The Shaykh’s remarks on the verse: “And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out.”

The Shaykh : This is my brother, like the merchants who say they cannot work except through banks. In Islam, the end does not justify the means. When a person wants to fear Allah the Exalted and Majestic, he does not care if he says, “My benefit has been disrupted.” I mentioned to you earlier the hadith of Rafi' ibn Khadij; they used to engage in sharecropping, and there was ease and benefit and livelihood in it, but obedience to Allah is dearer to us. Why? Because he is a believer. And the believer is my brother. This is our calamity; we need to strengthen faith in our hearts now. The masses of Muslims are living exactly like the Europeans, meaning they have nothing called religion, a deterrent, or fear of Allah. I do not do this because it is not permissible, and so on. If they have something of this, they cling to formalities. The examples are not far from you. The verse is known by everyone, the illiterate, the reader, the educated, and the uneducated. Why? For one reason: the fronts of gatherings among the general people are adorned with it. I say the general people, not everyone. It is They adorn the walls with it; you must have seen it often. But the hearts are empty on their thrones; this verse has not entered the innermost hearts of those who hang it up. Otherwise, you would not find someone saying, “What am I supposed to do, my brother? If I don’t do this, my trade won’t go well. If I don’t buy through the Islamic bank, I will remain a tenant. How long, you poor man? Thank Allah that you are a tenant and can afford to pay the rent. You poor man, the big merchants who have thousands prefer to rent rather than spend their money buying a house for themselves. Glory be to Allah, how Satan plays! Is this our companion a merchant? Yes. Is this logic correct? No.

The questioner : And many of the big merchants, I mean, they exploit.

The Shaykh : This liquidity... they turn it into walls. They don’t employ it, for example, the capital that came out as the price of houses over time. They don’t pay the rent every month, one hundred dinars, depending on the house, one hundred and fifty, two hundred, less or more, and so on. So this person asks, “Do I remain a tenant? I want a house. Where is the necessity for him to buy a house with riba? There is no necessity for that. He falls into poverty. Our Lord says in the Qur'an But whoever does wrong, it is against himself. So the wrongdoing returns to himself, not to others. Most Muslims, do not blame me if I say, because I will restrict my speech, most Muslims today are disbelievers in this verse with practical disbelief, restricted practical disbelief, to the point that none of you will look and say...The Shaykh : Disbelievers in all of Islam? No, practically disbelievers. They believe the verse is correct in the Qur'an, but they contradict it. They believe that riba is forbidden, but they fall into the forbidden. One thing is admitted, and one thing is a deception, and the worst of them is the deceiver, because the one who deceives commits two sins. The first sin is what he participates in. May Allah forgive us. Yes, this is riba, but this is our situation. The sin is circumventing the Sharia ruling, so he makes lawful what Allah has forbidden with the slightest of deceptions. If so, we should not adorn the walls of our houses and homes with this verse, but rather we should adorn our hearts with it, so that our starting point in our lives is the fear of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He. And then life will be sweet for us. And the sweetness of life is not, as these afflicted with materialism imagine, wealth and richness and abundance of money. No, our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was described by his Lord the Exalted and Majestic truthfully as the Believers, the Merciful, the Compassionate. From His mercy to us, He drew our attention to truths that people are heedless of. He said, for example, (peace and blessings be upon him) So if a poor man is content with what Allah has provided for him, and by Allah, he is happier in his worldly life than that rich man about whom our Lord the Exalted and Majestic said truthfully about his like: So this rich man is burdened. I have seen people, merchants, who were afflicted one day with visiting them. My brother, he talks to you and he doesn’t talk to you; his mind is not with you. You talk, his mind is not with you; his mind is in trade. He is excused, but not excused. This one is happy? No, by Allah, he is not happy. When he goes home, he wants to sleep. Do you think he is like...The Shaykh : No, my wife used to be amazed at me. I hardly put my side on my pillow before I go like this. No, by Allah, I am not like a man with a hundred problems. This one ate his money, this one stole, this one wrote a check, and you know, the problems of merchants.

The questioner : I testify against you with this testimony, not just your wife, and I testify against you when you put your head down.

The Shaykh : So the witness, I want to mention some true stories that happened in the early time and are considered an explanation of this verse, which is and it is in the two Sahihs, and praise be to Allah. The first is in Sahih al-Bukhari: No writing, no check, no witnesses, nothing, on the basis of trust. Like your companion there who was imprisoned until a year passed and he lost from him. He went to do, and by Allah the Exalted, what... and he gathered good money, but he thought he could not return to the man on the appointed day. And this is not permissible. What did he do? You will say “Dawud,” you will say “Blessing,” you will say “Fool,” bring whatever you want. As for me, I am not with you, because deeds are judged by their endings. Look at the story, what did he do? Meaning he doesn’t want it explained to him because he is more knowledgeable of the unseen. I am not a traitor. The time came, so you were the guarantor and you were the witness. Our Lord, the One capable of everything, commanded the wave to take the plank to the shore of the sea, in which was the creditor. The creditor came out on the appointed time to meet his companion. He waited, waited. Allah knows best. No one came. His gaze fell on this plank playing with the waves before him. He stretched his hand to take it. A plank for the lamp, heavy... he went home and broke it... one hundred dinars, red, strange, a little, one day, two days. Allah is All-Knowing. If the man, look, is this man a fool, barren, or a believer? He paid him one hundred dinars because he knew what he was doing. Meaning he followed the path of the madmen who rely on Allah and do not act on His saying (peace and blessings be upon him) No mind, but he relied. But this is excused. What does he do? The time will come, and he cannot reach. If he relied on Allah and did his deed, but he neglected what he did when the opportunity was given to him and he came to the rich man and said to him, “Please.” The rich man is here, look. “Birds fall according to their kind.” Pure hearts. We need these hearts. The rich man will say, “I came out according to the appointment to meet you. You did not come. I found a plank, took it home, broke it, and there were one hundred dinars in it.” He said to him, “By Allah, this is what I did. The time was tight for me, and I knew I could not come to you at the appointed time, and I did such and such.” He said, “Allah has fulfilled for you.” And he returned to him. What about the one hundred dinars? He could easily have taken the second one hundred dinars, and no one would know except the Knower of the Unseen. That person could say, “I sent you by registered mail such and such.” No, the matter is above nature, above the system of the entire universe. This is the verification of His saying, the Exalted: He made for him a way out above the cosmic systems. He subjected the sea for him, and Allah the Exalted and Majestic delivered his right to its owner.