Victim of ribawi mortgage: Keeping our duty... 

It is difficult to avoid standard (riba-based) bank mortgages. Can’t the one getting into them be considered a ‘victim’ of the system, rather than a sinner? Don’t the warnings relate primarily to those charge others interest?

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah, Sidi,

The stern prohibitions against dealing in riba (usury) relate to all directly involved:

“The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) cursed the one who eats riba, and the one who pays it.” [Bukhari, Abu Dawud, Ahmad]

Both giving and taking riba are major sins by scholarly consensus. [Imam Nawawi, 9.487]

“Eating riba,” is not only the increase made by the one who takes riba, but it is also the benefit gained by the one who gives it.

Sidi, don’t barter your soul, spiritual path, and deen for some fleeting worldly comfort.

Allah Most High says in the Qur’an:

 

“Those who swallow usury cannot rise up save as he arises whom the devil

has bewildered by (his) touch. That is because they say: Trade is just like usury;

whereas Allah permitted trading and forbidden usury.”

 [002.275]

Remember the words of Shaykh Muhammad Sa`id Ramadan al-Buti of Damascus, Syria, one of the greatest scholars alive:

“The necessity which allows usurious loans is the same necessity which allows eating the meat of a dead animal, pig and the like, in which case the one necessitated is exposed to perish from hunger, nakedness or losing lodging. Such is the necessity, which makes such prohibitions lawful.”

Allah Most High Himself as told us in the Qur’an,

“2.276             Allah has blighted usury and made charity fruitful. Allah loves not the impious and guilty.”

The scholars of Qur’anic interpretation, such as Imam Alusi (Allah have mercy on him) have explained ‘Allah has blighted usury,’ as meaning that Allah, “Removes all baraka (blessing) from it, and destroys the wealth of the one who enters into it.” [Alusi, Tafsir Ruh al-Ma`ani, 3.51]

Ibn Mas`ud (Allah be pleased with him) related that the Beloved of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Usurious wealth, even if much, becomes paltry in the end.” [Ahmad, Ibn Maja, and Hakim, with a rigorously authentic chain of transmission]

And Allah reminds us, for we are prone to forget:

“And whosoever keeps his duty to Allah, Allah will appoint a way out for him,

And will provide for him from (a quarter) whence he has no expectation. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, He will suffice him. Lo! Allah brings His command to pass. Allah has set a measure for all things. ”[65.2-3]

And Allah alone gives success.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani