Khutba on Riba

الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي آذن بالحرب على الربا، وحفِظها في المدينة المنورة، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع
الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.

            We mentioned last week in passing in our khutba on zakat that riba was the disease of the age, the pestilence that strips families and countries of their wealth and sucks economies dry. Like the cancer, it appears to the untrained eye to be growth, but it is malignant growth, growth that is a disruption of the finely balanced ecosystem of the body of the world, and brings misery, death and devastation in its wake, not energy, life and prosperity. the environment is getting more and more polluted, hundreds of species of animal, many vital to preserving the balance of the planet’s ecosystem, are becoming extinct every moment, and the divide between rich and poor is becoming larger by the day. People are being left homeless while whole neighbourhoods of houses lie empty, people are being left starving while mountains of uneaten food are thrown away – all of these symptoms of a society built upon riba.
            I have heard people criticise us for revisiting this topic so often and speaking about it so frequently, saying that there are many facets to the deen so why focus so heavily on one. But the truth is that is the issue of our age. This is the issue that Allah chose to address in the final ayats he revealed to his Messenger, some nine days before his death. Those ayas were, according to many of the mufassirin, ayas 275-277 of surat al-Baqara, beginning, ‘al-ladhina yakuluna-r-riba. And this is also one of the issues the Messenger of Allah warned his umma against in his khutba al-wada’ during his farewell hajj, saying,
ألا إن كل رباً موضوع

            “Every form of riba is forbidden.” Allah and His Messenger considered it to be an issue of such importance to the present and future welfare of the Muslims, that they made it one of their final reminders and instructions to mankind. Turn a blind eye to it and let it continue unchecked, ignore it and you become an accessory to it set yourself up in direct opposition to Allah, for He has declared war on it and its practitioners. Allah says,

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ الرِّبَا إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ

            the translation of which is, “You who have iman! have taqwa of Allah and forgo any remaining riba if you are muminun. If you do not, know that it means war from Allah and His Messenger." In his commentary on this ayat, al-Qurtubi transmits the following account narrated by Ibn Bukayr,
            “A man came to see Malik ibn Anas and said to him, ‘O Abu Abdallah, I saw a drunkard, seeking to take hold of the moon, so I said, ‘May my wife be divorced if there is anything that a person may consume more evil than wine!’ Imam Malik, ‘Go home and leave me to look into the matter.’ Then the man came back the next day and Imam Malik again told him to go home so that he could look further into the matter. Then he came on the third day and Imam Malik said, ‘Your wife is divorced! I have examined the Book of Allah and the Sunna of His Prophet and have not seen anything in it more evil than riba, for Allah has declared war on it.”
            Allah has declared war on it because it is a crime that does not just impact the individual, nor even a group of individuals, but the entire society. It is like a ball of fire sent into the midst of a barn filled with straw and other combustible materials – it does not come into contact with anything except that it consumes it, leaving nothing of value. It brings complete devastation and ruin in its wake, not just for those involved in the transaction but for everyone in the society. For any society is a delicate ecosystem that is perfectly balanced, with the number of goods being exactly equivalent to the means of exchange needed to buy them. But, as soon as usury starts to be practiced, it upsets that balance, by adding excess value to the transaction. So suddenly the money supply is greater than the goods, and so the goods are forced to reduce in value in order to compensate. So everybody loses out by the goods in their hand being worth less and the money in their hand having less spending power. This is the effect of a single transaction, so imagine the effect on people of a society where every transaction involves usury.
            And that is just the sort of society that exists today, a society of unprecedented imbalance at every level, social, economic and ecological. A society in which nearly everyone lives an existence under a perpetual cloud of debt. Nearly everyone has been enslaved to a system where they have to spend every moment of their lives working hard to stand still, to simply be able to get by, to survive on a day-today basis, to restore that shattered balance. But because the money supply itself has become usurious, every effort they make to preserve that balance simply makes it more unbalanced and more unjust, leading to the inevitability of a complete collapse, a total meltdown of which we have seen signs already, destroying the lives of the great majority, This is inevitable, for it is the necessary consequence of usury. Allah says,
يمحق الله الربا ويربى الصدقات

            the translation of which is, “Allah obliterates riba but makes sadaqa grow in value”  Riba and zina never appear in a land except that that land becomes a ruin. And yet, despite this, the majority of Muslims still do not speak out, do not look for a way out, but choose to remain on a fast-sinking boat. They are not channelling people to the lifeboats but instead try to paper over the leaks and cracks with their creation of Islamic banks and Islamic stock exchanges, a totally futile gesture. For riba, and any institution that engages in riba, can never be rendered halal, no matter what words you use to describe it. The struggle against riba is the struggle of the present age, and every Muslim must be engaged in it. We ask Allah to make us part of the struggle, and give us the means and tools to succeed in restoring the equilibrium of the world over which our Lord has placed as vicegerents. For it is that equilibrium and that justice upon which we shall be judged, as the Prophet said,

إن العدل ميزان الله في الأرض. فمن أخذه قاده إلى الجنة ومن تركه ساقه إلى النار

            “Justice is the scales with which Allah measures [the inhabitants of] the earth. It leads those who hold to it to the Garden and drives those who abandon it to the Fire.”

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.   أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته.

            In order to combat this riba of which we have been speaking and reverse the devastating effects that it has had upon our society, we must be able to recognise it and understand it in all its forms and aspects. The only way to prescribe a cure is to accurately diagnose the disease. Much of what is wrong with the Muslim umma today is due to an inability of many of the modern ‘reformist’ scholars to do precisely that. And it was that same inability that led people in the time of the Prophet to think that there was no difference between it and trade. Allah says,
قَالُواْ إِنَّمَا الْبَيْعُ مِثْلُ الرِّبَا وَأَحَلَّ اللّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا

            the translation of which is, “they say, ‘Trade is the same as riba.’ But Allah has permitted trade and He has forbidden riba.”
            Let us start by defining the word itself: riba linguistically means increase or excess, but in Sharia-terms refers to ‘Any excess between the value of the goods given and their counter-value (i.e. the value of the goods received).’ This excess refers to any benefit accrued from an unjustified increase in the weight or measure or any benefit arising from an unjustified delay. The first of these is referred to by the jurists as riba al-fadl (excess of disparity) and the second as riba an-nasaa or an-nasii’a (excess of deferment).
            Riba al-fadl is easy to understand – it is the interest that is charged on a loan such as when a person lends you 100 and requires you to pay him 120 in return.
            As for riba an-nasi’a, it is much more commonly misunderstood. It is introducing an unjustified delay into the transaction, and applies specifically to gold, silver and foodstuffs. When exchanging one of these substances for another, the exchange must be made hand to hand. The Prophet said,

لا بأس يبيع الذهب بالفضة والفضةُ أكثرهما يداً بيد وأما نَسِيئة فلا ولا بأس ببيع البرِّ بالشعير والشعيرُ أكثرهما يداً بيد وأما نسِيئة فل

            “There is no harm is selling gold for silver when there is more silver than gold [in the transaction] providing it is done hand to hand, but deferring payment is not allowed. There is no harm also in selling wheat for barley when there is more barley than wheat provided it is done hand to hand, but deferring payment is not allowed.”
            In other words, the goods and the money must be handed over at one and the same time. So you cannot take any of these substances in exchange for a promise of payment, a debt. Although this might seem clear and uncomplicated, its implications are profound in the present age, especially given the form of money that we use – paper or electronic money that is itself a debt and is brought into being by debt. If you look close at any financial transaction involving gold, silver or fungible foodstuffs, you will see that they all involve riba an-nasii’a, for in every case a debt is being exchanged for a real physical substance. Thus the very nature of our currency means that riba accompanies almost every transaction and gives the truth to the Prophet’s words,

يأتي على الناس زمانٌ لا يبقى أحد إلا أكل الربا ومن لم يأكل الربا أصابه غُبَاره

            “There will come a time when no person will remain alive except that he consumes riba. And even if he does not consume it, he will covered by its dust.” We cannot stand idly by and let this state of affairs continue. WE cannot continue to accept the status quo. We cannot use as an excuse the weakness of the umma or the proximity of the final hour. None of that is a reason to ignore the teachings of Allah and His Prophet, for those teachings apply until the end of creation not till the fall of the khilafa. Riba does not suddenly become acceptable because it is the dominant system of the world today. And even if we take the position that it is a darura, that does not mean we stop looking for or working towards a way out. There are some things no Muslim should compromise on or accept and riba is one of them. The Prophet said,
لَدرهُم رباً أشدُّ عند الله تعالى من ست وثلاثين زَنْيَة في الخطيئة

            “A dirham of riba is a worse wrong action in the sight of Allah than 36 acts of fornication.” And he said,
الربا تسعةٌ وتسعون بابا أدناها كإتيان الرجل بأُمِّه

            “Riba has 99 gates, the least of which is akin to a man sleeping with his own mother.”
 So we ask Allah to give us a way out. We ask Him to purify our transactions of riba and give us the means to bring balance and equilibrium back to the world in which He has established us. And we ask that He give victory to His deen.

إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً. اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ  أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن خديجة وعائشة وسائر أزواج النبي، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ. 
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ (3) وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى.
رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ.
إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.