A: No objection can be raised on paying interest because the prohibition of interest is based on the Qur’anic principle of akl al-amwal al-batil (devouring wealth through unfair means), and a person who pays interest does not devour the wealth of some other person through unfair means. In fact, he pays a part of his legitimately earned wealth to the borrower in lieu of the loan he provides. The issue of interest is mentioned at more than one instance in the Qur’an. Not at one place has the Qur’an condemned those who pay interest. In fact, it calls them oppressed and asked the lender to give them time if they are facing financial constraints. Those who regard paying of interest as prohibited do not base their view on any verse of the Qur’an or any implicit or explicit deduction from any of its verses. They base their view on a Hadith narrative which says that the Prophet (sws) has cursed the person who consumes interest and makes others consume it. The words of the narrative are: آكِلَ الرِّبَا وَمُؤْكِلَهُ … لَعَنَ النَّبِيُّ.[1]In this narrative, the word مُوْكِلis used for a person who makes others consume interest. Linguistically, it can refer to a person who pays interest and also to people who are the agents of professional lenders and in this capacity hunt for potential customers for their masters. If lending on interest becomes a business, then such agents are its essential need; without them, the business of lending interest bearing loans cannot be run. If the narrative relates to such people, then there is no complexity in the narrative because this is blatant co-operation with evil (ta‘awun ‘ala al-ithm). As agents of interest-lenders, those who prepare agreements and documents for them and act as witnesses, their matter too is no different. The service provided by bank staff of these times is of similar nature. However, people who acquire interest-based loans cannot in any way be regarded as guilty of co-operation with evil (ta‘awun ‘ala al-ithm). This expression can only be used for an act done by perpetrators of a sin and for those who reap the benefits of this sin. Those who acquire interest-based loans do not acquire it to help the devourers of interest, they obtain loans for their personal and business needs. If this is co-operation, then it is not more than the co-operation done by our scholars and righteous individuals when they deposit their own wealth and that of their institutions in banks. If interest is prohibited at the state level and all forms of interest transactions are brought to an end, then such people who still pay interest can be regarded as criminals who have breached a law. If the Hadith narrative cited above refers to them, then the directive should relate to the scenario just stated – when interest transactions had been prohibited in the time of the Prophet (sws).

(Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)

(Translated by Dr Shehzad Saleem)

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[1]. Al-Bukhari, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, vol. 5, 2045, (no. 5032).

Kindly refer to the video below from 52:31 to 57:42 for further clarification by Ghamidi Sahab.

https://youtu.be/SW6FEiREpuE?t=3151

I don’t know what Allah considers you or your friend to be. But as a principle, giving of a loan should be done as a good deed and a Muslim should not force the other person to pay him any sum of amount over and above that principal.