70 – The Danger of Usury


In this episode Shaykh Yahya Rhodus warns of the prohibition of usury (riba). Allah condemns, and literally curses, the one who pays, witnesses, or notarizes usury. This Hadith can be found in Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawud. This is an example of a prophetic prohibition. There are two types of people Allah has waged war on, as mentioned in the Hadith. 1) His close friends, 2) The one engaged in usury. There is an intense warning of usury . If Allah wages war against one the person will be ruined, and nothing is left for them of this life, even if one is outwardly living. There would be no quality of life in this world, let alone when that person returs to Allah. The one who writes it down is also liable, because he is content for it to happen. Imam Nawawi points out that one who assists is also wrong. Shaykh Yahya then explains that two types of usury that the scholars of fiqh point out. He then goes on to explain the analogy Imam Ghazali mentions, that money is not meant to create more money. Shaykh Yahya ends by warning of the many dangers of interest, and explaining what is meant by the dust of interest.

 

The Content of Character is a remarkable collection of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Chosen by the scholar, Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui and translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, this book was published to great critical acclaim.

Shaykh Al-Amin intended to show that progress among Muslims required not the abandonment of Islam but the recovery of the original spirit of Islamic enlightenment.

In this podcast series for SeekersHub, Shaykh Yahya Rhodus does a commentary on these concise and yet comprehensive sayings, with a special focus on character-building, morals, good manners and ethics.

Check out all of the SeekersGuidance podcasts by visiting https://seekersguidance.org/podcasts/