Tammam Alwan – Riba A Path To Ruin

AI: Summary ©
The importance of Islam in warfare is discussed, including sub hesitation tactics like hesitation and negative consequences. The rise of Islam is highlighted, along with the importance of education and making changes to one's life. The danger of starting a business transaction, including restaurants and student loans, is also discussed, along with the need for positive change in society and investment in businesses. The importance of educating oneself and finding ways to make changes is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
O ye who believe!
fear Allah as He should be feared, and
die not except as Muslims.
Allah says
in
the Qur'an All
praise and thanks are due to Allah.
We praise and thank Him.
We seek His assistance.
And we seek His forgiveness.
We take refuge in Allah from the evils
of ourselves and the sinfulness of our actions.
Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide.
And whomever Allah misguides, none can guide.
I bear witness that there is none worth
worshipping except Allah, alone, with no partner.
And I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is
His servant and messenger.
Allah ﷻ reminds us in Surah Al-Imran,
He says, O ye who believe!
have taqwa of Allah with the taqwa that
is due to Him.
And don't die except in a state of
submission, except in a state of Islam.
And He also says in Surah An-Nisa,
He says, O people!
have taqwa of your Lord, Who created you
from one soul, and created from it its
mate, and dispersed from both of them many
men and women.
And have taqwa of Allah, through whom you
ask one another, and the wombs.
Surely Allah is ever over you an observer.
You know, subhanAllah, with just five weeks left
until Ramadan.
Allahumma ballighna sha'ban wa ballighna Ramadan.
Allahumma ameen.
May Allah allow us to reach Sha'ban
in about a week's time, and Ramadan to
gain from the many countless barakat in the
month of the Qur'an.
I was remembering how the Nabi ﷺ would
sometimes, when giving a khutbah, he would just
read the Qur'an.
That would literally be his khutbah.
Surah Aqaf, for example, a very comprehensive surah.
And he would just read it.
But I was thinking, how can we gain
from that, and reflect upon the Qur'an
and its meanings in a way that's appropriate.
And so I've chosen some of the translation
of some of the meanings of the Qur
'an, because you can't really translate the Qur
'an, subhanAllah, that I've chosen to recite at
the beginning of this khutbah that's relevant to
the topic.
In Surah Al-Baqarah, at the end of
it, after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
several pages in the Qur'an, is talking
about sadaqah, about charity, about the benefits of
it.
And we're going to hear many of these
in Ramadan, I'm sure.
Many of these, we're going to be reminded
of them.
Well, in the very last ayah in this
section, he transitions to another topic.
A dangerous topic that can cause ruin and
destruction.
And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
at the end of Surah Al-Baqarah, He
says, Those who give out of their own
possession, their own wealth, by night and by
day, in public and in private, will have
reward with their Lord.
No fear for them, nor will they grieve.
فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَهُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ But those who
take usury, those who take riba, those who
consume interest, will rise on the Day of
Resurrection like someone tormented by Satan's touch, beaten
by shaitan into insanity.
This is the state.
That is because they say, trade and usury
are the same.
Oh, business and interest and riba, it's all
the same.
But Allah has allowed trade or business, bay
'ah.
And He's forbidden riba, usury, interest.
Whoever, on receiving Allah's warning, stops taking usury,
stops taking this riba, stops taking this interest,
may keep his past gains.
Allah will be his judge.
His affairs rest with Allah.
But whoever goes back to riba, will be
an inhabitant of the fire, there to remain.
What a scary, scary warning about riba that
we have in the Qur'an and countless
ahadith.
Allah continues as we're reflecting.
Because again, the month of Ramadan should be
the month of reflection, and we should prepare
ourselves from now.
Even reading half a page and reading the
translation, and just stopping to reflect on the
meanings of this book, that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala sent as guidance until the Day
of Rising.
He continues subhanahu wa ta'ala, and He
says, Allah ruins, Allah destroys riba, usury, interest.
But He blesses charitable deeds.
These sadaqat, why?
How?
With multiple increase.
With multiple increase.
And He doesn't love an ungrateful sinner.
Or a sinning disbeliever.
SubhanAllah, disbelief in these ayat, subhanAllah, is compared
with riba.
And fire is compared, that's how serious, subhanAllah,
the warning is in the Qur'an.
It's scary when you read it.
And notice the contrast, right after those pages
about sadaqa, the contrast between sadaqa, giving and
charity, and riba, usury, interest.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, those who
believe, do good deeds, keep up the prayer,
give zakah, will have their reward with their
Lord.
لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ Another time,
there will be no fear for them, nor
will they grieve.
And then in kind of the last section,
or the second part of this, Allah says,
O you who believe, beware of Allah, have
taqwa of Allah, fear Allah, give up any
outstanding dues, anything remaining from riba, from interest,
from usury, if you're true believers, if you're
true believers.
But if you don't, then be warned of
a war from Allah and His Messenger.
The only other situation is in the hadith
al-Qudsi, which was said here by Shaykh
Yasir a few weeks ago from Riyadh al
-Saliheen, it's in the 40 of Imam al
-Nawawi, that, مَنْ عَادَ لِي وَلِيًا فَقَدْ آذَنْتُهُ
بِالْحَرْبِ That if you're showing hostility, animosity, you're
trying to go to war, you know, against
who, against one of the awliya, then Allah
says, then be warned, I'm going to war
with you.
What a scary situation.
And this is mentioned in the Qur'an,
that if you're taking usury, then prepare yourself
to go to war with the Creator.
Subhanallah, how scary.
And then He says, if you repent, you
can keep your capital, you can keep your
interest, you won't suffer loss, you won't harm
yourself, you won't cause others to be harmed.
And then He says to do with debts,
right?
He says if a debtor, so someone owes
you money, is in difficulty, then delay things
for them, make it easy for them.
But still, if you were to just write
it off as charity, that would be better
for you, if only you knew.
And this last ayah, how it connects, and
many Mufassirun, they say that this ayah is
the very last ayah that was revealed on
Rasulullah ﷺ.
And he says, beware of a day, fear
a day, have taqwa of a day.
When you will be returned to Allah, every
soul will be paid in full for what
it has earned.
Everything you got.
And no one will be wronged.
And subhanallah, why is riba?
Riba is ever relevant, but especially now with
a new presidential administration taking over, and talks
of the Fed, talks of interest rates, talk
of the economy, talks of stocks going up
and down, investments, cryptocurrency, subhanallah, it's on everyone's
mind.
This is a warning, that we have rules
of engagement when it comes to finances.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala very severely,
severely, prohibits us and warns us against engaging
in riba, engaging in usury, engaging in interest.
And many of the people, subhanallah, at the
so-called top in power, they've gained their
wealth, if you see it, through riba, through
interest.
And the second is Ramadan that's coming up.
We mention sadaqa so often, but remember, takhliya
and tahliya, get rid of the bad.
If you have interest right now that's affecting
you, negatively affecting your life, and it has
disastrous consequences in the dunya and in the
akhira, this is the time to get rid
of it.
Who is this relevant to?
Student loans, when trying to pursue an education
with a degree, starting a business, buying a
house or a car.
Okay, I want to buy this house for
$500,000.
Well, at this conventional interest-bearing mortgage, it's
7%, so you're going to end up spending
$1.2 million over 30 years.
$500,000 to pay us back, but $700
,000 because we lent you the money.
Just like if you were to tell me,
Hey, I need $10 right now.
Fine, I'll give you $10, but tomorrow I
want $15 from you because I'm giving it
to you right now.
That's haram, that's riba, that's not allowed.
Investments, when we're investing our money, we want
to grow it.
We have to beware of riba transactions.
Taking a job in an industry, when I'm
writing riba or giving riba or receiving riba,
it's so dangerous.
And credit cards, and being lax with it.
You know, it's okay, it's a low interest
rate.
I'll just keep spending beyond my means, and
I'll deal with it later.
So what is the call to action?
Three things insha'Allah.
One, education.
Educate yourselves and your families about riba and
proper financial transactions.
A khutbah can't cover everything, it's just impossible,
right?
There are so many institutes popping up around
DFW, I can't even keep track of them,
subhanAllah.
So many mashayikhs, so many ulema are teaching
classes, and they cover this.
Take a class online, educate yourself.
Simplify the issue to children.
You know, if you give me five dates
now, because the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for
dates.
If you give me five dates, my dear
son, my dear daughter, because I'm in need,
I want to break my fast or something,
can I give you, do I have to
pay you back, are you going to force
me to pay you back ten tomorrow?
Because you gave it to me now.
No, that's haram, that's riba, that's interest, that's
not allowed.
Second, make changes in your life for the
better.
I'm not saying quit your job right now
and make all these, but just educate yourself.
Understand what transactions are dipping into riba, and
see what changes can I make.
For example, I have an interest bearing loan,
not me, but for an example.
And I'm about to move in the next
month.
Okay, let me switch to some sort of
Islamic finance, another opportunity where it's going to
be shariah compliant.
And some people, subhanAllah, in our community are
not even doing these because of their scrupulousness
and their warah.
They're like, I want to stay for another
solution.
And mashaAllah, that's praiseworthy.
But there are ulama who have allowed that
as well.
You're in a job, start searching.
Send your resumes out.
Network, see how you can change the situation.
You have a few payments left on your
car, six months, and there's interest.
Try to live frugally.
Try to live way, you know, tighten up
with the family and try to pay them
off.
You have credit card payments from several credit
cards.
Start with the smallest one and get rid
of this and get yourself out of this
situation as soon as possible.
And know, my brothers and sisters, that you're
going to face difficulty when doing this.
You'll be tested by Allah when doing this.
I'll share a couple of stories.
For the first one, education.
I was a younger man, subhanAllah, and I
was abroad at a dinner gathering, dawah azimah.
And I remember, subhanAllah, I knew about these
ayahs very clear.
And there was someone, an elder, who started
a business transaction talking about a restaurant and
starting a restaurant with interest and was talking.
And I simply said, you know, I just
want to tell you, it's clear in the
Qur'an, that this is haram and it's
dangerous and I just want to warn you.
I don't think I was rude.
I don't remember my being rude.
I was ridiculed.
I was laughed at.
I was insulted.
I was called names.
I remember, I remember, you know, the discomfort
I felt, but I don't regret it.
Why?
Because it's education.
At least maybe something inside later that night
would fall on the person and say, you
know what, let me reconsider this.
Let me take another path.
Making changes as well.
I recently bought a car and I wanted
it to be 0% interest.
And I remember calling all these dealerships trying
to find a way to solve this issue.
And I was in the finance department and
the finance person was a Muslim laughing at
me, telling me that I'm, you're so, why
are you doing this?
It's such a waste.
What if your car crashes?
And all of these scenarios.
And I'm like, look, I can sleep well
at night knowing that I have a 0
% interest loan that I didn't engage in
riba.
It doesn't matter if I'm paying more.
It doesn't matter if I lose more.
It doesn't matter if I'm paying this or
that.
Alhamdulillah, I'm happy.
And you do it with a smile on
your face.
And lastly, the last piece of advice is
how can we make changes in our society,
in our community.
Beyond me, beyond education, beyond making personal changes,
how can we do that?
SubhanAllah, in our community, here at VRIC, we
have the founder and president of an organization
and an executive director of an organization called
Continuous Charity.
And I didn't tell them I was going
to say this and we didn't coordinate or
anything.
And what are they focused on?
We want to get students out of riba.
We want to have interest-free loans, qart
hasan.
How beautiful, subhanAllah.
That's one way.
Scholarships, offering qart hasan.
Someone needs to fix their car, they're like,
I need $500, $1,000.
Can you loan it to me?
Yes, but let's write it down because the
next ayah in Baqarah is the longest ayah
about writing.
We'll write it down, we'll do this properly,
but zero percent interest and you have, you
know, so how many months do you need?
And do that so we can help each
other.
And if you're borrowing money, don't delay it.
Don't take advantage of other people's kindness.
I'll give one more, inshaAllah, solution.
I'm part of a credit union, one of
the banks that I deal with.
And I have a checking account.
And subhanAllah, at that time, it was the
only one I had.
And interest started to come into it.
And so I called them up and I
told them, you gave me, you know, it
was a few pennies or a dollar or
something.
I don't want it.
They said, what do you mean?
It's free money, take it.
My religion, perhaps.
And I kept calling them and calling them
and calling them.
Guess what?
Every single month now, every single month I
see it says, interest 0.00. And I
have a big smile.
Alhamdulillah.
They made changes in their whole system because,
I think, because I kept complaining and complaining
and saying, this is wrong, this is a
religious thing.
I want this accommodation.
So don't doubt the changes you can make.
And remember, even with our halal financial mortgages,
you speak to anyone in the field and
they tell you, this is not the end
solution.
We need to do better as a community.
This is a temporary stopgap.
We need to rethink the economy and the
currency.
The Nabi ﷺ, he said, avoid the seven
great destructive sins.
And the people asked, oh, Allah's apostle, what
are they?
And he mentioned seven, and from amongst them
is consuming riba.
So to recap, one, educate yourself and your
family about riba.
Two, make changes in your life.
See, how can I optimize and be better
and get away from this?
And three, make a positive change in society.
You've seen the ceasefire, so-called ceasefire that
started on Sunday, while our Muslim brothers and
sisters continue to be killed, continue to be
murdered, continue to be abducted, continue to be
thrown out of their homes and exiled from
different locations.
And now in the West Bank and occupied
Palestine.
Most recently in Jenin, subhanAllah.
So when we're talking about financial transactions, also
keep in mind, boycott, divestment, sanctions.
I'm gonna boycott these industries that support the
occupation that are oppressing my brothers and sisters
in Palestine or elsewhere.
Something came up about Uyghur brothers and sisters
in slave labor.
You find out that clothing is made by
them or this company.
Stay away from it.
And divestment, in terms of our investment accounts
at work, we can bring this up and
say, I don't want to support these military
corporations that are funding bombs that are falling
on innocent people.
الحمد لله رب العالمين قيوم السماوات والأراضين والصلاة
والسلام على رسول الله الصادق الأمين عباد الله
اتقوا الله ويعلمكم الله والله بكل شيء عليم
يقول الله تعالى يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقْيَ مِنَ الرِّبَى إِنْ كُنْتُمْ
مُؤْمِنِينَ وعن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه قال
عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال اجتنبوا
السبع الموبقات قالوا يا رسول الله وما هن؟
قال الشرك بالله والسحر وقتل النفس التي حرم
الله إلا بالحق وأكل الربا وأكل مال اليتيم
والتولي يوم الزحف وقذف المحصنات المؤمنات الغافلات الحمد
لله رب العالمين مدبر الخلائق أجمعين والصلاة والسلام
على رسول الله الصادق الأمين عباد الله اتقوا
الله ويعلمكم الله والله بكل شيء عليم أعوذ
بالله من الشيطان الرجيم