Khutba on Harmful Growth
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.
I was recently reading a very perceptive article in the Guardian Newspaper on the subject of economic growth and how it has become the god of the modern age, but it got me thinking as to how words can be spun to mean their very opposite, for growth implies expansion and increase, whereas that is not what modern-day growth provides. Yes, salaries increase every year, yes the national GDP of most countries is larger this year than last, but if prices and taxes increase at an even faster rate, then how can that be considered growth. Who is more wealthy, the one who earns 10 in a land where a loaf of bread is 1 and a house 100, or the one who earns 20 in a land where a loaf of bread is 10 and a house 1000?
Modern-day prosperity is an illusion, and the claims that we have never had it better are lies. And you do not have to look far back to see the truth of that, for, as a society, we are not even better off than our parents and grandparents, for most of them at least owned the homes within which they lived and did not have to resort to food banks to feed themselves. Most of them did not have to forego one or two of their daily meals so that their children could wear clothes or go to school. Most households did not require more than one breadwinner to support and maintain them – now two is often no longer sufficient. Women have fought for the right to work – now most no longer have a choice not to work. Is this truly growth? Are our economies truly growing?
No, the growth is empty, without substance, meaningless numbers. It is like cancer, you have more cells, but the well-being of the body is negatively impacted. The growth is malignant, not beneficial, it upsets the body’s delicate balance. It leaches strength and energy from the rest of the body and leaves it weakened and enervated. It does not build, it destroys.
And that is because this growth is created by riba, usury. The whole economic system is build on it, from the way our money is created to the way our business ventures are funded to the way our homes are paid for. We cannot escape no matter how much we try – even the attempts at Islamic banking and financing merely serve to repackage it, or establish one degree of separation between it and the parties involved. And riba, despite bringing increase to the transaction and apparently creating wealth, inevitably brings destruction and ruin in its wake. Allah says,
يمحق الله الربا ويربى الصدقات
the translation of which is, “Allah obliterates riba but makes sadaqa grow in value.” This obliteration is not brought about by some external Act of God, but is inherent to it. It is an inbuilt mechanism within riba. The more riba in a society, the more that society is ruined and destroyed, and the poorer and poorer it becomes. The Prophet said,
ما من قوم يظهر فيهم الربا إلا أخذوا بالسنة
“Whenever riba appears among a people, they are overcome by poverty.” It does not just wreak havoc on those directly involved, but on everybody about them, even the babies in their cots. It is like a ball of fire sent into the midst of a barn filled with straw and other combustible materials – everything goes up in flames, not just what is touched directly by the fireball. Everything is consumed and nothing of value is left behind. That is the effect of riba.
Allah created this world in balance, things are created in pairs and opposites keep each other in check. And then He placed mankind on this world as His khalifa to maintain that balance. Whenever something happens to upset that balance, we are commanded to set it right, and there are few things that upset the balance of this world more than riba. In a healthy world, every transaction is in balance with the goods bought offset perfectly by the means of exchange used to buy them. The money supply never exceeds the quantity of goods and the quantity of goods never exceeds the money supply. There is always an exact equivalence. 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 in a society where every transaction involves usury. The vast majority will get exponentially poorer. And no matter, how hard they work, they will never be able to lift themselves out of that poverty, because the money in their pocket is being devalued every second of every day. Riba is daylight robbery on the grandest scale. It is indiscriminate and unrelenting and that is why it is considered one of the very worst crimes in the deen, one upon which our Lord has seen fit to declare war. 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.” A man came to Imam Malik asking for his judgement on whether he was still married to his wife or not. He said, “I saw a drunkard trying to grab hold of the moon, and so I said, ‘May my wife be divorced if there is anything that a person may consume worse than wine!’” Imam Malik said, “Let me look into the matter. Come back later.” When the man returned for the second time two days later, 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 worse than riba, for Allah has declared war on it.”
We are the umma of Muhammad and the party of Allah. Whatever Allah commands and whatever His Messenger commands, we do. Allah and His Messenger declaring war on riba means that we must also declare war on it. We can continue to turn a blind eye, we cannot continue to be blasé about it and accept as a necessary ingredient of living in the modern age, to the extent that we sometimes no longer even notice it in the transactions we propose or the deals we offer. It may be darura, it may be impossible to do anything as things currently stand without it, but we can never accept it, we can never think of it as something trifling and trivial. We must always speak out against, look for and work towards methods of doing things that minimise it and, if possible, avoid it altogether. Of reviving true muamalat. We cannot fall into the trap of trying to work within the system and make it less haram, for a pig is a pig no matter how you dress it and no matter what you call it. Simply adding the word Islamic to an institution and replacing its terminology with terms taken straight from the books of fiqh without any real change in methodology does not make it halal, and in fact sets the Muslims further back because it deceives them into thinking they are doing something good.
The struggle against riba is the struggle of the present age, and every Muslim must be engaged in it. And it is not a futile or impossible undertaking as some might suppose, for we have Allah and the Messenger fighting alongside us. 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. They often either limit it, so that people start thinking it is 100% synonymous with interest, or they misdiagnose it completely. Even in the time of the Prophet, there were people who did not see it and did not understand it. They saw it as being no different to 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 fiqh 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 closely 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 أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، 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، 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.