Prohibition of Using Tricks in the Religion of Allah, with Examples

The Shaykh : This is a trick, and tricks do not turn the forbidden into the lawful; rather, they add to the ugliness of the forbidden. It is not hidden from us that Allah punished the Jews who used tricks to circumvent the prohibitions of Allah with a punishment that served as a warning to those before them and those after them. This is because Allah forbade the Jews from taking fish on the day of Saturday and tested them, so the fish would come on the day of Saturday in large, great numbers, coming in a stream on the water, while on any day other than Saturday they would not see a single fish. They remained in this state for a period of time, so the duration became long for them, and they said: How can we deprive ourselves of the fish? This is not possible. So what shall we do? They said: Do a trick. How do we do a trick? Set up a net on Friday so that the fish come on Saturday and enter the net, and when it is Sunday, take out these fish. They would say: We did not catch the fish on Saturday. When did they catch them? On Sunday. But the truth of the matter is that they caught them on Saturday. For this reason, Allah the Exalted turned them into monkeys; they became monkeys. Allah the Exalted said: And the strange thing about those who use tricks to circumvent riba (usury or interest) is that you find them, in their appearance, among the best of people. You find them with dignity and tranquility, and you find them advancing to the mosques and increasing in the recitation of the Qur'an, but they eat riba (usury or interest) and they do not know. And eating riba (usury or interest) is not a trivial matter; rather, eating the forbidden in general is not a trivial matter.