The ruling on one who consumes riba (usury or interest) while knowing it is forbidden
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says, may Allah preserve you, that someone near him says: There are those who say that the one who consumes riba and says, "I know it is forbidden, but I will consume it nonetheless," is considered one who deems it permissible and is a disbeliever. Is this statement correct?
Answer:
No, it is not necessary that he deems it permissible. He admits that it is forbidden, and he admits to the sin. He is not like the one who consumes it and says, "This is lawful, this is lawful," or like those who distort the truth and say, "It is not riba, it is not riba, this is lawful." That person is an apostate from the religion of Islam. But the one who consumes it knowing that it is riba is committing a major sin, but he does not become an apostate because of it. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says, may Allah preserve you, that someone near him says: There are those who say that the one who consumes riba and says, "I know it is forbidden, but I will consume it nonetheless," is considered one who deems it permissible and is a disbeliever. Is this statement correct?
Answer:
No, it is not necessary that he deems it permissible. He admits that it is forbidden, and he admits to the sin. He is not like the one who consumes it and says, "This is lawful, this is lawful," or like those who distort the truth and say, "It is not riba, it is not riba, this is lawful." That person is an apostate from the religion of Islam. But the one who consumes it knowing that it is riba is committing a major sin, but he does not become an apostate because of it. Yes.
Source
المنتقى من أخبار سيد المرسلين-11-07-1438هـ — af.org.sa (53:24)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.