Continuing the discussion on the outcome of one who fears Allah the Exalted.

The Shaykh : The second story is in Sahih Muslim. It is about a man from before you who was walking in a desolate area of the land when he heard a voice from the clouds: "How long have you been like this, O cloud? Rain on the land of so-and-so, son of so-and-so, today." We do not hear this kind of speech. "Rain on the land of so-and-so." The cloud was moving like this, then it shifted like this. It moved with the cloud until it reached a garden, and the cloud was emptying its load of water onto this garden. He looked and found a man working in it. He greeted him, and the man returned the greeting. The owner of the land said to him, "You are a stranger to this land." He said, "Yes, but I saw something amazing," and he told him the story. He knew that he was the one meant, because that cloud understood him there. The point is, he said to him, "By Allah, I do not know, but I have this land. I plant it and tend to it as you see, and I harvest it. I make its yield into three parts: one third I return to the land, one third I spend on myself and my family, and one third I give in charity to the poor and needy around me." He said to him, "This is it. This is it. If we look at this, our Lord has made the sky subservient, and He made that subservient to him. What? The sea. It was written for me to go to some European countries, including Britain, and I met here with many Islamic communities, especially the Arabs, who made it easy for me to deal with them. Questions about banks, O Shaykh. We know that riba is forbidden and that it is not permissible to put our money in banks, but what should we do if we do not do this? They will not rob us, or steal from us, or kill us, and so on. Allah is the Greatest. I was going to tell them the hadith you are hearing now, part of it or more of it, depending on what Allah facilitates. I was saying to them, "O people, fear Allah. If we gave one of you a thousand pounds, or dollars, or gold, or so on, or thousands upon thousands, would he put it in a house in the open? The thief who breaks in would know that there is so much here. Or would you put up a flag with a special sign indicating that there is a treasure in this place of this house? Take it." How do you imagine these cases? You cannot live except by the way of the bank and committing what Allah has forbidden for the most trivial reasons. They will kill us, they will rob us. This comes from a lack of reliance upon Allah. Look at that one from the sea. He relied upon Allah. He relied, though he was blind, but he is excused. These people do not rely upon Allah by taking the means. How far is the distance between the two groups? Allah is the Helper.

The questioner : ... We cannot do without banks and put our money in them, and it will be lost and gone. So when I explained to him the speech you mentioned, I reached a point where I said to him, "Are you afraid for your money?" He said, "I put it in a bank." I said to him, "I want to give you an example now. The one who puts his money in the bank, it is lost." He said, "No, it is preserved." I said to him, "I am telling you, the Summit Bank in Palestine, my Shaykh, it collapsed, and our money was gone. We are among the people whose money was lost there. The Islamic Investment Bank, our brothers, their money was in it, and it is still going. This ... was the provision of the bank, and they were giving a large riba ... they also collapsed, and he died and committed suicide. Also, money was lost on them. So these are people who put their money in banks.

The Shaykh : This is the law of the universe. Abu 'Abdullah, in Syria, this happened. There was a bank in the As-Suwayma' area, I do not know what its name was, I do not know. It also went bankrupt, and the money was lost. And then, my brother, there is a possibility. Suppose a person, meaning Allah has expanded his wealth, he can work it in trade. Now, what did we say about these people, the merchants? They do not buy a house to work in it. Good, work the money. Do not put it in the banks. But truly, the truth must be said, they cannot be active in trade.

The questioner : And yesterday, I got to know an engineer who told me he has ten thousand dinars with him, if they are available.

The Shaykh : Yes, you have no right to it at all, because if it were someone else, it would not be a problem, but you are the owner of the weapon, so you are afraid of it.

The questioner : He told me he has ten thousand dinars available, and that he will not put them in the bank. If he knows a person in debt, he will work them with him. So I said, Subhan Allah.

The Shaykh : This is the way. This is the way out. If they had reason. And I have given you the example of myself more than once. I am a simple watchmaker. I have been in the foreign building for some time. I have no capital. One day, when I opened my father's shop, he was poor, and he gave me twenty-five Syrian pounds, and that was my capital. I remember clearly that I borrowed two hundred Syrian pounds from one of our brothers, and that was it. From these two hundred Syrian pounds plus twenty-five, I got rid of the shop rent. I built a shop. I got rid of the house rent. I built a house. But I did not raise my head. Where did I build the house? In al-Diwaniyyah, in the area where buildings are forbidden because it is not organized, and so on. But I was poor, so I became rich. Zakah became obligatory upon me, and praise be to Allah. I have no money, I have no capital. What do I do? I buy for cash as much as I have. I know a man, sometimes a Christian named George, whose shop was in the prayer hall that overlooked the Burdah River, and you are going toward the northern al-Zawiyyah governorate, al-Zawiyyah has two sides. The bottom line is, I used to go to him. What did he have? Money. I would buy four or five watches, a pocket watch, alarms, according to the amount. If I asked for thousands, as others ask, he would say, "Please, take whatever you want." I would absolutely sell one, two, or three watches and go back to buy others. And this, you see, praise be to Allah, I have reached old age, and I have never extended my hand to a person at all, but to a job, where people run to seek jobs to live. Why? Because I am content with my free work and dealing according to the Shari'ah. I buy for cash and sell for cash and on installments, but not in the Kuwaiti way, rather in the way of trust. Do you see? I return to you. A person comes to me whom I know and trust. I sell at the same price that I sell for cash, because I am confident that he will return to me, and I am confident that I am gaining, not losing. I am gaining because I have lent to my Muslim brother. So if I sell the watch for forty Syrian pounds on installments, it is as if I gave in charity a watch worth twenty. So praise be to Allah. The believer means he is satisfied. Be satisfied with what Allah has decreed for you, and you will be the most worshipful of people.

The questioner : The verse...

The Shaykh : You frighten me when you ask this question.

The questioner : You will be the richest of people. Fear the forbidden, and you will be the richest of people. And be satisfied with what Allah has apportioned, and you will be the richest of people.

The Shaykh : This is what I spoke about and asked for support from you. So praise be to Allah, the support came. So this is a prescribed request for support.