Explaining that dealing in riba (usury or interest) is among the greatest of major sins.

The student : We have a question that is more important than this and more forbidden than this question, because this has spread among us, as you know, regarding riba (usury or interest) among us. Of course, among good Muslims, there is a person who holds a large amount of money; he does not leave the money in the house; he must send it to the bank. And of course, all banks pay riba (usury or interest). So what about the person who takes riba (usury or interest) and pays... this is called
The student : a tax.

The Shaykh : a tax.
The student : and he pays to the state what is called a tax. This is compulsory for everyone who has money; he must pay to the state, and he also pays to the one who waters the farm under the pretext of water, and the water is from Allah, and he pays. So what is your opinion of the man who takes this riba (usury or interest) and pays it to this place because the state takes it?

The Shaykh : I mean, taxes exist in all countries, so you are speaking about taxes; I understood your question. And the issue is very clear from the Shari'ah perspective, but we are in a time when corruption and greed for the world and its debris have spread. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us about such problems and these calamities in the well-known hadith . So dealing in riba (usury or interest) is among the matters that are definitively forbidden in Islam, and there is no disagreement in it. You all know that there are issues in which the jurists disagreed; this one says it is permissible and this one says it is not permissible. But the issue of riba (usury or interest), praise be to Allah, there is no disagreement among the scholars of Muslims that it is among the major sins, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has a sound report from him that he said: . And perhaps you know that for something to be among the major sins, the great sins before Allah, there are signs for that. Among these signs is the curse. If the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed something, then that thing is forbidden with a great prohibition, and it is among the major sins. From that is riba (usury or interest). So if there are rich people, it is not permissible for them to deposit their money in the banks, because it will be assistance to the people of the banks in establishing them and reviving them. And perhaps you all know that the capital of the banks is this money that the rich people deposit in them. If not for that, the banks would not stand. So the Muslim must keep in mind this reality that the Qur'an and then the Sunnah indicate. The Qur'an says: . So the rich person who deposits his money in the bank is cooperating with the bank; he is cooperating in sin and aggression. And at that time, the curse that was mentioned in the previous hadith befalls him . The one who eats riba (usury or interest) is the bank, and the one who lends it is the rich person who deposits his money in the bank. So both are cursed by the text of the noble hadith. Therefore, it is not permissible for the rich Muslim to make an excuse for himself to deposit his money in the bank, claiming and alleging that he cannot keep his money in a place on his land or in his house because thieves might seize it. On this occasion, the reality is that Muslims need to strengthen their faith, because when the faith of the Muslim is strong, Satan cannot infiltrate his heart to whisper to him evil and disobedience to the Shari'ah. I think you are with me when I say that Muslims today do not pay any attention to the Shari'ah causes. There are two types of causes: Shari'ah causes and material causes. Muslims today are concerned with material causes to the utmost extent, and they are the same as the disbelievers in that. Islam does not forbid concern with material causes if they are Shari'ah-permissible. But Islam is concerned with the spiritual, mental causes. For example, let us give one example close to what I am saying. If a man wants to live in health and a long, prolonged life, by what does he achieve this? What are the causes by which he can attain this long life and this comfortable health? No doubt the answer will be by preserving his health, that his food and drink are clean, far from germs and microbes, and that his home is healthy, and so on. These are material causes. Of course, Islam does not fight them. But there are causes that Muslims do not notice, which are of a different type. Let me give you an example now, which is the saying of Allah the Exalted: . This meaning has no relation to material causes; its relation is to faith and the heart. So if there is a strange man, let us say he is a millionaire, where does he go with these moneys? The material solution that does not rely on the Shari'ah solution is to put it in the bank; first, it preserves it, and second, it feeds it, increases it, and strengthens it. This is a material treatment. But the Muslim should differ from the disbeliever in his belief and in his behavior in his life. Does the Muslim think of his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) if he is rich and pays the zakah of his money annually, and in addition to that, throughout the year he gives charity to the poor and the needy, to those who are near him and to those who are far from him? Does the Muslim believe that if he does that, he will lose his money, while he knows that Allah says: ? If he believes that, then he is not a Muslim. And if he believes that Allah preserves his money for him, then why does he hang his hope for the preservation of money on the forbidden bank and not place his hope in Allah (Mighty and Majestic), who said: ? We are, in reality, Muslims today, in need of strengthening faith. I will mention to you some examples so that it becomes clear to you the importance of strong faith and how it brings about wonders that do not cross a person's mind. It came in Sahih al-Bukhari from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . You reflect on how this answer is. We might say this answer is the answer of a dervish. A dervish says, "Allah is the guarantor." What is this talk? Because we want a guarantor between us, so that if he does not fulfill what he promised, we take from the guarantor. He says , a dervishism beyond dervishism. The rich man seems to be good-hearted like this poor borrower , dervishism, dervishism. But here there is faith: , strange . The rich man seems to be righteous like the poor man, and birds fall according to their kind, as they used to say in the past. He paid one hundred dinars by way of the plank and paid one hundred dinars from his hand to the hand of the rich man. So the rich man, by his sincerity and his true faith, was able to ignore the story of the plank and who would testify that he took a plank from the sea with one hundred dinars on it? No one. But this one was mindful of Allah and that one was mindful of Allah. Look how Allah made the sea serve this one who was mindful of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and preserved his money for him. This is a story from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, not from the Isra'iliyyat that filled the books of tafsir. The other story is in Sahih Muslim, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , meaning a desert land with no one living in it . The King says to the cloud, "Water the land of so-and-so," naming him by name. , there is no rain around the garden, all the rain is in the garden . The point of these two authentic hadiths is that if the believer fears Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), he will live preserved in the protection of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) and will not fear for himself what others who do not believe except in matter fear. What preserves the money of this rich man? Only the bank, knowing how many and how many banks have gone bankrupt; you must have heard of this. So the possibility that the rich man fears to happen to his money if he keeps it in a place might also happen to the money even if it is in the bank.