Alhamdulillah, the number of observant Muslims is increasing in our country. According to the results of a study by the Central Asian Bureau, the number of Muslims in Kazakhstan as of September 2022 is 13.3 million. This is more than 70% of the total population.
More and more brothers and sisters are beginning to perform not only the fards of religion: prayer, hijab, fasting in the month of Ramadan, etc., but also try to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), imitating him in behavior and appearance. People's knowledge of what is forbidden in Islam (haram) is also growing. One of such knowledge is an understanding of what riba (usury) is.
Riba is the provision of money on loan with the condition of their return with interest (i.e. giving money in growth). This word means «gain», «increase» in Arabic. In simple words, «riba» is a transaction that gives one of the parties a profit without the cost of any labor, in other words, the return of more money for nothing.
In everyday life, we periodically hear that some of our brothers and sisters have taken an apartment on a mortgage, a car on credit or a smartphone in installments. As a rule, we are almost always talking about an interest-bearing mortgage, loan or installment plan containing elements of usury, and all this is strictly forbidden in Islam.
My life experience shows that many of our brothers and sisters, among whom there are many who came to Islam quite a long time ago, commit the sin of usury out of ignorance or negligence, while responsibility for this great sin will become a cause for great regret in the Akhirah.
In the 278-279 verses of Surah Al-Baqarah it is said:
«O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers. And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged».
The hadith narrated by Imam Muslim says:
«Bribery is a major sin, as the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) cursed those who give or take it, and the curse is exclusively for major sins».
I often hear how brothers and sisters begin to doubt, being one step away from getting an apartment into an interest-bearing mortgage or buying a car under the car loan program. Sometimes they can be pushed to this by their parents, in whose understanding it is the duty of every Muslim to have his own real estate, in other cases – the instigation of Shaitan, and thirdly - fatwas of individual imams claiming that the absence of their own housing is the reason allowing riba.
It is important to realize not only the absolute prohibition of usury, but also that its commission helps to develop a banking system based on riba. Therefore, it is extremely important to strengthen our Islamic identity and solidarity, and this means that we condemn and distance ourselves as much as possible from such sins, just as we avoid everything related to drug trafficking, alcohol, adultery, witchcraft and other types of impiety and antisocial phenomena.
In fact, riba has many negative consequences, both in this world and in Eternal life. If we talk about Dunya, then turning to usury entails the removal of barakat from our lives. At the same time, the amount of our material well-being does not matter (for more details, see the article "How to get rid of loans in a halal way?").
In addition, the acquisition of property in a forbidden way creates an erroneous idea of our own success, because the sight of a brand-new car or the demonstration by parents of pride in their child, who finally bought an apartment for himself, even in a haram mortgage, gives a short-term release of dopamine, fueling the nafs with thoughts that we actually did nothing bad.
In fact, we imposed the shackles of credit slavery on ourselves at some point in our life on earth, taking our humiliation for a higher social status, suffered from a painful sin that lasts from several years to decades, the abandonment of which and repentance for which are only in the power of Allah Almighty.
Therefore, in conclusion, I will once again call my brothers and sisters to two important things. The first is to fundamentally abandon usury, and the second is to make your personal contribution to the support and development of Islamic finance in the Republic of Kazakhstan. To do this, just a couple of simple steps are enough to start with:
More and more brothers and sisters are beginning to perform not only the fards of religion: prayer, hijab, fasting in the month of Ramadan, etc., but also try to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), imitating him in behavior and appearance. People's knowledge of what is forbidden in Islam (haram) is also growing. One of such knowledge is an understanding of what riba (usury) is.
Riba is the provision of money on loan with the condition of their return with interest (i.e. giving money in growth). This word means «gain», «increase» in Arabic. In simple words, «riba» is a transaction that gives one of the parties a profit without the cost of any labor, in other words, the return of more money for nothing.
In everyday life, we periodically hear that some of our brothers and sisters have taken an apartment on a mortgage, a car on credit or a smartphone in installments. As a rule, we are almost always talking about an interest-bearing mortgage, loan or installment plan containing elements of usury, and all this is strictly forbidden in Islam.
My life experience shows that many of our brothers and sisters, among whom there are many who came to Islam quite a long time ago, commit the sin of usury out of ignorance or negligence, while responsibility for this great sin will become a cause for great regret in the Akhirah.
In the 278-279 verses of Surah Al-Baqarah it is said:
«O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers. And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged».
The hadith narrated by Imam Muslim says:
«Bribery is a major sin, as the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) cursed those who give or take it, and the curse is exclusively for major sins».
I often hear how brothers and sisters begin to doubt, being one step away from getting an apartment into an interest-bearing mortgage or buying a car under the car loan program. Sometimes they can be pushed to this by their parents, in whose understanding it is the duty of every Muslim to have his own real estate, in other cases – the instigation of Shaitan, and thirdly - fatwas of individual imams claiming that the absence of their own housing is the reason allowing riba.
It is important to realize not only the absolute prohibition of usury, but also that its commission helps to develop a banking system based on riba. Therefore, it is extremely important to strengthen our Islamic identity and solidarity, and this means that we condemn and distance ourselves as much as possible from such sins, just as we avoid everything related to drug trafficking, alcohol, adultery, witchcraft and other types of impiety and antisocial phenomena.
In fact, riba has many negative consequences, both in this world and in Eternal life. If we talk about Dunya, then turning to usury entails the removal of barakat from our lives. At the same time, the amount of our material well-being does not matter (for more details, see the article "How to get rid of loans in a halal way?").
In addition, the acquisition of property in a forbidden way creates an erroneous idea of our own success, because the sight of a brand-new car or the demonstration by parents of pride in their child, who finally bought an apartment for himself, even in a haram mortgage, gives a short-term release of dopamine, fueling the nafs with thoughts that we actually did nothing bad.
In fact, we imposed the shackles of credit slavery on ourselves at some point in our life on earth, taking our humiliation for a higher social status, suffered from a painful sin that lasts from several years to decades, the abandonment of which and repentance for which are only in the power of Allah Almighty.
Therefore, in conclusion, I will once again call my brothers and sisters to two important things. The first is to fundamentally abandon usury, and the second is to make your personal contribution to the support and development of Islamic finance in the Republic of Kazakhstan. To do this, just a couple of simple steps are enough to start with:
- Install the «tayyab» application on your smartphone
- Gradually transfer all your routine financial transactions to tayyab
- Regularly perform sadaka