What is the wisdom in using zina as an example to illustrate the severity of riba, given the magnitude of the matter of riba?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Question, O Shaykh, ...?
The Shaykh : By Allah, your question itself has merit, but before I answer you with what I have, because what I have is only a conjecture, meaning, the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are not easy for people to uncover their essence and their wisdoms. So I say: the safest course for every Muslim is to receive the Shari'ah rulings without seeking their reasons and without attempting to know their wisdoms. Because I have gone through stages; just as I was, for example, of the Hanbali school in my beginning of seeking knowledge, then I left the school afterwards, likewise, before I delved into the Sunnah and knew its status and the value of its affair, I used to try to philosophize the hadiths for the youth so that it would enter their minds. But I found in the end that this method has more harm than good. Because those who live in this atmosphere, the atmosphere of philosophizing the hadiths and trying to uncover their secrets and their wisdoms, when a hadith comes to them—and it is of the type that the soul looks to know the secret of this hadith and its wisdom—and then it is not made possible for that person who lived in that atmosphere for someone to reveal to him the secret of that hadith or its wisdom, his position is...
...do not drink with your left hand, O my Muslim brother... May Allah protect me and you, but this is only if you are unable to do so, and you know yourself better than anyone else.
...so if it is not decreed for this person that someone reveals to him the secret of that hadith and its wisdom, his position regarding the hadith is negative, meaning he is not driven to believe in it or act upon it. And when I saw this result, I turned the matter upside down, and I became advising my brothers on such an occasion not to strive to know the secrets of some hadiths or their wisdoms, especially in this age where materialism has prevailed over many of the Muslim youth, and from materialism comes the judgment of reason; so it is from materialism, and you know the minds and their differences and the cultures that nourished them, so what Zayd considers reasonable, 'Amr rejects, and so on. On this basis, I advise.
But what appears to me—and I return to my conjecture—is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) magnified riba more than zina; because the scope of zina is not as wide as riba. Dealing in riba includes the entire Ummah, while zina includes the two adulterers; it may include, for example, the parents or the two brothers, and so on, but it does not include the Ummah. So Allah knows best, perhaps this is one of the secrets of the coming of that hadith in that serious matter, and Allah knows best.
The Shaykh : By Allah, your question itself has merit, but before I answer you with what I have, because what I have is only a conjecture, meaning, the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are not easy for people to uncover their essence and their wisdoms. So I say: the safest course for every Muslim is to receive the Shari'ah rulings without seeking their reasons and without attempting to know their wisdoms. Because I have gone through stages; just as I was, for example, of the Hanbali school in my beginning of seeking knowledge, then I left the school afterwards, likewise, before I delved into the Sunnah and knew its status and the value of its affair, I used to try to philosophize the hadiths for the youth so that it would enter their minds. But I found in the end that this method has more harm than good. Because those who live in this atmosphere, the atmosphere of philosophizing the hadiths and trying to uncover their secrets and their wisdoms, when a hadith comes to them—and it is of the type that the soul looks to know the secret of this hadith and its wisdom—and then it is not made possible for that person who lived in that atmosphere for someone to reveal to him the secret of that hadith or its wisdom, his position is...
...do not drink with your left hand, O my Muslim brother... May Allah protect me and you, but this is only if you are unable to do so, and you know yourself better than anyone else.
...so if it is not decreed for this person that someone reveals to him the secret of that hadith and its wisdom, his position regarding the hadith is negative, meaning he is not driven to believe in it or act upon it. And when I saw this result, I turned the matter upside down, and I became advising my brothers on such an occasion not to strive to know the secrets of some hadiths or their wisdoms, especially in this age where materialism has prevailed over many of the Muslim youth, and from materialism comes the judgment of reason; so it is from materialism, and you know the minds and their differences and the cultures that nourished them, so what Zayd considers reasonable, 'Amr rejects, and so on. On this basis, I advise.
But what appears to me—and I return to my conjecture—is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) magnified riba more than zina; because the scope of zina is not as wide as riba. Dealing in riba includes the entire Ummah, while zina includes the two adulterers; it may include, for example, the parents or the two brothers, and so on, but it does not include the Ummah. So Allah knows best, perhaps this is one of the secrets of the coming of that hadith in that serious matter, and Allah knows best.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.