# Why did the Quran declare war on riba? *Why the Quran declared war on riba: tyranny, not repaying more* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/11/ - Date: 2017-10-19 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Are Mortgages & Bank Loans Haram? - Mufti Abu Layth (47:23–51:45) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucdrbLyGY70&t=2843s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/ **Topics:** Riba, mortgages and loans; Tafsir and verse study **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The Quran declared war on riba because of the tyranny of a loan-shark culture in a world of finite money, which modern banking does not resemble. The only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, which banks explain by inflation and motivation. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran declared war on riba because of the tyranny of a loan-shark culture in a world of finite money, and that modern bank lending, whose only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, is nothing like it. **Evidence, his words at 50:20:** “And that's why Allah declares war on it. Because of the tyranny that was happening. That is nothing like banks saying,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucdrbLyGY70&t=3020s) ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth says that unlike the finite money of the seventh century, money now has no limits, and human beings have eradicated poverty to great extents and afforded the common person immense luxuries, which could not have happened without these structures and this shared imaginative reality. He returns to the culture in which the Quranic riba came: an immensely oppressive loan-shark culture where money was finite and a defaulter was butchered or enslaved and his family kidnapped and sold, and says that is why Allah declared war on it. He contrasts this with a bank that arranges a house to be repaid over twenty-five years with debt management and twelve-month bankruptcy available should the borrower fail, affecting only a credit score. He says the only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, which the banks explain by inflation and by the self-interest that motivates the whole imaginative reality, and he again stresses that the borrower is the one giving, not consuming others' money. ## Sources and names cited - riba - Quran 2:279 (be informed of a war from Allah): https://quran.com/2/279 - Adam Smith ## Transcript (machine tier, 47:23–51:45) [47:14] Today we spoke I said that we had money 2.0 where it was de-elementized into paper. Now money 3.0 it was digitalized. All right. Money now created out of thin air. [47:38] Just add and look at the beauty by adding zero which means nothing. By adding nothing you create money. But, what do you create? You create riches. You enrich a community. You enrich because whoever has money, even if I'm as greedy as greedy can be I'm still spending my money where people are using it and those people are spending it. [48:12] Like, it doesn't matter whether I'm as greedy as I want to be. If I start spending money people somewhere are benefiting. But, you see unlike 7th century or 500 years ago or whenever back then in time money was static. If we had 5 million gold pieces in Birmingham, that's all we had. [48:40] But, now but now money has no limits. Human beings for once can actually eradicate and they have to great not globally, but to great capacities. They have eradicated poverty to great capacities, to great limits. [49:05] They have afforded your common human being with immense luxuries. How did they do this? How did How did this even happen? How could this happen? Without these elements, these ingredients without the ability of a a a better future, this hope this shared narrative without these structures, without this imaginative kind of money without this kind of So, what I'm trying to say is the culture in which Quranic riba came. [49:43] This kind of loan shark, immense, despotic, tyrannic kind of immensely oppressive culture, loan shark culture, where money was finite and fixed and gold pieces and if you didn't produce them, you were butchered or you were enslaved or your family, your children were dragged away and kidnapped and sold off and your wife and whatever your your relatives could have been, your father, your brothers, other people bear the pressure of what you did. [50:20] All of this was happening. And that's why Allah declares war on it. Because of the tyranny that was happening. That is nothing like banks saying, "Well, okay, you've got this house. We've sorted out the money for you. You take 25 years to pay us back. And should you not be able to pay this back, you have so many structures. [50:46] You can go on debt management programs. You can You can declare bankruptcy, which only lasts for 12 months and then you're free. It doesn't really I mean, it affects your credit scoring, but you're not nothing nothing like that happens. The only similarity here is the fact that okay, yes, they are asked that the amount of money repaid is more than the amount taken, but they are arguing that look, obviously to do that one, we've taken inflation into consideration. [51:21] Two, what they're saying is we wouldn't Look, they need obviously this whole culture, this imaginative reality works on motivation, which works on self-interest. So, coming back to Adam Smith, they need that pursuit of some self-interest to be motivated to generate this greater dream of a more prosperous tomorrow. [51:44] So, what I'm trying to say and then on top of that, you are not the person taking. You are not the person of greed saying, "Ha, I want to consume people's money." You are giving. So, when you do all of these things, I mean, sorry, when you take into consideration all of these elements, I do not feel that the mortgages or loans that are taken from banks today are what the Quran is speaking about. ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment ucdrbLyGY70/s/11. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/11/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.