Riba Al-Nasiya

1) Abu Salih reported: I heard Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri (Allah be pleased with him) said: Dinar (gold) for gold and dirham for dirham can be (exchanged) with equal for equal; but he who gives more or demands more in fact deals in riba, I said to him: Ibn ‘Abbas (Allah be pleased with them) says otherwise, whereupon he said: I met Ibn ‘Abbas (Allah be pleased with them) and said: Do you see what you say; have you heard it from Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) or found it in the Book of Allah, the Glorious and Majestic? He said: “I did not hear it from Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) and I did not find it in the Book of Allah (Glorious and Majestic), but Usama b. Zaid narrated it to me that Allah’s Apostle (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: “There can be an element of interest in credit.”

‘Ubaidullah b. Abu Yazid heard Ibn ‘Abbas (Allah be pleased with them) as saying: Usama b. Zaid reported Allah’s Apostle (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) as saying: There can be an element of interest in credit (when the payment is not equal).

2) Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: “If a person conducts two transactions contained in one he should stick to the lower one or he will commit an act (involving) riba.”

3) Sulaiman b. ‘Amr reported on the authority of his father: I heard Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) during Hajjatul Wida‘ (the last pilgrimage) as saying: “Beware all the riba of pre-Islam days is written off today. You can claim back your principal. Neither you do any excess on someone nor will you be subjected to an excess. Beware, all murders of the pre-lslam days are written off today and first of all I write off the blood of Harith b. ‘Abdul Muttalib.” He was nursed in Bani Laith and Huzail killed him. The Prophet said (to the gathering): “O Allah have I conveyed the message?” They (the companions) said: Yes, you have conveyed. This they said thrice. Then the Prophet (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: O Allah, be a witness to me.”’ He repeated it thrice.

4) ‘Abduliah (b. Mas‘ud) (Allah be pleased with him) said that Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) cursed the one who accepted interest and the one who paid it. 1 (the transmitter) asked about the one who recorded it, and two witnesses to it. He (the narrator) said: “We narrate what we have heard.”   

Jabir said that Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) cursed the accepter of interest and its payer, and one who records it, and the two witnesses; and he said: “They are all equal.”

5) It is reported on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) observed: Avoid the seven abnoxious things. It was said (by the hearers): what are they, Messenger of Allah? He (the Holy Prophet, Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) replied: Associating anything with Allah, magic, killing of one whom God has declared inviolate without a just cause, consuming the property of an orphan, and consuming of usury, turning back when the army advances, and slandering chaste women who are believers, but unwary.

6) Samura b. Jundub (Allah be pleased with him) reported the. Holy Prophet (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) as saying: I saw (in a dream) two persons coming towards me. They took me towards the Sacred Land. We went on till we reached a stream of blood. There was a man in the stream. On the bank of the stream, there was another man with a stone before him. The man in the stream advanced and as he intended to come out, the man (on the bank) flung the stone on his face and made him go back where he was. Whenever he (tried to) come out he (the man on the bank) flung the stone on his face and he retreated to where he was. I (the Prophet) said: “What is it?” He (one of the two who took me there) said: “Whom you see in the stream is one who devours usury.”

7) Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) as saying: Certainly the time will come upon mankind when everyone will be receiver of usury, and if someone does not receive it, its dust will reach him.

8) Ibn Mas‘ud reported the Holy Prophet (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) as saying: Verily, even though the usury is abundant, it leads in the end to penury.

Source: Economic Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): A Select Anthology of Hadith Literature on Economics, Muhammad Akram Khan. Republished with permission.