Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, the longest Aya in the Qur’an is known as Ayat ud Dain: {The Debtor of the Loan]. Lending people money is part of the permissible transactions in Islam. It varies from being Mandatory to forbidden. So it can be recommended; it also can be not recommended; and it can be in the middle of 5 rulings which are permissible. Depending on the person borrowing; depending on the circumstances , Allah az zawa jal has mandated in this long Aya and the verses that follow it, that we should write, that we should authenticate, that we should ensure our own rights when we give and lend people; and the rights of those who borrow so that no dispute should arise afterwards. And authenticating such a debt could either be by writing or by the testimony of two just witnesses; or by giving something as a guarantee that you will pay back that loan, {Rehan or Mortgage}
This is Allah’s ruling and scholars have disputed whether it is mandatory to write it or not and say,” Well, this is my brother or my friend, that I trust” that it is just recommended to write it. It is an issue of dispute among scholars.
However if someone comes and asks for a loan, and you tell him to write a document to prove that and you see a change on his face or resentment then know that he is about to steal your money. Because no one comes asking for a loan and then he would refuse to have a document proving that or would have witnesses testifying to that unless he has an ill intent. And if you are shy, and some of us become shy to ask for such a proof or evidence. If you do that and he steals your money or if he rips you off your money that you had lent him and you go and supplicate, just before the mahgrib of juma and you supplicate between the Azan and Iqama and you supplicate in the last 1/3rd of the night,” Oh Allah deprive him of his offspring, Oh Allah destroy his money, destroy his health, take his wealth.” Allah will not answer your supplication.
Because you are the one who wronged yourself. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says,” There are 3 kinds of people that Allah az zawa jal would not answer their Dua. And among them is a man who lent some other person money and he did not have witnesses to testify or to witness what he had done.” So if he makes, Dua Allah would not answer his dua. The other two kinds are not relevant to us but just for the sake of argument; a man who had a woman with ill and bad manners and he does not divorce her, yet he prays to Allah za zawa jal,” Oh Allah give her a heart attack or Oh Allah do this or that to her.” Allah would not answer his supplication about her but not about anything else. And the 3rd one is a man who gave his money to a foolish person, a youngster, someone who is foolish in his family, and that person spent all that money, so Allah would not answer his supplication about that foolish person, because Allah said, “ Do not give foolish your money.”
Now lending is a beautiful form of worship, if you have a good intention and if you do it for the sake of Allah. The returns of investment, the ROI of lending is unbelievable. There are 3 stages; the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, told us in the hadith,” When you give someone, when a muslim gives a muslim money twice, it is equivalent to the charity, the sadaqa of this money once.
” So if I give you a thousand Pounds as a loan and you return it a week later and then you ask for another thousand Pounds, I give you that and you return it a month later, Allah az zawa jal, would reward me as if I have given a sadaqa of thousand pounds and the money is in my pocket. So it is approximately 50% returnable investment. Not only that, the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam tells us, if you postpone someone, who cannot pay back; So if I give a person a thousand pounds for a month and the date is due, so I say,” Give me my money back.” He says,” I don’t have any money right now, can you give me an extension of another month?” And I say, “Ok.” The prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says,” These 30 days, everyday, you get the reward of the charity of that money.” So for everyday, a thousand pounds of charity is being registered for you. Not only that Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says, if the 2nd date is due and you go and tell the man,” Give me the money.” And he says,” I am unable to pay you, I don’t have money.” The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says,” You have doubled the amount, everyday, as charity.”And this Hadith was reported in sunnan Ibn Maajah and authenticated by AlBani.
Imagine how many pounds we have in the banks or under the mattress or wherever you hide your money. When there are needy people in need of that money. Imagine how many people have invested their money in Haram rather giving it to their needy brothers, trustworthy brothers, who are willing to pay back,{ In Sha Allah}, who has good intention to pay you back, yet we refuse to invest with Allah az zawa jal.
Investing with Allah is the best business you can have. There is no credit crunch, no one would be bankrupt, because the provider is Allah az zawa jal, HE puts the food on the table, HE gives you the ability to stand, the ability to work and the ability to move around. However the Prophet Salla Allahu Alaihi wa sallam tells us that this part of investment has high returns. The Prophet Salla Allahu Alaihi wa sallam tells us,” On The Day Of Judgment, a man, whom Allah has given a lot of money, would be submitted in front of Allah az zawa jal and Allah would ask him,” What have you done?” And the man says,” Nothing, I don’t have a lot of worship, night prayers, voluntary fasting, going for Umrah, going for Hajj, I don’t have a lot of good deeds, but I used to have transactions with others and they used to buy things from me but on credit. And I used to tell my boys, when they used to go to collect the money,” If he is wealthy take it easy on him, and if he is needy and unable to pay back then postpone taking money from him indefinitely.” Allah says on that Great Day,” I, The Almighty, Am more worthy of you in forgiveness than you. So set him free and take him to paradise,” because of postponing people to pay back, who had loans and debts from him.
Now compare this with someone who gives 10 pounds as a debt and even before the man reaches his house, he calls and he knocks on his door, reminding him of his debt. Look and compare how stingy, how miserable and how miserly people are with the people whom they lend. Whenever you give someone money, always remember that Allah forgives your sins as long as you are patient and tolerant.
Abu Hanifa, it was reported, may Allah have mercy on his soul, may Allah bless him, used to sit in the shade of a house of his neighbor, every afternoon. One day his neighbor came and borrowed some money from Imam Abu Hanifa and since then he stopped sitting in the shade of his neighbor, why? He said,” I was afraid that by sitting in the shade of his house, who took money from me, would be interest and I don’t want to break his heart and remind him that he took something from me.” Allah says in the Qur’an,” And if the debtor is in hard time, if he does not have money then grant him time till it is easy for him to repay.” And this shows how close Muslims are.
And if he doesn’t have money, don’t bombard him with phone calls, SMS and knocking on his door. Give him time, he is not trying to evade or skip paying your loan or debt but he is unfortunate not to have the financial means to pay you back so be easy on him.
Now having said that {encouraging people to lend others etc}; as borrowers, Islam puts a lot of boundaries, a lot of restrictions for you not to borrow from others; I don’t know if all of you have debts or not, but the majority of Muslims are in debts, some are legitimate debts, you have to feed your family, you have to live and some are not. The Prophet Salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam said,” Glory be to Allah, Subhan Allah, what Allah Azza wa Jal has revealed to me about making it strict and limiting the issue of debt is, if a person were to be martyred in the cause of Allah and then brought up to life and martyred again then brought up to life and martyred for third time and he had debt on him he would not be permitted to paradise until his debts has been paid off.”To be martyred 3 times.
A lot of us Muslims are good in giving justifications and legitimizing our dealings. So a lot of us would say,” Yeah, yeah this is when we are dealing with a Muslim, but if I borrow from a government, if I borrow from a big bank, if I borrow from big companies, if I borrow from a kafir, then this is a different story, I can take their money, It’s Ok, It’s Halal for me.” And it is NOT. The Prophet Salla Allahu Alaihi wa sallam said, in an authentic hadith,” Whoever borrows an amount of money, with an ill intent, not to pay it back; he will meet Allah on The Day Of Judgment, as a thief, as a robber.” Just yesterday a brother came to my hotel and told me about one of his relatives, who was working in the USA, and just before he went back to his country, he took his credit card and started buying, left, right and center, things that he didn’t need. He went to his relatives asking them what they needed.” You need gold nuggets, groceries.” And he bought everything that he could think of and he left for good. This person would meet Allah azza wa jal, on The Day Of Judgment as a thief.
Likewise, this, you may not have it here, but we have it a lot from where I come from, but you do have it here, so I hear, a lot of emigrants from east Europe coming here working for you and you don’t pay them on time because they are illegitimate immigrants, not legally in the country, you make them work for a month or two or three and give them 10% of what you had agreed upon. This is robbery. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said,” You should give the man you hired, his wage, before his sweat is dried off.” Not to postpone it 6/7 months and then start, because he is in need, he cannot complain, then you start to bargain with him to make it less and less. Compare this with what you do and how you will face Allah azza wa jal on The Day Of Judgment.
I say what you hear and I seek Allah’s forgiveness and so ask HIM, Subhana wa ta’ala, for forgiveness.
One of the frequent Duas of our Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam was, seeking refuge in Allah azza wa jal from the hardship of debt, because debt, as we know is a humiliation in the daytime, when you meet the person who gave you the loan and it is a lot of burden and worries at nighttime, because you don’t know how you will pay it off. And to be debt-free is a merit and one of the blessings of Allah upon you. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said,” Three things, if you are free from them, you will be admitted to Jannah; one of them is arrogance, if you don’t have arrogance then that’s good; second thing is Ghulool, if I am taking money from the public wealth, taking money from the government, taking money from the Muslims treasury, {it is not a specific person’s money}, this is Ghulool; and the third thing is Debt. If you are free of these 3 things, Allah az zawa jal will admit you to Jannah.”
Now a majority of us keep on borrowing and unfortunately they borrow for silly things; for a bigger LCD, for a new video game, for a car, for a bigger house etc. And all this indicates the amount of foolishness we are in, because we are in this vicious circle of trying to look like others, to behave like others and to be in the melting pot, do what they do, even if it leads us to Riba. And this is the majority of the loans here and worldwide. You borrow, but you borrow with paying interest. Now you can camouflage it as you wish but any loan you borrow with interest, this is Riba. Nowadays, so called Islamic banks are giving lots of Shariah compliant transactions or “windows”, so they call, which is almost Riba; so they call it Murahaba, they call it Tawarruq, thay call it different types of schemes that look on paper to be good but if you look into the essence and spirit of it, you find it to be Riba. They sell you something they do not own, they sell you something you did not see. And then they take a power of attorney from you to sell it to someone else and then give you the money in cash, much less then what you have to pay on installments and all of this is a trick for Riba.
Loans, usually is equivalent to Riba, because look at the loans you get, rarely you will find a neighbor who says,” Listen, this is a hundred thousand pounds, go and buy a house and build it and pay it over a duration of 10/15 years.” Although Muslims have money, Muslims are not poor, but unfortunately when you are away from the Qur’an and away from the sunnah, you become stingy, you feel paying a pound takes away a part of your soul. Actually you do not have a soul if you feel like this. So look at the loans Muslims get. A lot of the Muslims say,” We have to get a mortage on the house.” If you say,” Akhi{Brother} you are paying Riba.” They say,” I have to do it, where will my family live?” Pay rent. “Yeah I would pay rent for 20 years? This is equivalent to buying a house.” Well pay rent for 50 years rather than get one penny, being paid for Riba.
The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam cursed those who take Riba, give Riba, witness Riba and register Riba. And he said in an authentic hadith,” They are all in the sin alike.” Even if you are needy, you are in th sin like the one who is giving it to you.
Look at the people who are borrowing for student loan. 3000/6000/9000 pounds and they sign on the paper saying,” Yes we will pay Riba once our income is above this or so and they are agreeing on paying Riba. If someone makes you sign a contract that it is permissible for you to chop off my leg if I don’t pay back or to do something more heinous, you would not approve. And Riba is one of the 7 major sins in Islam. They say, “This is alright, what should I do? This means I would not be able to go to the university.” So what? Don’t go or go to the university and then end up in hell. Those who borrow through credit cards, people buy through credit cards left, right and center. They know and they have signed a paper stating that after the grace period is over, if I don’t pay back, I am gonna pay you 5% or 7%. This is Riba. They say,” Yeah sheikh what can I do?” What can you do? You are agreeing on this and you are doing this and you are paying this and then you supplicate to Allah,” Oh Allah free Palestine.” How will Allah az zawa jal answer your call? “Oh Allah cure my son, Oh Allah guide my wife, Oh Allah pay off my debts.” You are doing this and Allah az zawa jal does not answer the supplication, the Dua of a person whose income is made of Haram.
Now, we all know that the person who has debt will not enter Jannah. But Ibn Abd Al Barr, may Allah have mercy on his soul, justified this and said, this is to a person who takes up a debt; who’s capable of paying it but does not pay; or he takes up a debt for something that is not a need, he takes it for extravagance or showing off and on top of that he knows it that he will not be able to pay it back due to his position. But a person who takes a debt for something that is essential in his life, it’s a matter of life and death and it’s an interest free debt and he intends to pay it off but is unable to, until he dies then he will not be included in this hadith or warning of the Prophet Salla Allahu Alaihi wa sallam. Therefore my advice to those who have money, Akhi{brother} look around, someone who you know for 20/30 years and you trust him like a brother, give him the money if he needs as a loan, interest free of course. But make your Tawwakul{Trust} on Allah az zawa jal and keep your intention to help people instead of enforcing them to go to Riba based bank. Always authenticate your debts, even if it’s your brother.
This is not your money, tomorrow when you die; and if you had given your brother 10,000 pounds and if there are no documents to prove it, then you are depriving your offspring, your heirs, your sons and daughters and wives from this money, because you did not register it. Do not and I repeat, do not spread around your bad experiences. If someone’s saying,” I want to give this brother 10,000 Pounds.” This other brother comes up and says,” Wallahi, akhi, couple of years ago I gave a loan of 10,000 Pounds to this practicing brother, who used to pray in the first row in the masjid, and till date, even if I call him and remind him, he does not pay me back.” This man, who was going to lend the money to his brother, will withdraw from doing so, after hearing this. Never spread the bad experiences you have had because people will never ever do good deeds then.
If you come back from Hajj and if you say,” It was hot, it was humid, it was dirty and the people did this and I was robbed!!” Next time you will end up finding the people discouraged to go to Hajj. Always tell the positive things for the sake of Allah aza wa jall.
And finally, if you have a loan, pay it off, even if it’s from the government, even if it’s from the kafir, do not postpone it because Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallm says, The postponement in payment of the debt, of someone who is capable of doing so but does not pay; this makes his reputation permissible for me to backbite him and makes his wealth punishable by the judge. It is Ok for the judge to take half of his money or whatever is needed. And finally always be grateful and show your gratitude to people who do you good. Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said, the reward of a loan, if someone gives you a loan, his reward, is to praise him, whenever I go,” This brother, Jazakallah khair, he gave me this, may Allah protect him, may Allah increase his wealth.” And the reward of such a loan is praising him and to pay on time.
I ask Allah aza wa jal, The All Mighty, that He prevents us from borrowing from others and that he makes us among those who share their money in lending others and to give us the upper hand and to make us fulfill our promises and our obligations.