What is the ruling on the interest taken from the bank?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our master Muhammad, his family, and his companions. The questioner says: I am a man who deposited money in the bank, and a long time passed. When I withdrew it, I received a large amount of interest, ten thousand riyals. I had a dream in which I was wearing a new white garment, and part of it burned at the edge. At that time, I did not ask anyone about it. It has been with me since I withdrew the money, and I have not brought it to anyone since then.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, grants to whom He wills of His servants what makes a man accountable for what he has taken from Allah, Mighty and Majestic. This money you took from the bank is that. It is forbidden for you to take it, and you must return it to the bank; it is not lawful for you. For Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, says:[Al-Baqarah 2:278] [Al-Baqarah 2:278-279]. Therefore, you must return these ten thousand riyals to the bank so that your obligation is discharged thereby. And Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, and knowledge is with Allah, has alerted you to this because of what you saw in this dream, where part of your garment burned. The garment symbolizes religion; so the newer and wider the garment in the dream, the more it is evidence of the religion of its owner, if he is among the worshippers, or of the breadth of his knowledge, if he is among the scholars. This man had part of his garment burned, not all of it, because his money has something good in it, which is the capital, and something evil in it, which is riba (usury or interest). Therefore, part of his garment burned. He must return these riyals to
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, grants to whom He wills of His servants what makes a man accountable for what he has taken from Allah, Mighty and Majestic. This money you took from the bank is that. It is forbidden for you to take it, and you must return it to the bank; it is not lawful for you. For Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, says:
O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ الرِّبَاif you should be believers. (279) And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.
إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَإِن تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ
Source
دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام لعام 1402هـ - 8 — binothaimeen.net (47:37)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.