheat in exchange for another type of wheat41, barley in exchange for another type of barley, date for another type of date. Indeed if the exchange is done on the spot, then there is no harm. (Muslim: No. 1586)

    This is the correct meaning of the above quoted Ahadith. If all the Ahadith on this topic had remained intact, the scholars of our Ummah would not have faltered in interpreting them. However, owing to the misinterpretation of the narrators in some chains of narration, the words ‘هَاءَ وَهَاءَ’ (on the spot), or similar words in the second Hadith quoted above, were incorporated in the first one; similarly, the word ‘الذَّهَبُ بِالذَّهَب’ (gold in exchange for gold) of the Hadith quoted first were put in place of the words ‘الْوَرَقُ بِالذَّهَبِ’ (if you lend silver in exchange for gold) of the second. It is because of this intermingling of words that our jurists have erroneously derived the concept of Riba al-Fadl from such Ahadith, whereas the correct concept in this regard is what the following words of the Prophet (sws) say:

إِنَّمَا الرِّبَا فِي النَّسِيئَةِ (مسلم: رقم 1596).

Riba is only in transactions of loan. (Muslim: No. 1596)

    It should be borne in mind that interest pertains only to those transactions in which a commodity is borrowed for the purpose of ‘using it up’ whereby the borrower would be burdened to recreate it in order to return it to the lender. If any additional amount is demanded over and above it, then this no doubt is injustice as affirmed both by reason and revelation. On the contrary, transactions in which the commodities and items in question are ‘used’ rather than being ‘used up’ relate to lease, and the money demanded by the owner on providing this service, which is termed as rent, can in no way be objected to.
    Similarly, it should also remain clear that whether a loan is acquired for personal, business or welfare purposes, the real meaning of Riba is not ascertained on these bases. It is an indisputable fact that in the Arabic language the word Riba, irrespective of the aim of the lender and the condition of the borrower, just implies a pre-determined increase acquired on a loan. Consequently, the Qur’an itself has clarified this fact: during its own period of revelation, lending on interest for business purposes was quite rampant and these loans were given with the intention of prospering through the wealth of others. The Qur’an says:

وَمَا آتَيْتُمْ مِنْ رِبًا لِيَرْبُوَا فِي أَمْوَالِ النَّاسِ فَلَا يَرْبُوا عِنْدَ اللَّهِ وَمَا آتَيْتُمْ مِنْ زَكَاةٍ تُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَ اللَّهِ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الْمُضْعِفُونَ (39:30).

That which you give as loan on interest that it may increase on [other] people’s wealth, it has no increase with Allah; but that which you give as Zakah seeking Allah’s countenance, it is these people who shall get manifold [in the Hereafter] of what they gave. (30:39)

    The expression ‘…that it may increase on [other] people’s wealth’ is not only inappropriate for application to interest-based loans given to the poor for their personal use, but is also clearly indicative of the fact that interest based loans were generally given for business purposes and in this way they ‘increased on other people’s wealth’ according to the Qur’an.
    It is to this fact that the following verse also points:

وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَى مَيْسَرَةٍ وَأَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ (280:2).

If the borrower is in difficulty grant him respite until it is easy for him to repay and if you write off [the debt], it is better for you, if you only knew. (2:280)

    Imam Amin Ahsan Islahi comments on this verse in the following words:

 

Today some naive people claim that the type of interest which prevailed in Arabia before the advent of Islam was usury. The poor and the destitute had no option but to borrow money from a few rich money-lenders to fulfill their personal needs. These money-lenders exploited the poor and would lend them money at high interest rates. It is only this type of interest which the Qur’an has termed as Riba and forbidden. As far as commercial interest is concerned, it neither existed at that time nor did the Qur’an prohibit it.

The verse categorically refutes this ‘allegation’. When the Qur’an says that if the borrower is in difficulty, he should be given respite until he is able to pay back his debt, it clearly points out that in those times even the rich used to acquire loans. In fact, if the style and stress of the verse are correctly understood, it becomes clear that it was mostly the rich who used to procure loans. Indeed, there was a strong chance that the borrower would find himself in difficulty even to pay the original amount. The money-lender, therefore, is directed to give him more time and if he forgoes the original amount it would be better for him. The words of this verse strongly indicate this meaning. The actual words of the verse are: ‘وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَى مَيْسَرَةٍ’. The particle of condition ‘ِانْ’ (if) is not used for general circumstances, but, in fact, is used for rare and unusual circumstances. For general circumstances the particle ‘اِذَا’ (if) is used. In the light of this, it is clear that the borrower in those times was generally affluent (‘ذُوْمَيْسَرَة’), but in some cases was poor or had become poor after acquiring the loan and in that case, the Qur’an has directed the money-lenders to give them a time rebate.⁴²

    He has concluded this discussion by saying:

    Obviously, the affluent would have turned to the money-lenders not to fulfill their personal needs, but, of course, their business needs. So what is the difference between these loans and the commercial loans of today.⁴³