Riba: A Path to Ruin

Riba: A Path to Ruin

All praise and thanks are due to Allah. We praise and thank Him. We seek His assistance and we seek His forgiveness. We take refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and the sinfulness of our actions. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide. And whomever Allah misguides, none can guide. I bear witness that there is none worth worshipping except Allah alone with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is His servant and messenger.

Allah reminds us in Surah Al-Imran:

O you who believe! Have taqwa of Allah with the taqwa that is due to Him. And don't die except in a state of submission, except in a state of Islam. And He also says in Surah An-Nisa:

O people! Have taqwa of your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created from it its mate, and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And have taqwa of Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Surely Allah is ever over you an observer.

SubhanAllah, with just five weeks left until Ramadan:

Allahumma ameen. May Allah allow us to reach Sha'ban in about a week's time and Ramadan, to gain from the many countless barakat in the month of the Qur'an.

I was remembering how the Prophet ﷺ would sometimes, when giving a khutbah, he would just read the Qur'an. That would literally be his khutbah. Surah Qaf, for example, a very comprehensive surah, and he would just read it. But I was thinking, how can we gain from that and reflect upon the Qur'an and its meanings in a way that's appropriate? And so I've chosen some of the translation of some of the meanings of the Qur'an — because you can't really translate the Qur'an, subhanAllah — that I've chosen to recite at the beginning of this khutbah that's relevant to the topic.

The Qur'anic Warning Against Riba

In Surah Al-Baqarah, at the end of it, after Allah for several pages in the Qur'an is talking about sadaqah, about charity, about the benefits of it — and we're going to hear many of these in Ramadan, I'm sure, many of these we're going to be reminded of them — well, in the very last ayah in this section, He transitions to another topic: a dangerous topic that can cause ruin and destruction.

And so Allah says, at the end of Surah Al-Baqarah:

Those who give out of their own possession, their own wealth, by night and by day, in public and in private, will have reward with their Lord. No fear for them, nor will they grieve. But those who take usury, those who take riba, those who consume interest, will rise on the Day of Resurrection like someone tormented by Satan's touch, beaten by Shaytan into insanity. This is the state. That is because they say trade and usury are the same — "Oh, business and interest and riba, it's all the same." But Allah has allowed trade, or business — bay' — and He has forbidden riba, usury, interest. Whoever, on receiving Allah's warning, stops taking usury, stops taking this riba, stops taking this interest, may keep his past gains. Allah will be his judge. His affairs rest with Allah. But whoever goes back to riba will be an inhabitant of the Fire, there to remain.

What a scary, scary warning about riba that we have in the Qur'an and countless ahadith.

Allah continues — and again, the month of Ramadan should be the month of reflection, and we should prepare ourselves from now, even reading half a page and reading the translation and just stopping to reflect on the meanings of this book that Allah sent as guidance until the Day of Rising:

Allah ruins, Allah destroys riba, usury, interest — but He blesses charitable deeds, these sadaqat, with multiple increase. And He doesn't love an ungrateful sinner or a sinning disbeliever. SubhanAllah — disbelief in these ayat is compared with riba, and the Fire is the consequence; that's how serious the warning is in the Qur'an. It's scary when you read it.

And notice the contrast: right after those pages about sadaqat, the contrast between sadaqat — giving and charity — and riba, usury, interest. Allah says:

Those who believe, do good deeds, keep up the prayer, give zakah, will have their reward with their Lord. There will be no fear for them nor will they grieve.

And then in the last section of this passage, Allah says:

O you who believe, beware of Allah, have taqwa of Allah, fear Allah — give up any outstanding dues, anything remaining from riba, from interest, from usury, if you're true believers. If you're true believers, be warned of a war from Allah and His Messenger.

The only other situation in which such a warning appears is in the hadith al-Qudsi — which was mentioned here by Shaykh Yasir a few weeks ago from Riyad al-Salihin, and it is also in the 40 Hadith of Imam al-Nawawi — that if you show hostility and animosity, if you try to go to war against one of the awliya, then Allah says, "Be warned: I am going to war with you." What a scary situation. And this is mentioned in the Qur'an — that if you are taking usury, then prepare yourself to go to war with the Creator. SubhanAllah. How scary.

And then He says: if you repent, you can keep your capital. You won't suffer loss, you won't harm yourself, you won't cause others to be harmed. And then He says, concerning debts:

If a debtor — someone who owes you money — is in difficulty, then delay things for them, make it easy for them. But still, if you were to just write it off as charity, that would be better for you, if only you knew.

And many of the mufassirun say that this next ayah is the very last ayah revealed to Rasulullah ﷺ:

Beware of a day, fear a day, have taqwa of a day when you will be returned to Allah. Every soul will be paid in full for what it has earned — everything you got — and no one will be wronged.

Why Riba Is Ever Relevant

SubhanAllah, riba is ever relevant — but especially now, with a new presidential administration taking over, and talks of the Fed, talks of interest rates, talk of the economy, talks of stocks going up and down, investments, cryptocurrency. SubhanAllah, it's on everyone's mind. This is a warning: we have rules of engagement when it comes to finances. And Allah, very severely, prohibits us and warns us against engaging in riba, engaging in usury, engaging in interest. And many of the people at the so-called top — in power — have gained their wealth, if you see it, through riba, through interest.

The second point is Ramadan that's coming up. We mention sadaqa so often, but remember: takhliya and tahliya — get rid of the bad first. If you have interest right now that's affecting you, negatively affecting your life — and it has disastrous consequences in the dunya and in the akhira — this is the time to get rid of it.

Who is this relevant to? Student loans, when trying to pursue an education with a degree. Starting a business. Buying a house or a car. "I want to buy this house for $500,000. Well, at this conventional interest-bearing mortgage at 7%, you're going to end up spending $1.2 million over 30 years — $500,000 to pay back, but $700,000 because we lent you the money." Just like if you were to say to me, "Hey, I need $10 right now." "Fine, I'll give you $10, but tomorrow I want $15 from you because I'm giving it to you right now." That's haram, that's riba, that's not allowed.

Investments — when we're investing our money, we want to grow it, and we have to beware of riba transactions. Taking a job in an industry where I'm writing riba, or giving riba, or receiving riba, is so dangerous. And credit cards — being lax about it. "It's okay, it's a low interest rate. I'll just keep spending beyond my means and I'll deal with it later."

The Call to Action: Three Things

1. Education

Educate yourselves and your families about riba and proper financial transactions. A khutbah can't cover everything — it's just impossible. There are so many institutes popping up around DFW, I can't even keep track of them, subhanAllah. So many mashayikh, so many ulema are teaching classes and they cover this. Take a class online. Educate yourself.

Simplify the issue for children. The Prophet ﷺ said: wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 22, Hadith 81)

"If you give me five dates, my dear son, my dear daughter, because I'm in need — I want to break my fast — can I give you, do I have to pay you back — are you going to force me to pay you back ten tomorrow, because you gave them to me now? No, that's haram, that's riba, that's interest, that's not allowed."

I was a younger man, subhanAllah, and I was abroad at a dinner gathering — a da'wat 'azimah. And I remember, I knew about these ayat very clearly. And there was someone, an elder, who started a business transaction, talking about a restaurant and starting a restaurant with interest. And I simply said, "You know, I just want to tell you, it's clear in the Qur'an that this is haram and it's dangerous and I just want to warn you." I don't think I was rude — I don't remember being rude. I was ridiculed, I was laughed at, I was insulted, I was called names. I remember the discomfort I felt, but I don't regret it. Why? Because it's education. At least maybe something inside later that night would fall on the person and say, "You know what, let me reconsider this, let me take another path."

2. Make Changes in Your Life

I'm not saying quit your job right now and make all of these changes at once — but just educate yourself. Understand what transactions are dipping into riba and see what changes you can make. For example: "I have an interest-bearing loan, and I'm about to move in the next month — okay, let me switch to some sort of Islamic finance, another opportunity where it's going to be Sharia-compliant." And some people in our community, because of their scrupulousness and their wara', are not even doing these, saying, "I want to wait for another solution." MashaAllah, that's praiseworthy. But there are ulema who have allowed that as well.

If you're in a job, start searching, send your resumes out, network, see how you can change the situation. You have a few payments left on your car — six months — and there's interest. Try to live frugally, tighten up with the family, and try to pay it off. You have credit card payments from several credit cards — start with the smallest one, get rid of it, and get yourself out of this situation as soon as possible.

And know, my brothers and sisters, that you're going to face difficulty when doing this. You'll be tested by Allah when doing this. I recently bought a car and I wanted it to be 0% interest. And I remember calling all these dealerships trying to find a way to solve this issue. And I was in the finance department and the finance person was a Muslim, laughing at me, telling me, "Why are you doing this? It's such a waste" — and giving me all these scenarios. And I said, "Look, I can sleep well at night knowing that I have a 0% interest loan and that I didn't engage in riba. It doesn't matter if I'm paying more, it doesn't matter if I lose more, it doesn't matter if I'm paying this or that — Alhamdulillah, I'm happy." And you do it with a smile on your face.

3. Make a Positive Change in Society

Beyond yourself, beyond education, beyond making personal changes — how can we make changes in our society, in our community? SubhanAllah, in our community here at VRIC, we have the founder and president of an organization, and an executive director of an organization called Continuous Charity — and I didn't tell them I was going to say this and we didn't coordinate or anything. And what are they focused on? We want to get students out of riba. We want to have interest-free loans — qard hasan. How beautiful, subhanAllah.

That's one way. Scholarships, offering qard hasan. Someone needs to fix their car. They say, "I need $500, $1,000 — can you loan it to me?" "Yes, but let's write it down" — because the next ayah in Al-Baqarah is the longest ayah, about writing — "we'll write it down, we'll do this properly, but 0% interest, and how many months do you need?" Do that so we can help each other. And if you're borrowing money, don't delay repayment. Don't take advantage of other people's kindness.

I'll give one more solution. I'm part of a credit union — one of the banks that I deal with. And I have a checking account. And at one point, it was the only one I had. And interest started to come into it. So I called them up and I told them, "You gave me" — it was a few pennies or a dollar — "I don't want it." They said, "What do you mean? It's free money — take it." I said, "My religion." And I kept calling them and calling them and calling them. Guess what? Every single month now, I see it says: Interest: $0.00. And I have a big smile — Alhamdulillah. They made changes in their whole system because, I think, I kept complaining and saying, "This is wrong. This is a religious thing. I want this accommodation." So don't doubt the changes you can make.

And remember, even with our halal financial mortgages — you speak to anyone in the field and they tell you: this is not the end solution. We need to do better as a community. This is a temporary stopgap. We need to rethink the economy and the currency.

The Seven Destructive Sins

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2766; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 262)

"Avoid the seven great destructive sins." The people asked, "O Messenger of Allah, what are they?" And he mentioned seven — and from amongst them is consuming riba.

Summary

So to recap:

One: Educate yourself and your family about riba.

Two: Make changes in your life. See how you can optimize and be better and get away from this.

Three: Make a positive change in society.

Financial Consciousness and Palestine

You've seen the so-called ceasefire that started on Sunday, while our Muslim brothers and sisters continue to be killed, continue to be murdered, continue to be abducted, continue to be thrown out of their homes and exiled from different locations — and now in the West Bank and occupied Palestine, most recently in Jenin, subhanAllah.

So when we're talking about financial transactions, also keep in mind: boycott, divestment, sanctions. Boycott the industries that support the occupation that is oppressing our brothers and sisters in Palestine or elsewhere. Something came up about Uyghur brothers and sisters and enslaved labor — if you find out that clothing is made through that or by a certain company, stay away from it. And divestment — in terms of our investment accounts at work, we can bring this up and say: "I don't want to support these military corporations that are funding bombs that are falling on innocent people."