Explanation of the Hadith: (When you trade by way of 'inah, and take the tails of cattle, and are content with crops, and abandon jihad in the path of Allah)

The Shaykh : ... just as the Messenger (peace be upon him) explained that in the well-known hadith in "Sunan Abu Dawud" and "Musnad Imam Ahmad" and others. He said, with his chain of narration, from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): , so throwing destruction into our own hands is this preoccupation with this world, and abandoning jihad in the path of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and committing what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden through the slightest stratagems; if the Muslims do that , and here is the humiliation beside you, .
In this hadith, there is a reference to two very important matters in understanding. The first matter: that among the causes of the Muslims' deviation is, among the causes of the Muslims' weakness and their humiliation, is their deviation in their understanding of some of the rulings of their Shari'ah, such as 'inah, for example. 'Inah is a sale among the forbidden sales, and its form is that a person goes to a car dealer, for example, and buys a car from the dealer for one thousand dinars on credit for a year, for example, and in reality he does not want to buy it, and he has no need for the car, but his need is for the dinars. So after he carries out this formal transaction and buys the car from him for one hundred dinars on credit for a year, this buyer returns to the seller and sells him the car for less than the previous price in cash, so he sells it to him, for example, for eight hundred in cash, so he receives the eight hundred dinars and the car does not move from its place at all, so he is registered with one thousand dinars; on the condition that he delivers it after a year. This was the agreement regarding the car. When he returned and sold the car for cash and received the price as in it, that means a form in the path of making lawful what Allah has forbidden of usury or interest. Instead of saying to him: give me one thousand dinars, give me eight hundred dinars until I pay you one thousand dinars after a year. No, it is an open usurious transaction, and the people are these religious Muslims who would not commit this open haram, but Satan beautified this haram for them through a means; as some say: a legal stratagem. So he brings in the car as an intermediary to make lawful what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden of usury or interest. This is the form of 'inah sales, and 'inah is derived from 'ayn; meaning the very thing is sold and bought in one place with two different prices, the cash price being less than the credit price.
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ; meaning: you made lawful this sale and it is forbidden; because in it is making lawful what Allah has forbidden through the slightest stratagems. And it came in some hadiths whose chains al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir graded as good: , so this is among the stratagems of the Jews whose story Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned for us regarding the Sabbath, and it is not hidden from anyone. And among that is what many may not know, which is the saying of the Messenger (may Allah send prayers and blessings upon him): .
The meaning of the hadith is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) informs the Messenger (peace be upon him) or curses them: ; why? ; the fats of the slaughtered animals that they slaughter, and it is lawful for them, but the matter is as our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) said regarding them: , from these good things that were lawful then were forbidden to them, the fat of the beast they slaughter, so it is lawful for them, except for the fat in it. By their oppression, this was forbidden to them. So the Jews did not have patience with this prohibition, so they devised a stratagem against it. So what did they do? They took these fats and put them in the pots and lit the fire underneath them, so they flowed and melted and took another form... level after melting. So by their assumption and claim that this form changed the ruling of the Shari'ah regarding this oil in this fat, so it was haram before and became, by their claim, halal after. So they were cursed because of this and their stratagem on the Sabbath, and other forms that they committed to make lawful what Allah had forbidden upon them.
And the Messenger (may Allah send prayers and blessings upon him) informed that this nation will follow the footsteps of the Jews and the Christians, following them exactly as he said: , and in another hadith in "Sunan al-Tirmidhi" and others: , ; he will have intercourse with his mother , and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has indeed spoken the truth; so these Muslims are committing stratagems just as the Jews did completely, making usury or interest lawful under names they give it, for which Allah has not sent down any authority; as he (peace be upon him) said in another matter: .
So those changed the form of the fat and made it lawful, and these - also - change the form of the usurious transaction to an apparent sale and purchase transaction, they want behind that to make lawful what Allah has forbidden, among which is 'inah sales. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ; meaning: if you deviate in your understanding of some of the Shari'ah rulings by committing the stratagems that the Jews committed, so you made lawful what Allah has forbidden through the slightest stratagems like making 'inah lawful, ; meaning: you rushed upon this world and were preoccupied with it from performing what you know to be obligatory; which is jihad in the path of Allah. So your reward at that time is that Allah will send down upon you a humiliation that He will not remove from you until you return to your religion.
And all the Muslims today complain, and no doubt, of this humiliation and degradation that has befallen them in their own homeland by its occupation by the most humble of people previously. All the Muslims complain of this, but these Muslims - with great regret - are still differing and being most disturbed in the path that they must follow to lift this humiliation that has descended upon their own homeland: .
So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith, as I believe, sets for us the plan to treat this matter of humiliation that has befallen us. So he says to us: , and if we know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave in the first part of the hadith an example of some types of transactions.
... each of them is a cause for the Muslims to be humiliated. Then each of the examples was not mentioned in the hadith by way of specification, but rather the Messenger (peace be upon him) mentioned each of them by way of illustration. So 'inah sales was given as an example of types of stratagems that the Muslims commit, and upon them applies what he (Blessed and Exalted is He) said: , so this one who makes 'inah sales lawful deals in usury or interest while he thinks that there is nothing upon him. He receives eight hundred and pays one thousand, and this is halal by way of the car, the car intermediary!
This was mentioned by the Messenger (peace be upon him) by way of illustration for types of stratagems, not by way of specification. Likewise, he mentioned taking the tails of cattle, and striking the earth, and being preoccupied with that from jihad in the path of Allah as examples of other rulings that the Muslims - praise be to Allah - are still aware of, and have not deviated in their understanding of them as they fell into 'inah sales and the like. But this in which they have not deviated in understanding, as is their case with 'inah sales, they have deviated in action. They know that jihad is obligatory, and they know that preoccupation with this world to the extent that it wastes the other obligations that Allah has made obligatory upon the nation; they know that this is not permissible. And yet they turn away from what they know. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) mentioned 'inah sales as an example of many examples of deviation from understanding the Shari'ah by way of stratagem, and mentioned preoccupation with crops and milk as an example of the other examples that the Muslims know and then contradict.