If a consumer of riba (usury or interest) repents, what is the ruling on the wealth he acquired from riba?
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The questioner:
Benefits from the explanation of the book *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim li-Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim* by Ibn Taymiyyah. Shaykh, regarding his statement on riba: if a Muslim repents from riba, is he required to divest himself of all his wealth, or does he leave the remaining riba profits? Because some people mention that the one who deals in riba, if he repents, must divest himself of all his wealth and go out with empty hands. And some say he should keep what is in his hand and leave the remaining profits. That is, if he repents, is the riba he previously had in his hand permissible for him?
The Shaykh:
If he repents to Allah and the riba has been consumed and gone, he is not required to make it up. However, if he repents to Allah and has accumulated wealth from riba, it is not permissible for him to consume it or to possess it as wealth. Rather, he must dispose of it by placing it in public projects, because it becomes like lost wealth that has no owner. So it is placed in public projects for the benefit of the Muslims, and he disposes of it. Yes.
The questioner:
If he does not know whether he has one million or ten million.
The Shaykh:
If he does not know, he estimates and takes precautions.
Benefits from the explanation of the book *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim li-Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim* by Ibn Taymiyyah. Shaykh, regarding his statement on riba: if a Muslim repents from riba, is he required to divest himself of all his wealth, or does he leave the remaining riba profits? Because some people mention that the one who deals in riba, if he repents, must divest himself of all his wealth and go out with empty hands. And some say he should keep what is in his hand and leave the remaining profits. That is, if he repents, is the riba he previously had in his hand permissible for him?
The Shaykh:
If he repents to Allah and the riba has been consumed and gone, he is not required to make it up. However, if he repents to Allah and has accumulated wealth from riba, it is not permissible for him to consume it or to possess it as wealth. Rather, he must dispose of it by placing it in public projects, because it becomes like lost wealth that has no owner. So it is placed in public projects for the benefit of the Muslims, and he disposes of it. Yes.
The questioner:
If he does not know whether he has one million or ten million.
The Shaykh:
If he does not know, he estimates and takes precautions.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [921] إذا تاب آكل الربا فما حكم الأموال التي اكتسبها من الربا؟ |فوائد شرح اقتضاء الصراط المستقيم — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.