Charity Against Interest

There is something of great interest in what follows. Looking back at these verses, one sees that Allah (swt) sets out at length the benefits, the virtues, the increase and the spiritual good of giving ṣadaqah, with its virtues and its adab; and then sets out the harms of interest and of an oppressive economics.

SubḥānAllāh, the very time through which we are passing shows why ribā is so grave a problem. They know that people need whatever they have, such being the economic condition of the moment. That is why they have brought the interest rates right down. They are down entirely. Why not put them to zero? They still keep a small percentage. Which shows that this ought to be the default state: that it should be zero. They can take advantage only where there is excess money and greed. Where that exists, where the economy is supposedly doing well and there is a great bubble, the bubble is further magnified by interest. But this is the true measure of it: it should be zero.

A few things, then, are worth a brief comparison, since Allah spends so long upon this and devotes so many verses to it: the difference between ṣadaqah and interest. For it is so hard to draw people out of interest. They see it as so logical a way of proceeding: why should I put in my own money? People do say this: why should I risk my own money? I take money at three per cent from the bank and make seven per cent profit, so I risk nothing of my own; the three per cent I give away, and I still make four, or ten, or whatever it may be. Why should I risk my own money? SubḥānAllāh, there was a family with a number of properties, hotels and the like — this is what the man said some fifteen or twenty years ago; and when he was called after about ten years, they were suffering, the downturn having come in 2007 and 2008.

These, briefly, are the differences. First: ṣadaqah is of such a nature that — Allāhu akbar — the two are utter opposites. In ṣadaqah there is the notion of iḥsān, of benefiting someone, of assisting someone, of purity and pure intention and mutual help; whereas ribā rests wholly upon bukhl — miserliness, greed, the dirt of it; interest and all that belongs to it is the dirt of wealth, and a most selfish disposition.

Second: giving ṣadaqah is far easier. It may be hard to give at the outset, but afterwards one has forgotten it, because it is gone. It has gone to Allah now. One need not trouble oneself about when it will come back. For when a man gives a charity, he gives it to give. With interest, with a loan, one waits for its return: when will it come back? And with ribā there is the further question of when the excess, the additional ribā, will come too.

Third: in giving charity one increases the mutual love between people; whereas with ribā there is much hatred, especially when matters go wrong — and then, subḥānAllāh, one begins to hate the man who charges one. Hence they are called loan sharks, and money lenders of that kind.

A further point is that for ṣadaqah there is an announcement from Allah of love: Allah loves those who give ṣadaqah and charity. And of forgiveness as well. Whereas for those who consume interest and deal in it there is a curse, and the declaration of a war against them. Which makes it, in the emotions also, a grave matter. In the emotions also it is a grave matter. Hence Allah (swt) says that those who deal in interest will rise as one whom:

Like men possessed. There are signs of such people even in this world, given over to quick gambling and quick turnovers, forever glancing furtively about for where the extra pound is to be made. In the Hereafter they will rise in that very manner.