40 Hadiths on Social Justice
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Hadith #23: Why is Riba Haram?
Living within your means is a big part of our religion. Today, because of the ability to open many credit lines and also get into contracts (that eventually put many in debt), people increase their greed and want of more. Today, the average American hovers around 5K in credit card debt.
Allah (swt) mentions in the Qur’an, “So that it will not become a perpetual distribution [solely] among the rich from among you.” [al-Ḥashr (59): 7]
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ outlawed profiting [in the worldly sense] from loans by saying, “Profit is contingent upon liability (the possibility of loss).
In this episode of 40 Hadiths on Social Justice, Sh. Omar Suleiman provides a thorough look at the harms of usury or riba, to society and why it's so strongly prohibited in Islam.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. La'ala al-Dhalimeen wa al-'aqiba tul al-Muttaqeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka la'abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala anihi wa sahbihi wa salam faseeman kathira. So, we're moving on now in a topic that's very much so connected to last week. What was last week's topic? Greed. Ash-shuh. Okay, so last week we talked about greed. And we mentioned greed sort of as the, you know, if you're starting to peel the layers of social injustice. Most of what we see of social injustice, in some way or the other, is connected to greed. It draws from the fountain of greed. And so, we talked about greed that had a very spiritual element to it. Now we come back to the outwardly, okay? And the outwardly of greed is greatly manifested in ar-riba, in this concept of usury, in this practice of usury and interest. And I'm going to start off with the hadith. And to be very honest with you, there are numerous hadiths and there are numerous ayat. But for the sake of keeping ourselves on track and maintaining a hadith to start off every discussion, the hadith that we'll start off with is narrated by Sulaiman ibn Amr radiallahu ta'ala anhu. He said that, I heard the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say, in hajjatul wada', so this was the farewell pilgrimage of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. These are his last words, his last address to the ummah. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, ala inna kulla riban min riban jahiliyati mawdu'annakum ru'usu amwalikum. He said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that, verily all of the usury, all claims to usury, everything that had to do with interest and usury, is forbidden for you now. It's all banished now, it's all been abolished. And he said that you still have lakum ru'usu amwalikum,
which means you still have your capital gains, you still have your capital sums, but the riba part, the interest, has been abolished. So any interest that was due on a loan has now been abolished. Anything that has to do with riba has now been abolished, usury has now been abolished. And then he says, la tazlimuna wa la tuzlamun. Do not wrong and do not be wronged. And this hadith continues obviously with some of the other messages of the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in that farewell pilgrimage and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asking, Allahumma hal ballaqt, have I conveyed the message? And he asked that three times to the people and then he says, Allahumma hal ballaqt, Allahumma fashhad, O Allah, I have conveyed the message as you commanded me to do so. O Allah, bear witness that I have conveyed that message that you commanded me to convey. So this farewell address of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he's giving many of the ethical guidelines that are necessary to function as a community. The very first ethical guideline he gave was the abolishment of racism in this farewell pilgrimage, that there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab or a non-Arab over an Arab or a white man over a black man or black over white. All of them are equal in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he's giving these ethical guidelines. This is the one that has to deal with finances. The abolishment of usury, the complete abolishment of riba. Now let's break this down. This topic is a topic that has great relevance to our lives for many reasons. Number one, it's very hard for people to understand why there is such a strict prohibition on usury when we live in a financial system that functions on usury. And in fact the global financial system pretty much functions on riba.
There's also this idea that Muslims are exclusive in their prohibition of riba. Because of the normalcy of riba in other societies, the normalcy of usury in other societies. So what's the big deal? The other thing is that for a lot of Muslims the prohibition on riba seems like a harm rather than a benefit. Right, so what, you know, I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't do this. So you mean I can't buy this, you mean I can't get into this contract. So the prohibition of riba is meant to free and liberate, but to many people it feels like it's restrictive. It feels like it's holding me back and not allowing me to function within my full potential as a business or within my full capacity as an individual in a society that functions on riba, functions on the system of usury. And then there's this question that comes usually like, why is Islam so strict about this? Like what's the big deal? And then why is it strict on the person who gives? I understand the strictness on the one who takes and the institutions, financial institutions and the banking system, but why the one who has to take a loan? Why is Islam so strict and harsh when it comes to riba? So these are some questions that usually come up and we're also very reactive, we're not proactive. We don't look at the prohibition of riba as a means of bringing about goodness in our society, in our wealthier financial system. Rather we look at the prohibition of riba as something that's holding us back. So how is it that this is meant to benefit society? First and foremost, what connection does this have to greed? What does it have to a shuh? On the individual level, the importance in Islam of living within your means. That's a big part of our religion, living within your means. A lot of people, because of the availability of credit lines and the ability to get into contracts that will hold you down for decades.
And you are projecting on the future that you're going to be able to pay your monthly note. Why? Because you're able to do it today, so you don't ever imagine yourself being in a situation where you default. Where you're not able to pay off your car note, you're not able to pay off your mortgage, whatever it may be. And then something happens to your health, something happens to your job, and you end up in a disastrous situation where you're unable to pay your note and you're being evicted, you're losing your car, or the debt just keeps on piling on you. The late fees or whatever it may be, and you're just getting swarmed by the phone calls and whatever it may be. So living within your means is an Islamic concept on an individual level. And the average American, by the way, hovers around $5,000 in credit card debt. So everyone usually, we're talking about the goals in Islam of not being in debt, that it's actually something to seek refuge in Allah from. We try not to be in a state of debt. So almost every American hovers in some state of credit card debt. On a societal level, the most powerful ayats in the Quran, it's actually not connected to riba per se, but it's connected to how we view money. And let me offer this qualifier. I'm not a Marxist. We're not talking about... Again, we have unique paradigms, unique paradigms in our tradition. So sometimes it might sound a little too socialist. Sometimes it might sound capitalist, though very rare. But try not to associate it with a secular ideology. These are our unique paradigms. Allah says in Surah Al-Hashr, He says, كَيْ لَا يَكُونَ دُولَةً بَيْنَ الْأَغْنِيَاءِ مِنكُمْ So that money, and I'll read the translation. It's the 7th ayah of Surah Al-Hashr, which is the 59th surah. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, so that it will not become a perpetual distribution solely amongst the rich from amongst you.
So that your money will not become perpetual distribution solely amongst the rich amongst you. That money is not meant to belong to a small group of elite individuals to the detriment of everybody else. And there is this idea of distribution, of making sure that money comes from the agniya, that money is distributed amongst the poor as well, is important. It's an inequity that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala highlights. So the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam outlawed profiting in the worldly sense from loans by saying that profit is contingent upon liability. He said Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Jazakallah khair. He said Sallallahu alaihi wasallam that profit is contingent upon liability, meaning the possibility of loss. The possibility of loss. There has to be something in it. So there's no concept in Islam of making money off of your money, solely off of your money, because that just leads to perpetual distribution amongst the rich. The rich get richer, the poor get more buried in their debts, so the poor get poorer, the rich get richer. And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says it's one of the maqasid, one of the goals of the way we treat money in Islam, that that does not happen. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala also mentions, it's really interesting, back to how we live within our individual means, it's really interesting that right after the verses of riba, right after the verses of yusri, Allah says la yukallifu allahu nafsan illa wasa'aha. Allah does not burden a soul beyond its scope. Allah does not burden a soul beyond its scope. That has many connotations. The first of them is obviously having the responsibility to your religious obligations, that Allah does not burden us with our religious obligations more than what we can bear, that Islam is reasonable, that our obligations are within our capacity.
When they are not, for some reason, then there's a relaxation of that obligation or the prohibition, whatever it may be. But if you think about that in a deeper sense as well, that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala does not put us in circumstances that we cannot bear, and we incur upon ourselves burdens by faulty expectations or faulty practices. So why does a person feel compelled to keep on jumping into riba-y transactions, into interest-bearing transactions and finding a convenient fatwa to do so? You are incurring hardship upon yourself. Now when it comes to riba, and I want to say this, I have lectures online that are a lot more detailed about what riba is and what riba is not, and the categorizations, and I'm not going to do that in this lecture, because I want to approach it from the social justice perspective. So just search my name and search riba, and there are other scholars that have lectures on riba as well, that go through the different categorizations and go through what are interest-bearing transactions and things of that sort. I want to focus on it in the spirit of what we have been talking about. When it comes to the sin of riba, the sin of riba, it is by far the most underestimated of the seven destructive sins, of the mubiqat. Zina is very obvious, adultery, and murder, and stealing. You think about these types of sins and you think, horrible. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentions that one dirham, a penny of interest, is more grievous in the sight of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, than adultery with a family member, than incest. So if someone sees that someone is engaging in riba, or someone is engaging, ah, no big deal. But the way we shun zina, or adultery, or murder, or alcohol, these other prohibitions, there is a problem here. And we have to ask ourselves, why are some sins normalized to us and others not?
And don't claim that it's islam. Why are some sins more disgusting to us and abhorrent to us than not? Why would riba be worse than zina? Why would riba be worse than adultery? And Imam Al-Baghawi, rahimahullah, said on a societal level, he said, when the economy collapses, when the poor become poorer and the rich become richer, this is amazing insight, by the way. He said, the rich become more prone to zina, and alcohol, and corruption, and lust, and the poor become more likely to dwell in their sorrow in those very same sins. Isn't that interesting? The rich indulge in more fahisha, the poor indulge in more fahisha. Fahisha are the shameless sins. The rich because of access, the poor because of sorrow and depression. So they're likely to find their escape in that brown paper bag, the cheap alcohol in the brown paper bag, right? Whereas the rich are likely to find their joy in an expensive bottle of vodka. But he said that the collapse or the inequity that riba causes forces people into those directions anyway. So, subhanallah, I thought that was a very powerful way to address this, that it pushes people in the direction of all of those sins. He also said because people don't take riba, or some of the scholars mentioned, they don't take it seriously. They don't take riba as seriously as we just mentioned, which is very obvious to us. And also, the scholars mentioned, because riba hurts and harms at a much greater scope than the other sins. So riba causes more societal harm than those other sins that are likely to really just shame a person's self. You're contributing to a system that continues to impoverish and continues to lead people to a very bad place. Allah's Qur'an also mentions, if you look towards, and it's a sequence, if you look at the end of Surah Al-Baqarah, second chapter of the Qur'an,
there's a verse of charity, a verse of riba, a verse of charity, a verse of riba, a verse of charity, a verse of riba. So Allah is drawing a contrast between people who spend in charity and people who deplete others through the practice of usury. It's interesting. So Allah mentions, الَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ سِرًّا وَأَعْلَانِيًّا Those who spend from their money in private and in public, day and night, لَهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ They have their reward with Allah. They're seeking a reward in this world. They have their reward with Allah. لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ They're not going to be afraid, they're not going to grieve in the hereafter. So Allah is praising these people. The next verse is the verse about riba. It's a verse about people that engage in usury. Why is that? Why is that? Societally, if people do what they're supposed to do with their charity, then those who would typically have to resort to paying interest, don't have to do so. If the system is functioning properly, where a person that cannot afford education has people that are spending on them anyway, where the system is built in a way to take care of those who would typically need to resort to an unfavorable contract, then you don't have to resort to riba. So when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is talking about it from a societal perspective, this is what happens. You also have on the individual level, when people embrace that, that when people have money, they view it as a burden. This is a test from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What do I need to do with this money? So they give from the money rather than the greedy person who we talked about last week who just keeps trying to grow their portfolio, the person who gets and who feels that sense of debt to Allah will spend day and night privately and publicly.
And so the burden is on the rich to give, not on the poor to squirm. And that's really what we see. The burden is on the rich to give. They're the ones that are afraid. They're the ones that are out there trying to look for the poor to give to. That society was created with the Prophet's message. It lasted through dynasties. That was a situation that did come about in certain Muslim societies. The rich feel the burden, not the poor. And that's something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala creates through this. And then in the last verses of Al-Baqarah, you have a few verses. I'll come back to this one towards the end. وَلَمَا يَأْكُلُونَ الْرِبَىٰ لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُهُ الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسْتِ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives this example of the person or says that the one who consumes riba, the one who consumes usury, will not stand on the Day of Judgment except like the standing of a person being beaten by his devil, leading him to insanity. Then the next verse mentions, or four verses later rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ that if you don't give this up, then be ready, prepare for a battle with Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. This is what Ibn Abbas said. He said on the Day of Judgment, the only one that would stand in this state, being beaten literally to a point of insanity every time he stands up, is this person. He said not even the disbeliever would be treated this way or anyone treated this way. This is a person who deals in riba. Standing up and being beaten into insanity. And then after he's been beaten into insanity, he's told, take your weapons and prepare for war with your Lord and with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Can you imagine that state being told? The war now starts between you and Allah and the Messenger ﷺ. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from being in that state.
So there's the individual, then there is again, يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ رِبَى وَيُرْبِسْ صَدَقَاتٍ Allah destroys riba and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala increases charity. A system can survive without riba. A system cannot survive with riba. The global economic collapses. Look at what the cause is because we're constantly building upon this bubble and then eventually the bubble pops. Right? Because it's imaginary money. It's not really there. So a system that is laced with riba is a system that's meant to fail over and over and over again. It's a system that will lead to bitterness and that will lead to poverty and that leads to great economic disparity and all types of things. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ رِبَى Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala destroys riba وَيُرْبِسْ صَدَقَاتٍ So then how do we view loans then? How does Islam view loans as a whole? What's the point of giving a loan then? Or how does the whole system of loans work if we don't believe in interest? Well first and foremost, loans in Islam do not come under business transactions. They come under charity. So the way Islam conceived of loans, how Islam viewed the concept of qard was not a means of making money, but a means of charity for the one that could not permanently release money. So if you can't give away your money, then at least lend it. The concept of qard. And there's a very beautiful saying from Abdullah ibn Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu where he said that there are three types of loans. He said, there is a loan which you lend by which you desire the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so you gain the pleasure of Allah. There's a loan that you qard hasana, right? You give a loan desiring the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so you gain the pleasure of Allah.
And he said, then there is a loan that you lend desiring the pleasure of your companion and you gain the pleasure of your companion. Yes, people will like you if you loan them money. Okay? People that don't like your personality will suddenly find you tolerable. And you'll be their best friend because they know that you'll always bail them out. So you give them... money for the pleasure of your companion and you find the pleasure of your companion. Then he said the third type of loan is a loan by which you take that which is impure by that which is pure and he said that is usury, that is riba. So the entire spirit of trying to benefit financially from the money that you give to someone else, the loan that you give is a foreign concept in Islam. In and of itself it's riba. And there's an incident that took place, Imam Hanifa rahimallah, where he lended someone money and the man hadn't paid him back for some time and he was on a journey. So he took a break and he was basking in the shade of that man's tree. The tree was coming over the fence. And so he was basking in the shade of that tree. Then he realized he loaned that man money and he feared that that was riba because that was extra upon the money that he loaned the man. That mean basking in the shade of his tree might be extra. It might be a benefit that I attained through that loan. So anything that I would benefit through that loan is not in the spirit of Islam. Now it's very difficult when you think about now because loans entirely function within the spectrum of benefit and financial. It is a business. The lending business is a business. So it's a different subject altogether. Now you might think to yourself, well, is Islam exclusive in this? Why is Islam so unique in this? Why does Islam see riba as so evil? Guess what? All the Abrahamic faiths at one time saw riba as a great evil. In Judaism, in Ezekiel 22-24, it says,
If thou lend money to any of my people, even to the poor with thee, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor, neither shalt ye lay upon him interest. And if thy brother be poor and his means fail with him, take no interest of him or increase, but fear your Lord that your brother may live with you. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor take from him any increase. That's in Leviticus. Another verse in Deuteronomy, thou shalt not lend upon interest to your brother interest of money, interest of anything that is lent upon interest, unto a foreigner, this is where the loophole is, unto a foreigner thou may lend upon interest, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that he puts in your hand. What does that show you? The prohibition in Deuteronomy basically says that this applies not to the Gentiles, but only within the community of the Israelites. That's how it was justified, the first loophole, that interest was looked at not as something that could be done amongst the community of Israelites, but it could only be dealt with the foreigner. Now what does that mean? That even within that conception, the spirit of brotherhood is supposed to be in your transactions, but of course in that situation it's amongst the community of Israelites. Some of the older scholars, the old scholars of the Old Testament, they reasoned with this and they said, well, look, this doesn't mean only that you can do riba with the Gentiles. This just means that especially not within, there's a stress of within. And some of them said, no, it's amongst the Israelites, there is no use of riba, it's a violation,
but at the same time, if you're going to deal with a foreigner or someone outside of the community, then you can deal with riba. Also in the Old Testament, I'm sorry, in the Talmud, it says that it is not only, tell me if this sounds familiar, it is not only the creditor who takes interest who is violating the prohibition, but also the debtor who agrees to pay interest, the guarantor who guarantees the debt that bears interest, the witnesses who attest to the creation of an interest bearing debt, and even the scribe who writes out the deed. What does that sound like? A hadith that we're about to come to, by the way. Okay, so yes, in Judaism it was prohibited, but it was prohibited amongst the community of Israelites. Christianity took a stricter approach to interest, and in the Catholic Church it was prohibited. Riba was prohibited until the year 1832. Why did the Catholics buckle? Why did the Church buckle and finally allow for the use of riba? It used to be one of the greatest abominations in Christendom, so it was a major sin for Christians as well. And this is a longer discussion, but during the Protestant Reformation, so you go back to the Protestant Reformation in the 1600s, John Calvin was the first to propose a reinterpretation of the verses of riba. When the Protestant Reformation opened that door, the Church felt pressure, so eventually the Church buckled too and removed the prohibition on riba. So it's not like the Muslims are alone in this. This is something that exists within Judaism to an extent, and it exists within Christianity as well. Now, at the same time, you read about the old philosophers, and I don't want to take too much time on this, but the idea of making money off of money was looked at as unethical. It was looked at as unjust.
So Martin Luther said, you cannot make money just with money. Aristotle said, the most hated sort and with the greatest reason is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And he said, in this term, interest, tokos, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore, of all modes of getting wealth, this is the most unnatural of them all. So even old philosophers, when we think about the philosophers, they looked at riba as a lowly transaction. You think about where we are now, where everything functions off of riba, and you think about where we've come from, both from the Abrahamic heritage, as well as secular heritage of philosophy, usury was looked down upon because of what it creates, which is essentially economic slavery. At the end of the day, it creates economic slavery. People get buried in debt and it becomes a tool for the elite to further impoverish the poor. One thing that I love about the Prophet's farewell speech, when he abolished riba, the first riba he abolished, and he said it, does anyone know of who? Al-Abbas, his uncle. So the only person he named was his uncle. His uncle was a rich man, Al-Abbas was a rich man. There's a story to that. The Prophet ﷺ told him in the Battle of Badr when he was a captive, he made dua that Allah ﷻ would bless his wealth if he was being honest about what he was ransoming himself with. And Allah ﷻ mentioned it in the Qur'an as well, so Al-Abbas became really rich after Badr. He was blessed in his transactions. So he had a lot of money and a lot of interest-bearing transactions. The Prophet ﷺ said in Hajjatul Wada'a, in the farewell hajj,
he said, the first riba, the first usury I am abolishing is the riba of my family, the riba of Al-Abbas. Subhanallah, like this is not the elite putting down the poor. I'm starting with myself, no exceptions for the family of Rasulullah ﷺ. The only person he named was Al-Abbas. He could have said, pay the riba that you already agreed to and then we'll abolish it. He said, from now, the only thing that remains is the capital gains, is what amount was given itself, no riba. It's all gone as of right now. And he started with his family, alayhis salatu was salam. Linguistically, the word riba means increase. The word zakah also means increase, but the word zakah means increase with purification. And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in a hadith from Ibn Mas'ud, it's an authentic hadith, he said there is no person who deals in riba, meaning to increase their wealth, except that he will end up with qilla, with a little bit of wealth. Meaning Allah ﷻ will actually deplete his wealth as a result of his increasing in that wealth. Now did the Prophet ﷺ understand that there would come a time where riba spreads? Of course, all major sins spread and all of these things take over. And he mentioned ﷺ that there would come a time that even a person who does not consume riba, some of its vapor or its dust will reach him, the ghubar, it will touch him somehow. Even if you try to stay away from it, somehow you're going to be engaged in it. If you have a bank account, you're engaged in it. Even if you don't want to, but you're engaged in it. You have a credit card, you're engaged in it to some capacity. You're always somehow going to be touched by that system. However, it becomes a point that we don't knowingly engage ourselves in riba in any way. So a few things to look at in this regard. And I know I'm running out of time, subhanAllah, so I'm actually skipping a lot of notes.
Again, if you go online and search my name with riba, you'll find some more detailed lectures on it. There's also a great book by Mufti Takhir Usmani. It's a very good primer on Islamic finance and he kind of goes through the categorizations of riba and what they are. So the Prophet ﷺ, he said that Allah curses the one who consumes riba, the one who gives it, the one who witnesses over it, and the one who writes down the transaction. وَهُمْ فِي الْوَزْنِ سَوَىٰ And they are all equal in the sin. Okay, sounds very familiar, right? It's in congruence with what we've already spoken about. It's in agreement with what we've already spoken about, right? So the one who consumes it, the one who gives it, the one who witnesses it, and the one who writes it down. All of them are sinful in that capacity and all of them are equal in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this takes away this idea because people downplay, more so than taking riba, people downplay paying riba. There are very few Muslims who would be shameful enough to actually take riba, right? But to pay it because you're forced in a situation where, you know, the shamelessness of taking it is one thing, but to pay it, well, I've got this, well, I've got this, well, I've got this. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying they are all equal in sin, even those that are affected by mutual consent. Why? Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala demands of us that we see beyond short-sighted needs. When we look at the long term, we don't just want to become products of our society and simply survive. We want to better our society so that it can collectively thrive. So it's got to get better as a whole.
So when people say, well, you know, if you look at the fatwas in the 1990s about buying a house on a conventional mortgage, it's a necessity to own a house. How much of a necessity is it? And they keep pushing, pushing, pushing scholars overseas to give you the fatwa. First the fatwa was that, look, if you've got like six, seven kids and no one's leasing to you at a decent price, yes, it's a necessity for you. Then it became, well, it's a necessity to own one house. All right? It's a necessity. What happens is that we do not make an effort then to create real Islamic alternatives if everyone just gives in to the fatwa. They'll say, I found an excuse, and they give in to it. As Muslims, we are tasked not just with finding a way out for ourselves, but with actually trying to create alternatives. And subhanallah, what are you finding now? The creation of more Islamic alternatives. And to tell us how Islamic they are is certainly debatable, and I'm not going to give you a fatwa as to which companies are Islamic and which are not. You do your research and you figure it out, inshallah. But the point is that, look, there has been significant development in the last decade. You know why that development is there? Because there are some people that still insisted, even with the presence of those fatwas, not to buy houses on conventional mortgages. So if it's not perfect, you know what? It's not perfect. But people insist. And it's good that that insistence exists, because where there is demand, there will be supply. It's simple economics. If Muslims demand it, people will cater to that eventually. So you even have HSBC and other banks trying to come up with halal alternatives. How halal? Not so much, not yet. Inshallah, people will get there. But the point is that as Muslims, it is upon us not to simply give in. A continuous charity, alright? MashaAllah, I mean, that's student loans.
Are some people certainly in a position where they're going to have to resort to it? He didn't pay me for that, by the way, alright? Free advertising on Facebook Live. But, no, you know, there are some people that might find themselves in a situation where a sheikh will give them a fatwa to their situation, because that's what they have to do. But some people are going to insist on not taking interest-bearing student loans, and not giving in. And we have to create solutions for them, collectively as a community. And let that successful alternative model grow in such a way that it becomes a realistic replacement for society as a whole. And that's when you have the global economic collapse. You know, in the last decade you've had all these articles being written in these different places, from the Vatican, you know, to economists that are talking about how an Islamic model makes more sense, how Islamic finance can actually better the way that we do business, and it can actually protect us from many of the economic collapses that we see today. There's something really interesting. The former president of Nigeria, he commented on the debt crisis of Nigeria. He said all that we had borrowed up to 1985 or 1986 was around $5 billion, and we've paid about $16 billion, yet we are still being told that we owe about $28 billion. That $28 billion came about because of the injustice of the foreign creditors in raising their interest rates. And he said, if you ask me what the worst thing in the world is, I will say it's compound interest. Compound interest is based on greed, selfishness, shuh. It's not in the spirit of brotherhood and empathy that Islam talks about loans. Interest creates money that's not actually there, sinks people and nations in adverse circumstances, and creates an economy that is always meant to fail,
but the richest can absorb that hit every single time it collapses. So that top 2-3% will always be able to absorb the hit, and everybody else has to pay the price. So it's a major contributor to inflation. It's a major contributor to the destruction of nations. It's a major contributor to trauma and depression in terms of the mounting debts that it causes on people. And it creates a monopoly in society. It rewards the wealthy and it continues to put the poor in worse situations. So this is something that we find in many ways. And I'm going to end with these two things. And subhanallah, I haven't even touched on gharab, excessive speculation, and the whole contract of insurance and how that leads to greater injustices. Two things. Number one, why does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describe this person, yathakhabbatuhu shaytan, every time he stands up, a devil beats him to insanity? Some of the scholars, they said, because he felt like he was so smart to corner people and to take advantage of their needs. So he will be resurrected stumbling like a madman who's not smart at all. But this person that used to sink people in riba and consume people in debt and riba, essentially corners people and puts people in a situation where they are in complete hysteria, they don't know what to do with themselves. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in his perfect justice puts them to resemble a situation like that as well. But then there's this hadith. And this is the hadith that I'll end with. And I was reflecting on this with Shikha Muhammad al-Shinnawi subhanallah. In a world where you don't see justice so much, sometimes perfect justice is beautiful, even when it's horrifying. When you read about it in the books of the Quran and the hadith of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam.
When the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam described what he saw, when he saw the punishment in the grave, and he describes a person who is swimming in blood, and every time he swims to the shore of that river, there's a man who has stones, and he throws a stone into his mouth, and he sinks him way back into the middle. And then that man swims back, and this keeps on happening, where stones are being hurled into his mouth, and he continues to remain in this river of blood. The scholars mention that the red here represents the gold that he drowned himself in. And every time he wants to climb out, he's driven back into it, just like he did with the people. Every time they thought they were climbing out of their debt, he sunk them back into it. So subhanallah, the same thing is now happening to him, where he kept sinking people in debt, so that punishment is actually perfect justice, that that person, just as the riba creditor tormented others with riba and sunk them into debt, they too now face a similar situation. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from taking part in riba in any capacity. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to not only purify ourselves of it, but to demonstrate it as the best approach for society as well, to purify our financial systems as well. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us even from its dust, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never allow us to be in a vulnerable situation where we have to succumb to it.
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