What is the ruling on participating in what is called Islamic banks on the pretext of seeking an alternative to non-Islamic banks?

The questioner : Regarding that riba (usury or interest), since even the Islamic banks now are not truly Islamic in reality, some people come and say, "What is the alternative then?" on the pretext of this point?

The Shaykh : This is the slogan of the present age. Whenever a matter becomes difficult for some people, they say to you, "Give me the alternative." Well, I want to find you the alternative, or do you? It is the Muslim community that provides the alternative. So what is the alternative? The alternative is in the Noble Qur'an, O people. Allah the Exalted said: . The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and I hope you pay attention to this hadith and what we will build upon it, if Allah wills, of a sound structure: . The love of this world and the hatred of death are the cause of the collapse of nations, as is observed now. All the disbelieving nations are collapsing, responding, and complying in order to control the Islamic world—ideological, doctrinal, and purely material control. Why? The answer came in another hadith: . So the alternative, the answer here is in the hadith: "so that you may return to your religion." If dealing with riba (usury or interest) is forbidden and the banks are based on this forbidden thing, then does the one seeking the alternative want the Shari'ah to follow his desires while he does not follow the desires of the Shari'ah which said, "so that you may return to your religion"? So the alternative is that the Muslims, as the Lord of the Worlds said: . So the alternative is that we return to our religion, that we return to the rulings of our Lord, just as we began the answer with the previous verse: . We today, we Muslims, because we have moved away from the purification and education that we mentioned before the 'Isha' prayer, we want to achieve our personal material goals in a way that is either lawful or unlawful. So our goal is to fulfill our desires, and our goal is not to obey our Lord and follow our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So . We mention a historical fact that is beyond dispute. The early Arabs, when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent among them, their material situation was worse than ours. They were poor, and those around them were rich: the Romans and the Persians. And yet, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) supported His Prophet and those who believed with him, and only a few believed with him. And these few were living in extreme poverty. Whoever reads the biography of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) finds the amazing thing that he would spend the night hungry, not finding what to satisfy his hunger. And yet, he was the master of mankind, and the majority of the Companions were poor. And yet, Allah supported them against the Persians and the Romans. Did they win by material means? No. We now want the exact opposite. We have turned away from faith, true faith, and we want to compete for this world. And we ask, when the legal ruling comes, "This is forbidden, what is the alternative?" The alternative, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . We do not think of such a hadith now: . That is, pursue the beautiful, prescribed path in seeking sustenance, for what is with Allah is not attained by what is forbidden. So taqwa (mindfulness of Allah) is the foundation of happiness in this world before the Hereafter. So beware that you do not speak except from the door of the one who conveys disbelief is not a disbeliever. Do not say, "What is the alternative?" Beware that you say this word, because this contradicts the entire Shari'ah of Islam from its root. However, if the one conveying is conveying from another to know the answer, then there is no harm in that, on that basis: the one who conveys disbelief is not a disbeliever. In conclusion, I want on this occasion to narrate to you two authentic hadiths, and it is very clear that they can be considered an explanation of the previous verse: . If these rich people had feared Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in their wealth and in themselves, Allah would certainly have provided them with an exit. But they kept going around the fear of Allah; on the contrary, they persisted in what they did, and they knew. The first of the two hadiths is what Imam al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: . I am in doubt now, he said, one hundred dinars or one thousand dinars, and the most likely is one thousand dinars. "Lend me one thousand dinars." . In the language of the present age, now he paid the thousand dinars in cash. One of the two is cash. Why? There is no check, no promissory note, and there is nothing that says, "That rich man, we need a witness." He said to him, "Allah is the witness." "Allah is the guarantor." The guarantor, and Allah, what beautiful words. He handed it to him, he gave him one thousand dinars. Who does that today? No one. Look at the outcome, and Allah is truthful: the outcome is for the righteous. The man took the thousand dinars and went out traveling by sea, spending the money he had borrowed. The agreed date arrived, and he was far from the rich man's country. He was a man truthful with Allah (Mighty and Majestic), wanting to fulfill his promise to the one who had been good to him. But he was surprised that the date had arrived and he was far from him. What did he do? He came to a plank, he hammered it well, and packed the gold dinars in it, then stuffed it well. Then he came to the seashore and said, "O Allah, You were the guarantor and You were the witness," and he threw this plank into the sea. One of you says that it is not cash, the ultimate cash, wasting money, destroying money. But Allah (Mighty and Majestic), who knows what is in the breasts, commands the sea and the waves of the sea to take this plank to the town where the generous rich man is. The rich man went out on the promised day to receive the debtor with his debt. He waited a while, and the man did not come. And there was the plank playing between his hands in the waves. So he reached out his hand, and if it was heavy, he took it. When he broke it, and if the red gold collapsed between his hands. A strange story. Then the man returned. Look at this cash and its outcome. He knew that he had done something contrary to nature, contrary to the system: a plank and in it what? Heavy gold, and how does it reach the creditor from it? So this is an unnatural matter. He knew what he was doing, but his sincerity is what carried him to break the system of nature. And therefore, he ignored what he did, reached out his hand, and delivered the creditor's right. If it was one hundred, it became two hundred, and if it was one thousand, it became two thousand. The creditor was surprised, so he told him the story. It is a kind heart; as the birds fall according to their shapes. If this story happened with someone today, God is Great, no one has news that this person picked up from the sea a plank packed with one thousand dinars or one hundred dinars until he tells. But what drove him to say to this debtor, "Your sincerity," because he felt that in the case there was something contrary to nature? He told the story of the plank. He said to him, "By Allah, I am the one who did this when I felt that I could not fulfill the promise with you, so I did such and such and such and such." What did he say? He said, "May Allah bless you in your wealth," and he returned to him the thousand dinars and was content with what came to him by a path other than the customary natural path. This applies to him: . This is the first hadith. The second hadith is also from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, but it is in Sahih Muslim. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . A voice addressing the clouds: "Go to the land of so-and-so and rain on it." This walker on the earth heard for the first time a voice from the sky. This is also unnatural. The clouds, for example, were moving east, and if they took south or north, so he walked with the clouds. It did not pass a little while, and if the clouds were emptying their load of rain on a garden. There was no rain around the garden. He looked at the garden, and if he saw its owner working in it with a hoe. He greeted him, and he had heard his name. So the gardener was surprised and saw the man as if he were a stranger, so he asked him, "Where are you from?" and such customary words. He said to him, "By Allah, I was walking and I heard a voice from the clouds: 'Rain on the land of so-and-so.' So I walked with the clouds until I reached you, and I knew that you are the one intended." "By what?" Here is the witness. He said, "By Allah, I do not know, but I own this land, so I work in it, then I make its harvest into three parts. One third I return to the land, the second third I spend on myself and my family, and the third third I spend on the poor and the needy." He said, "So it is, so it is." That is, because of your taqwa (mindfulness of Allah) in your wealth, you did not forget your share and the share of your family and the poor of your neighborhood, so Allah (Mighty and Majestic) treated you by making the sky subservient to you. This one, Allah made the sky subservient to him; that one, Allah made the sea subservient to him. Glory be to Allah. So the solution, O people, and the alternative is taqwa (mindfulness of Allah):