Paying Interest for a Loan (Followup: Hadith on Cursing Those Involved)
Question:
Dear Sir!
What about the hadith in which prophet cursed all those people who involved in the interest system?
Regards.
Answer:
Allow me to answer your question first by referring to a general principle and then by looking at the Hadith that you mentioned:
The general principle:
In principle we need to appreciate that the guidance of the Qur'an is the main guidance. The guidance of the Prophet (pbuh) is based on the guidance of the Qur'an. It is the Qur'an that makes something Haram. The Prophet's (pbuh) statements or implications about Halal and Haram are in fact explanation of or emphasize on the Halal and Haram of the Qur'an.
When it comes to riba, the Qur'an only condemns the receiver of the riba and considers the ones who pays the riba as the victims who need to be supported and saved from this unjust situation. This should be enough to rule out any views that considers paying riba per se to be Haram.
The Hadith:
One of the versions of the Hadith is as follows:
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، لَعَنَ آكِلَ الرِّبَا، وَمُوكِلَهُ، وَشَاهِدِيهِ، وَكَاتِبَهُ
"Ibn Mas'ud says that the Prophet (pbuh) cursed the consumer of riba and the 'one who feeds it' and the one who witnesses it and the one who documents it." Ibn Maja (2277)
I intentionally translated Mukilahu as 'one who feeds it' because this is the literal meaning of the word. Now this word can have two interpretations:
I. The one who facilitates the riba transaction by finding those who need a loan (i.e. the agent).
This meaning is very much in line with the rest of the Hadith and basically the whole Hadith will mean that the one who consumes riba and all those who facilitate this (the agent, the witness and the scribe) are cursed by the Prophet (pbuh). This is very much in line with the Qur'an and obviously it has nothing to do with the one who pays the riba.
II. The one who pays the riba.
To my understanding this meaning is quite unlikely, I think the above meaning is more inline with the rest of the Hadith. However even in this meaning we have to understand the Hadith on the basis of the guidance of the Qur'an. In this meaning there is only one way to explain this Hadith if we do not want to offer an explanation that goes against the Qur'an (as discussed above).
The way to explain this Hadith with this particular interpretation for the word Mukilahu is what I wrote in answering a similar question:
"if it was the situation where the state was following a step by step plan to remove riba from the society and had come to the stage where it forbade the citizens to take any remaining riba-based loans, then in that situation, a citizen who would insist in taking riba based loans could be considered as criminal. This is because in the above case he would be working against the state’s regulations and against the campaign to remove riba."
The above was obviously the situation at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) and it is obviously (and unfortunately) not the situation at our time.
So to summarize:
1. It is enough to note that the Qur'an has not condemned the payer of riba. Any Hadith needs to be understood on this basis.
2. In harmony with the rest of the Hadith, it seems preferable to interpret the word Mukilahu as the agent who finds customers for the riba based loans.
3. If we interpret the word to mean the payer of riba then it follows that the Hadith refers to the situation where the state is systematically removing riba from the society and has already provided plenty of other options for the potential victims of riba.
The above was my answer to your question. I would like to let you know that in my revised understanding not every kind of interest is that riba that the Qur'an forbids. Riba is in fact usury. Therefore in principle bank interest cannot be cosnidered as riba in my view. You can see references for this view here.
I hope this is clear.
---------------
Related Topics:
- Interest on Mortgage and Business Loan
- Different Interpretations of the Qur'an
- Paying Interest for a Loan
- Getting Interest from Bank for Charity
---------------
May 2013
Dear Sir!
What about the hadith in which prophet cursed all those people who involved in the interest system?
Regards.
Answer:
Allow me to answer your question first by referring to a general principle and then by looking at the Hadith that you mentioned:
The general principle:
In principle we need to appreciate that the guidance of the Qur'an is the main guidance. The guidance of the Prophet (pbuh) is based on the guidance of the Qur'an. It is the Qur'an that makes something Haram. The Prophet's (pbuh) statements or implications about Halal and Haram are in fact explanation of or emphasize on the Halal and Haram of the Qur'an.
When it comes to riba, the Qur'an only condemns the receiver of the riba and considers the ones who pays the riba as the victims who need to be supported and saved from this unjust situation. This should be enough to rule out any views that considers paying riba per se to be Haram.
The Hadith:
One of the versions of the Hadith is as follows:
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، لَعَنَ آكِلَ الرِّبَا، وَمُوكِلَهُ، وَشَاهِدِيهِ، وَكَاتِبَهُ
"Ibn Mas'ud says that the Prophet (pbuh) cursed the consumer of riba and the 'one who feeds it' and the one who witnesses it and the one who documents it." Ibn Maja (2277)
I intentionally translated Mukilahu as 'one who feeds it' because this is the literal meaning of the word. Now this word can have two interpretations:
I. The one who facilitates the riba transaction by finding those who need a loan (i.e. the agent).
This meaning is very much in line with the rest of the Hadith and basically the whole Hadith will mean that the one who consumes riba and all those who facilitate this (the agent, the witness and the scribe) are cursed by the Prophet (pbuh). This is very much in line with the Qur'an and obviously it has nothing to do with the one who pays the riba.
II. The one who pays the riba.
To my understanding this meaning is quite unlikely, I think the above meaning is more inline with the rest of the Hadith. However even in this meaning we have to understand the Hadith on the basis of the guidance of the Qur'an. In this meaning there is only one way to explain this Hadith if we do not want to offer an explanation that goes against the Qur'an (as discussed above).
The way to explain this Hadith with this particular interpretation for the word Mukilahu is what I wrote in answering a similar question:
"if it was the situation where the state was following a step by step plan to remove riba from the society and had come to the stage where it forbade the citizens to take any remaining riba-based loans, then in that situation, a citizen who would insist in taking riba based loans could be considered as criminal. This is because in the above case he would be working against the state’s regulations and against the campaign to remove riba."
The above was obviously the situation at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) and it is obviously (and unfortunately) not the situation at our time.
So to summarize:
1. It is enough to note that the Qur'an has not condemned the payer of riba. Any Hadith needs to be understood on this basis.
2. In harmony with the rest of the Hadith, it seems preferable to interpret the word Mukilahu as the agent who finds customers for the riba based loans.
3. If we interpret the word to mean the payer of riba then it follows that the Hadith refers to the situation where the state is systematically removing riba from the society and has already provided plenty of other options for the potential victims of riba.
The above was my answer to your question. I would like to let you know that in my revised understanding not every kind of interest is that riba that the Qur'an forbids. Riba is in fact usury. Therefore in principle bank interest cannot be cosnidered as riba in my view. You can see references for this view here.
I hope this is clear.
---------------
Related Topics:
- Interest on Mortgage and Business Loan
- Different Interpretations of the Qur'an
- Paying Interest for a Loan
- Getting Interest from Bank for Charity
---------------
May 2013