Discussion of circumventing the Shari'ah in the issue of dealing with banks in sales and purchases, which is the very essence of riba, and other examples of this.

The Shaykh : That is, he informed me that this Islamic bank there inserts an intermediary between the one who wants to buy a need and has money, and the merchant. For example, he wants a car; the car's cash price is twenty thousand, for example, and on installments it is twenty thousand plus two or three thousand, depending on... So the bank inserts an intermediary between the buyer and the merchant. It buys the car from the merchant for twenty thousand cash because it has... Then it charges the one for whom the car is bought twenty thousand plus two thousand, one thousand... that the merchant takes the two thousand in exchange for the installment; he takes it from this intermediary... in exchange for having paid the money for this buyer. This is a matter called by us... and it is among what Islam has forbidden, because Islam does not look at formalities but at the realities to which they lead...
This resembles what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) reported regarding the Jews when he said The meaning of the hadith points in one of its aspects to something like the saying of Allah the Exalted , from these good things are fats... of the lawful. The Jews were commanded, due to their stubbornness, affectation, and strictness, to slaughter a sacrificial animal and benefit from its red meat, and to throw its fat to the ground of which are the fats. So what did the Jews do? They were cursed for it, among other things for which they were cursed, but... all of them do not... under that... among what is called, unfortunately, among Muslims today as "legal stratagems" (hilaal shar'iyyah). The origin and source of legal stratagems are the Jews, for they permitted hunting but by way of stratagem on the day of Saturday, as mentioned in the Qur'an. But stratagem is also something else that many people do not know, which is selling and thereby eating the fats that were forbidden to them. It appears that Allah (Mighty and Majestic), when He forbade them the fats, they endured for a period of time, then the material greed that the Jews have become a byword for overcame them, so their patience ran out. They took these fats and put them in large pots and lit a fire underneath them, so they melted and took a new form. They said, "It is lawful." What happened? He said... it was forbidden and now it is lawful. What happened?... except that it changed. The fat was lumpy, it was cut up in a non-... etc., and behold, it became... smooth. This is all that happened, so the fat became lawful in their claim, and they sold it and ate its price. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said This method of stratagem has occurred in many of the sales of Muslims; I do not say recently, but also in the past. And the chapter of stratagems, unfortunately, is one of the chapters in the books of fiqh today. So whoever among you is afflicted with reading... these books will remember a chapter titled "The Chapter of Stratagems," and you will find there strange and very peculiar fatwas. Many of the scholars of the Muslims took from it and were influenced by it... And I remember one of them who wrote a treatise in which he mentioned, and we are on the topic of riba and warning against what leads to it, that the stratagem in permitting riba is feeding... He says, "I have a vow to Allah that whenever I borrow a loan from a person, I have a vow to Allah that I will give it to him." So if it were... he is now hesitant to borrow one hundred dirhams and pay them one hundred and five. This is not riba; this is fulfilling a vow. And he (may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him) said So this person obeys Allah because he fulfills the vow, and he thinks that the saying of His Glory and Exaltation is of these people. The reason is the chapter of stratagems. This is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said They said, "O Messenger of Allah, the Jews and the Christians?" He said meaning these are the ones whose ways and methods you will follow. And in another authentic narration... in the two Sahihs, a very subtle addition, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said marrying the mother is among the greatest of sins, so how about when he commits zina with her on the side of the road? If there were among the Jews and Christians anyone who did that, there would be among you someone who does it. This is from the chapter of imitating them... Our reality is the greatest proof that this hadith is from the inspiration of the heavens, for he does not speak from desire; it is not but a revelation that is revealed.