|
Some people argue that only usury (interest at such an
exorbitant rate that it exploits the debtor) has been declared unlawful by
Islam. Therefore, interest at a mutually acceptable rate can be charged, which
is usually the case in loans given for commercial purposes. It is in loans
given for the purposes of personal needs that the possibility of exploitation
exists. The following verse of Qur’ān is presented to support this point of
view:
O believers! Do not devour interest, doubling and
redoubling.[3:130]
This verse, however, does not support the argument. It
merely indicates the gravity of the failing of those who, in a time when infāq
(spending in the way of Allah) in relation to jihād (holy war) was affording
great opportunities to the Muslims to earn Allah’s forgiveness, were busy
earning interest. This style is used in a language to reprimand a person for
the heinousness of his attitude of not only doing something wrong but also
showing total disregard for values in doing so. For example, when one says (in
English) ‘For God’s sake, [at least] don’t flirt with another woman in front
of your wife’, it does not mean that one is suggesting that one should flirt
with another woman while one’s wife is not around. To take an example from the
Qur’ān, consider the following verse:
Force not your slave-girls into prostitution that you may
seek pleasures of the life of the world, if they would preserve their
chastity. [24:33]
Obviously, this verse does not mean that if the slave-girls
are willing, prostitution may be allowed. It merely points out the intensity
of the sin of those who force such slave-girls to prostitution as wish to
avoid the despicable crime.
The Qur’ān has not defined Ribā. It didn’t have to. The
meaning of the word was already clear to those who understood the Qur’ānic
Arabic. Just as the Qur’ān did not have to define zina (a word used for
adultery and fornication), it did not have to define Ribā. It merely
prohibited both. In the Arabic of the first addresses of the Qur’ān, Ribā
referred to any benefit which the lender makes a condition for the loan he
gives. Moreover, it is also clear from the following verse of the Qur’ān that
those people gave Ribā for commercial purposes as well, for it is this form of
interest which increases ‘in other’s wealth’, not the interest on loans given
for personal needs of the debtor:
And that interest based loan which you give that it may
increase in the wealth of others does not increase with Allah....(30:39)
Therefore, if anyone advocates that the word is also used
in a sense different from its denotion, the onus of proof is on him.
Furthermore, the following verses of the Qur’ān leave no
room for the argument that only such Ribā was declared unlawful as put the
debtor in difficult circumstances:
O you who believe! Observe your duty to Allah, and give up
what remains [due to you] from Ribā [interest], if you are [in truth]
believers. [2:278]
And if the debtor is in straitened circumstances, then [let
there be] postponement to the time of ease... [2:280]
These two verses have the same context and therefore can be
taken together to show that interest has not been prohibited merely in cases
where the debtor is in difficult circumstances. The words ‘And if the debtor
is in straitened circumstances’ indicate an exceptional case, and point out
that the prohibition in the previous verse (2:278) is of interest at a normal
mutually acceptable rate.
According to Islāhi,
the particle ‘idhā’ (when) would have been used instead of ‘in kāna’ (if), if
the words were not indicative of an exceptional case.
To take an example from the English language, let us assume
that a police officer says to his subordinates ‘free all these culprits
tomorrow. And if a culprit has helped the police, free him today’. As the
context of the two sentences is the same, the second sentence makes it obvious
that not all the culprits have helped the police. Similarly, when the Qur’ān
says: Give up what remains [due to you] from Ribā... and if the debtor is in
difficult circumstances [let there be] postponement to the time of ease....’,
it is clear from the second portion that the case of the debtor being in
difficult circumstances has been mentioned as an exceptional one. In other
words, the prohibition of Ribā in the first portion pertains to the general
cases of loans given to such people as are not in straitened circumstances.
Therefore, it is evident from the Qur’ān that interest of all kinds has been
prohibited, including that which does not necessarily put the debtor in
distressing circumstances, as is the case with interest on commercial loans.
|