O You Who Believe

10)

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest (riba), if you should be believers."

[Qur'an 2:278]

The word 'Riba' means excess, addition or increase which is correctly interpreted in Shariah terminology: It is any excess compensation without due consideration.

Riba (Interest) is charging financial interest or a premium in excess of the principal amount of the loan.

In Qur'an, Allah says:

"They say 'trade is like riba' but Allah has permitted trade and prohibited riba... Beware of the war on the part of Allah and His Apostle."

[Qur'an 2:275]

After Allah mentioned the righteous believers who give charity, pay Zakah and spend on their relatives and families at various times and conditions, He then mentioned those who deal in usury and illegally acquire people's money, using various evil methods and wicked ways. Allah describes the condition of these people when they are resurrected from their graves and brought back to life on the Day of Resurrection:

"Those who eat Riba will not stand (on the Day of Resurrection) except like the standing of a person beaten by Shaytan leading him to insanity.)"

This Ayah means, on the Day of Resurrection, these people will get up from their graves just as the person afflicted by insanity or possesed by a demon would.

Ibn 'Abbas said, "On the Day of Resurrection, those who consume Riba will be resurrected while insane and suffering from seizures.''

Al-Bukhari recorded that Samurah bin Jundub said in the long Hadith about the dream that the Prophet had,

(We reached a river - the narrator said, "I thought he said that the river was as red as blood''- and found that a man was swimming in the river, and on its bank there was another man standing with a large collection of stones next to him. The man in the river would swim, then come to the man who had collected the stones and open his mouth, and the other man would throw a stone in his mouth.)

The explanation of this dream was that the person in the river was one who consumed Riba.

Allah's statement,

(That is because they say: "Trading is only like Riba,'' whereas Allah has permitted trading and forbidden Riba) indicates that the disbelievers claimed that Riba was allowed due to the fact that they rejected Allah's commandments, not that they equated Riba with regular trade. The disbelievers did not recognize that Allah allowed trade in the Qur'an, for if they did, they would have said, "Riba is trade.'' Rather, they said,

(Trading is only like Riba) meaning, they are similar, so why did Allah allow this, but did not allow that, they asked in defiance of Allah's commandments.

Allah's statement,

(Whereas Allah has permitted trading and forbidden Riba) might be a continuation of the answer to the disbelievers' claim, who uttered it, although they knew that Allah decided that ruling on trade is different from that of Riba. Indeed, Allah is the Most Knowledgeable, Most Wise, Whose decision is never resisted. Allah is never asked about what He does, while they will be asked. He is knowledgeable of the true reality of all things and the benefits they carry. He knows what benefits His servants, so He allows it for them, and what harms them, so He forbids them from it. He is more merciful with them than the mother with her own infant.