Comparing the words of the Glorious Quran with the Hadith on prohibiting usury

[Zainab_M]

 


We all know that riba (usury) is totally forbidden (Haram) in the Glorious Quran.  It's an oppressive practice that further burdens those who are already burdened with financial woes. 

For example, if you are a money lender and a friend, neighbor, relative or acquaintance of yours needs to borrow 500 dollars because of some compelling situation, and you demnad 550 dollars to be the payback amount as a condition for lending, then you would have a difficult time on the Day of Judgment.

Let us read what the Glorious Quran mentions on the prohibition of usury.  Please check the following verses.  The Divine Words are eloquent, sophisticated and exhilerating.  Alhamdulilah.

"Those who swallow usury cannot rise up save as he arises whom the devil has prostrated by (his) touch. That is because they say: Trade is just like usury; whereas Allah permits trading and forbids usury. He unto whom an admonition from his Lord comes, and (he) refrains (in obedience thereto), he shall keep (the profits of) that which is past, and his affair (henceforth) is with Allah. As for him who returns (to usury)--Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.
Allah has blighted usury and made almsgiving fruitful. Allah loves not the impious and guilty.
Lo! those who believe and do good works and establish worship and pay the poor due, their reward is with their Lord and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.
O you who believe! Observe your duty to Allah, and give up what remains (due to you) from usury, if you are (in truth) believers.
And if you do not, then be warned of war (against you) from Allah and His messenger. And if you repent, then you have your principal (without interest). Wrong not, and you shall not be wronged.
And if the debtor is in straitened circumstances, then (let there be) postponement to (the time of) ease; and that you remit the debt as almsgiving would be better for you if you did but know."  2:275-281  Al-Baqrah

"O you who believe! Devour not usury, doubling and quadrupling (the sum lent). Observe your duty to Allah, that you may be successful."  3:130   Al-Imran

"And of their taking usury when they were forbidden it, and of their devouring people's wealth by false pretenses. We have prepared for those of them who disbelieve a painful doom."   4:161  An-Nissa

"That which you give in usury in order that it may increase on (other) people's property has no increase with Allah; but that which you give in charity, seeking Allah's countenance, has increase manifold."  30:39  Ar-Rum

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Now, coming to the Hadith which also disallows usury but uses such crude and dirty language with sexual connotations which perhaps even a degraded person from the streets wouldn't use.  Please check the following Ahadith.

From Abdallah ibn Hanzalah: The Prophet, peace be on him, said: “A dirham of riba which a man receives knowingly is worse than committing adultery thirty-six times” [Mishkat al-Masabih, Kitab al- Buyu, Bab al-riba, on the authority of Ahmad and Daraqutni].

From Abu Hurayrah: The Prophet, peace be on him, said: “Riba has seventy segments, the least serious being equivalent to a man committing adultery with his own mother” [Ibn Majah, ibid].

The above Hadith of Abu Hurayrah has been further 'frilled' by the imams.  I personally watched and heard on a television lecture of Imam Badiuddin Soharwardy in which he  narrated a Hadith mentioning that acquiring "usury or riba is like committing incest with one's mother within the premises of the Holy Ka'ba." 

This type of cheap and vulgar analogies used by Hadith make it transparent for us to look through these narrations and discard them. 

If the purpose of the Hadith narrators and writers for using such offensive language with references to incest and zina (adultery) was to highlight the importance of banning usury, it was not the right method at all. 

The Glorious Quran has already banned the practice of usury in very articulate, decent and sophisiticated terms.  By reading the Quranic words on usury, any God fearing and reflective person will understand the seriousness of the matter and stay away from usury.  The interference of Hadith using abusive language is NOT required.  Such embarrasing language of Hadith in its so-called attempt to highlight the importance of prohibiting riba is NOT helpful. It surprises the readers and distracts them from the actual issue, making them ponder over the vulgarity penned  by Bukhari & co.

Thank you for reading.

May Allah (The Most High) guide us to the path of Truth, to the path of the Glorious Quran, and protect us from the practices of the misguided usury takers and hadith writers.  Ameen.

All praise be to Allah Almighty, the Greatest.  And love, peace and blessings on the final Messenger and Seal of the Prophets who never uttered any of the hadith we read today.  The only Message the final Messenger delieverd was the Glorious Quran through the inspiration of Allah Almighty.

[Ruhi_Rose]

Thank you sis.  I was reading a portion of Surah Al-Baqrah this evening and came across some verses on the prohibition of usury.  I really liked them and thought of putting them up here so that people stop running after the Hadith narrations on usury.  It was a breath of fresh air to go thru your post.  Your comparison of the Quran and Hadith concerning the same law exposes the cheapness of Hadith most vividly.  Thanks for that.

Allah bless.