With the Hadith
Usury
We greet you all, dear listeners, everywhere, in a new episode of your program "With the Hadith," and we begin with the best greeting, peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
Narrated Jabir: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, cursed the one who consumes usury, the one who pays it, the one who writes it down, and its two witnesses, and said: They are the same. Narrated by Muslim
It is stated in the explanation of al-Nawawi: This is an explicit statement of the prohibition of writing a sale between usurers and witnessing them.
And in it: the prohibition of aiding falsehood. And God knows best.
Dear listeners,
The Sharia has absolutely forbidden usury, no matter how much its percentage is, whether it is large or small. Usury money is absolutely forbidden, and no one has the right to own it, and it must be returned to its owners if they are known. God Almighty said: (Those who consume interest cannot stand [on the Day of Resurrection] except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity. That is because they say, "Trade is [just] like interest." But God has permitted trade and has forbidden interest. So whoever has received an admonition from his Lord and desists may have what is past, and his affair rests with God. But whoever returns to [dealing in interest or similar transactions] - those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally.) And He said: (O you who have believed, fear God and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers. And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from God and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.).
The actual description of usury is that this benefit that the usurer takes is an exploitation of people's efforts, and it is a reward without any effort. Because the money on which usury is taken is guaranteed to benefit and is not exposed to loss, and this violates the rule of "burden for benefit", so the exploitation of money through partnership, speculation, and sharecropping with its conditions is permissible because the group benefits from it and it does not exploit the efforts of others, rather it is a means that enables them to benefit from their own efforts, and it is exposed to loss as it is exposed to profit, and this is contrary to usury. However, the prohibition of usury was only by text, and this text was not justified by a reason, and the Sunnah has clarified the usurious funds.
However, it may come to mind that the owner of the money is keeping his money and may not be willing to lend the needy to meet his needs, and this need is pressing on him, so there must be a way to meet this need. However, needs today have become numerous and varied, and usury has become the basis of trade, agriculture, and industry, and therefore banks were found to deal with usury, and there is no other way, just as there is no way without usurers to meet needs.
The answer to that is that we are talking about the society in which Islam is applied in its entirety, including the economic aspect, not about the society in its current state, because this society in its current state lives on the capitalist system, and therefore it became prominent that the bank is one of the necessities of life. The owner of the money who sees himself free in his property, and who sees that he has the freedom to exploit it with deception, monopoly, gambling, usury, and other things without supervision from the state or restriction by law, there is no doubt that such a person sees that usury and the bank are a necessity of life.
Therefore, the current economic system must be changed entirely and replaced - in a comprehensive revolutionary way - with the Islamic economic system. If this system is removed and the Islamic system is applied, it will become clear to people that the society that applies Islam does not show the need for usury, because the one who needs to borrow either needs it for the sake of living or needs it for the sake of agriculture. As for the first need, Islam has met it by guaranteeing a living for every individual of the people. As for the second need, Islam has met it by lending to the needy without usury. Ibn Hibban and Ibn Majah narrated from Ibn Masoud that the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "There is no Muslim who lends a Muslim a loan twice but it is like giving it as charity once." Lending to the needy is recommended, and borrowing is also not disliked, because the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, used to borrow. As long as borrowing exists and it has become clear to people that usury is a harm that is one of the most severe harms to economic life, rather, it has become clear that necessity dictates excluding usury and creating dense barriers between it and society through legislation and guidance according to the Islamic system.
If usury is absent, there will be no need for the banks that exist now. The treasury alone remains lending money without interest, after verifying the possibility of benefiting from the money. Omar bin Al-Khattab gave money from the treasury to the farmers in Iraq to exploit their land. The Sharia ruling is that the farmers should be given from the treasury what enables them to exploit their lands until the yields come out. And from Imam Abu Yusuf: "And the incapable is given his sufficiency from the treasury as a loan to work in it," meaning the land. Just as the treasury lends to farmers for agriculture, it lends to those who are like them from those who carry out individual works that they need to suffice themselves. Omar only gave to the farmers because they were in need to suffice themselves in living, so they were given for this sufficiency, and therefore the rich farmers are not given anything from the treasury to increase their production. And those who are like them are measured against the farmers in what they need to suffice themselves in living. The Messenger gave a man a rope and an ax to gather firewood in order to eat.
However, leaving usury does not depend on the existence of an Islamic society, the existence of an Islamic state, or the existence of someone who lends money, but usury is forbidden and must be abandoned, whether an Islamic state exists or not, whether an Islamic society exists or not, and whether someone who lends money exists or not.
Dear listeners, until we meet you with another prophetic hadith, we leave you in God's care, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
