Continuing the discussion on the resemblance of some of this Ummah to the Jews in some of their actions, with the example of the marriage of tahleel.

The Shaykh : There is a type of marriage known among the common people called "nikah al-tajhishah," which is called "nikah al-tahleel" in the Shari'ah. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Is this happening today? Yes. As they say, "If I forget, I will not forget." There was a district in Damascus called al-'Imarah al-Jawaniyyah. I went to Damascus and reached a place called the Musalla of Bayt al-'Imarah al-Baraniyyah, and from there one heads to the Great Mosque, known as the Umayyad Mosque. From this Musalla, which you call today "al-Muthallath," one turns south toward the Umayyad Mosque. At the beginning of this market, which is a narrow street in the old style and covered, there was a very small shop next to the mosque. The owner of the small shop sold tobacco. Next to the mosque, there was a Shaykh whom I remember as if I see him now, sitting on a chair. The road was narrow, so a car could barely pass through it. He was sitting with a book in front of him. People afflicted with the divorce of their wives would come to him; the divorce might have been unlawful, so they needed a fatwa, they needed a way out. When a man would come to him and say, "I divorced my wife, and this was the third divorce, and I have children from her, and I am not a fortune-teller, but I want to fix this. How can I get her back?" The Shaykh would say, "Allahu Akbar. Either through the way of tahleel, or through another way you have never heard of, but what concerns me now is this way. The husband and his companions agree to divorce his wife by bringing a man to marry this woman to spend one night with her, and in the morning he divorces her so that she can return to the first husband who regrets having divorced her. In his claim, he is applying the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: They bring a husband other than the first husband. But look now at how the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explains the Qur'an, as Allah, Mighty and Majestic, Himself said in the Qur'an: Here, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified that the divorce that permits the wife to return to her husband is the divorce that is intended for marriage, for kindness, for procreation and offspring, just as the first husband married her. The second husband should marry her with that intention. But if he marries her with the intention of making her lawful for the first husband, he has contradicted the Qur'an, because the Qur'an commands the lawful marriage hinted at in the saying of Allah, the Exalted: This second husband does not possess these qualities at all. Therefore, he deserved that strange name given by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who called him "the borrowed he-goat." He mounts this woman to make her lawful for the first husband.The Shaykh : He used to sit in that street to solve the problems of these husbands who had divorced and regretted it, using the method of the borrowed he-goat. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So the one being made lawful is the husband who divorced, and the one making her lawful is this borrowed he-goat who spends that night and then divorces her. This is a deception regarding the rulings of the Shari'ah. We do as the Jews did, who were cursed for their deception regarding the Sabbath, and cursed for their deception regarding the fat, which they melted, although it was forbidden for them. And so we do today: a turn and a twist. This man wants to buy a car for ten thousand. He says to the bank owner, "Give me ten thousand, and I will give you riba." This is riba, which is not permissible. But through twisting and turning, it becomes permissible. There is no difference between this transaction and that Jewish transaction, whether it concerns hunting on the Sabbath or melting the fat. As for the second deception regarding this man and his like, he comes to clarify the marriage of the man who divorced his wife for the third time. He asks him, "How did you marry her?" He scrutinizes him until he finds a flaw and says, "This marriage is invalid." For example, the Hanafi school permits a mature woman or a mature girl to marry herself without the permission of her guardian. So he searches with this divorcer and finds that he married according to the Hanafi school. He says to him, "No, your marriage is invalid, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So he rules that he must return to his wife, and the life he lived with his wife, from whom he has children, is an unlawful life, so that he can return to his wife also through an unlawful way. And so we do today, as the Jews do, unfortunately. When we know these facts, the Islamic bank, unfortunately, deals with this transaction and worse. Many of our brothers have told us that they went and requested the import of a machine from Europe. They requested, of course, what they call murabahah. The agreement, for example, was that for six months, the profit they request for importing this machine by their method is, say, ten. But the person in need says, "I cannot pay in six months. You must give me a year." And the murabahah increases. This is the riba transaction: taking riba in exchange for patience in paying your Muslim brother. I say, on this occasion, that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has provided merchants with a way to earn very large profits through trade, if it is lawful trade. And the opposite is the opposite: if their trade is unlawful, then His saying (peace and blessings be upon him) applies to them: These are the ones who are righteous and truthful. If they dealt with their customers at the cash price, whether the customer bought on installment or in cash, they would earn more in profits than one who stands in prayer at night and fasts by day. This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in addition to the general hadiths that encourage Muslims to be brothers who cooperate, such as his saying (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him): If a man comes wanting to buy from you an item with a high price or less, and he does not have the full amount, or half of it, or something similar, you should sell it to him at the same price you sell it for in cash. Here comes a very great hadith in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: That is, if you lend your Muslim brother two dirhams, it is as if you gave charity with one dirham. Imagine now a man lends a Muslim one hundred dinars; it is as if he gave charity with fifty. Two hundred is as if he gave charity with one hundred. Two thousand is as if he gave charity with one thousand. So imagine, as I say, if the merchants took this lawful path, like a saw going up and down, they would earn good deeds and rewards, while this is not possible for others who have not facilitated this trade for them. Perhaps you remember with me that hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari where the poor held something like a conference among themselves and discussed religious matters, not worldly ones. They thought that since they were poor, they could not give charity, they could not spend in charitable projects, and so on. So they sent a messenger on their behalf to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said: And the completion of the recitation is known to be up to one hundred. The messenger of the poor rejoiced and returned to his poor companions, and they began to apply this recitation. But soon the news of this recitation reached the rich, and the news of this reached the poor. The messenger of the poor returned to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and they said: Did the rich know the favor of Allah upon them? The answer is no. On the contrary, they disobeyed Allah in their trade, selling a thing at two prices: the cash price and the installment price. And this is riba. Whereas if they had reversed it, they would have earned multiplied profits throughout the time of buying and selling, what Allah willed. But Allah was truthful when He said: That is, the nature of man is stinginess. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is the worst thing in a man: this stinginess. And of stinginess is that you earn by forcing your Muslim brother to delay the price of a need, so you increase its price for him. And in this is a reminder, if Allah wills, and the reminder benefits the believers.