What Is the Textual Basis for Disposing of Riba Proceeds, and How Does the Hanafi School Derive Meanings and Rulings from Texts?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Question
Is the fatwa to give one’s riba money in charity grounded in the Quran by way of allusion (ishara), or in a hadith that alludes to it? Also, how does the Hanafi school derive meanings and rulings from texts?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate
Yes. The Hanafi ruling that riba proceeds must leave the holder’s possession and go to people with low incomes when return to the rightful owner is impossible rests on a large number of Quranic verses and Prophetic narrations, read through the four modes of textual signification (turuq al-dalala).
No single verse states it outright. That is not how textual understanding works in the school, however.
How the Hanafis Read a Sacred Text
The Hanafi school recognizes four ways in which meaning emerges from a sacred text.
Imam Nasafi sets them at the head of al-Manar:
(1) the explicit text (ibarat al-nass),
(2) the alluded meaning (isharat al-nass),
(3) the inferred meaning (dalalat al-nass), and
(4) the required meaning (iqtida’ al-nass). [Nasafi, al-Manar fi Usul al-Fiqh]
The other great Hanafi authorities lay out the same framework: Imam Sarakhsi in his Usul, Imam Bazdawi in Kanz al-Wusul, and Imam Taftazani in al-Talwih.
The fuqaha prefer these text-based modes to analogy (qiyas). They will read a verse, considering what it alludes to and what it indicates, before they reach for analogy.
The verses on riba and the hadith of pure wealth do not say in so many words, “Give away riba money to the poor.” But they don’t need to. The Hanafis read not only what the verses state explicitly, but also what they allude to, indicate, and necessarily require.
The Quran Carries the Ruling by Allusion and by Indication
Three verses do the work together.
The first sets the limit on what is recoverable.
“And if you repent, then you may have your principal sums. You do not wrong, and you are not wronged.” [Quran 2:279]
By the explicit reading, the repentant from riba takes back his capital. By allusion, anything above the capital is no longer lawful property to him.
Imam Abu Su’ud, the great Hanafi Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman era, puts it plainly: the repentant takes the principal in full, and any excess is forfeit. [Abu Su’ud, Irshad al-Aql al-Salim, on 2:279]
Imam Nasafi in Madarik al-Tanzil and Imam Alusi in Ruh al-Maani read the verse the same way.
The second name is a matter of charity.
“O you who believe, spend from the good things you have earned.” [Quran 2:267]
The verse selects the good and the choice as the qualifying matter of charity. And it rules out the impure (khabith).
By implication, impure wealth cannot be the matter of a rewarded charity. It can be expelled. It cannot be elevated.
Abu Su’ud reads the good as the lawful and the choicest of what was earned [Abu Su’ud, on 2:267]. Nasafi and Alusi confirm the same reading.
The third declares the obliteration of riba itself.
“Allah obliterates riba and causes charities to grow.” [Quran 2:276]
The verse pronounces an erasure (mahq) on riba: its blessing struck, the wealth into which it enters is destroyed, and (as Imam Alusi adds, citing al-Dahhak) any benefit one expected from it in the next life is nullified, so that nothing of it remains for its holders [Alusi, Ruh al-Maani, on 2:276]. Abu Su’ud and Nasafi read the verse the same way: Riba cannot be the matter of a rewarded offering, because the Lawgiver has decreed its erasure in this world and the next.
The Hadith of Pure Wealth Closes the Door
The master narration is the Prophetic statement: “Indeed Allah is Pure, and accepts only the pure.” [Sahih Muslim]
Mulla Ali al-Qari reads the word pure (tayyib) in three registers in his Mirqat al-Mafatih:
(1) Of Allah, free of every defect.
(2) Of the servant, stripped of every base trait.
(3) Of wealth: lawful, and of the choicest of wealth [Qari, Mirqat al-Mafatih, on Mishkat 2760].
By the hadith, only that wealth can constitute an approach to Allah. Whatever sits in the impure range cannot.
Imam Badr al-Din al-Ayni reads the parallel narration in Sahih al-Bukhari (“Allah does not accept charity from unlawful war spoils”) through the same lens in Umdat al-Qari.
Usurpation (ghasb) and unlawful war spoils stand on one footing: wealth taken without right, no matter how routed, cannot become a rewarded charity.
The verse on spending from the good things carries this through what Ibn al-Munir (quoted by Ayni) calls the hidden inference, that is, the indication of the text (dalalat al-nass) [Ayni, Umdat al-Qari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari].
The Hanafi Fuqaha State the Rule
Imam Kasani sets the baseline in Bada’i al-Sana’i. The basic ruling of usurpation is the obligation of returning the very thing taken. Compensation applies only when the original cannot be returned [Kasani, Bada’i al-Sana’i]. The unlawful cannot be retained.
Imam Ibn Abidin completes the picture in Radd al-Muhtar: When the rightful owners are unknown, and the holder has despaired of reaching them, the obligation is to give the equivalent in charity from one’s own wealth.
This is the position of the Hanafi companions, he writes, with no known disagreement among them. [Haskafi with Ibn Abidin, al-Durr al-Mukhtar with Radd al-Muhtar]
But Ibn Abidin draws a sharp line in another place. A man who gives unlawful wealth to a poor person, hoping for the reward of charity, commits unbelief by treating as lawful what Allah has made unlawful [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, citing al-Fatawa al-Zahiriyya].
The point is precise. The exit is required. It is not a gift offered for one’s own reward.
The Majalla Codifies the Principle
Article 93 of the Majallat al-Ahkam al-Adliyya: What is unlawful to take is unlawful to give.
The commentators of the Majalla, including Ali Haydar, Atasi, and Ahmad al-Zarqa, explain that this includes: riba, bribery, and the wage of the wailing woman as the working instances. They root the principle in Allah’s words: “and do not aid one another in sin and transgression.” [Quran 5:2]
To pass the unlawful to another by way of merit-seeking is to make oneself a partner in the unlawful. [Haydar, Atasi, Zarqa on Majalla 93] The door to “unlawful-wealth-as-rewarded-charity” is shut from another angle.
Birgivi and Khadimi: The Fiqh of Taqwa
Imam Birgivi (Allah have mercy on him), in the chapter he calls “Afflictions of the Stomach” in al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya, opens with the rule: wealth one has come to possess by a corrupt contract is among the things that must be voided or given away as charity [al-Birgawi, al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya].
Imam Abu Sa’id al-Khadimi (Allah have mercy on him) unfolds the rule in al-Bariqa al-Mahmudiyya: the wealth leaves, and the giver does not claim the reward of charity for himself.
Extrication, Not Charity, for the Giver
So the pieces fit. Unlawful wealth must leave one’s hand. If the owner is known, a return is obligatory. If the owner is unknown, the wealth must still be distributed to people in poverty or to the public good. Retention is not an option.
But the wealth does not leave as a reward for the giver. The hadith of pure wealth closes that door, Ibn Abidin’s warning marks it, and the principle in the Majalla seals it from a third side.
The wealth leaves as “extrication” (takhallus): the removal of a stain, not the offering of a gift.
Mufti Taqi Usmani (Allah preserve him) states the rule in the school’s language in Fiqh al-Buyu’. Where the original owner cannot be reached, the obligation is to give the wealth in charity with the intention of extricating oneself from it, and conveying any reward to its rightful owner [Taqi Usmani, Fiqh al-Buyu’].
The reward, such as it is, attaches to the original owner, not to the one extricating himself from the unlawful.
The Word to Teach Is Extrication
Thus, we see clearly that the duty to “extricate” unlawful earnings from one’s wealth is understood from both (1) the Quran by allusion in Q 2:279, and by indication in Q 2:267 and Q 2:276; and (b) in the Sunna, carried by the hadith of pure wealth, the hadith on unlawful war spoils, and other hadith.
This should give some insight into how meanings are understood from the primary texts themselves, with depth, precision, and nuance.
And Allah is the giver of success and facilitation.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani
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Shaykh Faraz Rabbani is a recognized specialist scholar in the Islamic sciences, having studied under leading scholars from around the world. He is the Founder and Executive Director of SeekersGuidance.
Shaykh Faraz stands as a distinguished figure in Islamic scholarship. His journey in seeking knowledge is marked by dedication and depth. He spent ten years studying under some of the most revered scholars of our times. His initial studies took place in Damascus. He then continued in Amman, Jordan.
In Damascus, he was privileged to learn from the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas. Shaykh Adib al-Kallas was renowned as the foremost theologian of his time. Shaykh Faraz also studied under Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi in Damascus. Shaykh Hassan is recognized as one of the leading Hanafi jurists of our era.
Upon completing his studies, Shaykh Faraz returned to Canada in 2007. His return marked a new chapter in his service to the community. He founded SeekersGuidance. The organization reflects his commitment to spreading Islamic knowledge. It aims to be reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible. This mission addresses both online and on-the-ground needs.
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