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Recordings › Are Mortgages & Bank Loans Haram? - Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Oct 2017 › Segment 2 of 13

Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand?

sadaqah sadaqa sadqa sadqah voluntary charity muftis ribaa sood interest koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat shaikh sheik shuyukh shaykhs hijaab hejab hijabi barakat barkat baraqah blessing deen al-din ad-deen ad-din

Religion as symbolism, and riba as one of Islam's symbols

LessonRecorded 19 Oct 2017Segment 2 of 13 in the recording2017-10-19-S02

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This segment2:04 to 5:31 · 3 min 27 sGeneral teaching

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Riba has become a symbol of Islam that many hold important without understanding it, because religion for many people is a matter of visible symbols. What people know is that Allah declared war on riba and destroys it while increasing charity.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth says that to understand riba one must step back: religion to many people is just symbolism, a point he says he discussed last week with a shaykh from Birmingham. People identify with religion through symbols and icons, such as dress, beards, hijab, rituals that can be seen, and later domes and minarets, which did not exist in the Prophet's time but have come to represent Islam, and this is why he himself is not considered religious by many, since he carries none of the symbols. He says riba has become one of these symbols: people may not understand what it is but hold it to be an incredibly important aspect of Islam. What they do know is that Allah has declared war on riba, and that the Quran says Allah destroys riba and increases sadaqat, which he explains as riba having no barakah and being detested by God.

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says that religion for many people is a matter of visible symbols, and that riba has become one such symbol of Islam, held to be incredibly important by people who may not understand what it is.

In his words

“So riba has become one of those things that is symbolic. That it is seen to many people to be an important aspect of Islam.”

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Some people are trying to correct my drinking. If you click like and share the link uh share the live feed get it out this is an interesting and important point on riba. I'd like many people to benefit. What's life if not lived and absolutely what's life if not lived on the edge. That is something I say. Right now I I need us to understand something here.

This is um slightly complex. I'm going to need you to bear with me. Okay. You can all be my murids. Ahlan wa sahlan. Yeah. Right now, an absolute love coming right back at you Murad Ahmed. Shukran shukran. Right now, the thing is look, listen. I need you to uh to to kind of focus on this. Riba

has become symbolic. Now we need to take a step back. Religion to many people is just symbolism. Okay, religion is symbols. This is why to many people and and this this is a fascinating point and I was just having this discussion last week with a sheikh from Birmingham, Sheikh Sajad. I don't know those of you that know him, an amazing person spelled S J double A D.

And and we were just discussing this point that religion is symbolic to many people. Okay. It's only about symbols. That's how they identify with religion. Hence me I'm not considered religious to many people. I mean, I'm not saying I am by their definition of religious.

Uh but because I don't carry any of the symbols that they would identify religion to be. So to them religion is symbolism. It's iconic. It's through icons and symbols. Now, and that will be partly through things like dress, through attire, affirmations, through rituals, through I suppose what rituals you can't always see like praying I suppose, but you can't always see people praying.

But you could see the way they dressed. You could see the way they have a beard or wear hijab or do certain things. And this is what it's all about to people, symbols. Now, from these symbols like domes, minarets I mean, taking into consideration that none of these things existed like that like domes or minarets in the time of the prophet, but these symbols have today come to represent Islam in the in the minds of many.

So riba has become one of those things that is symbolic. That it is seen to many people to be an important aspect of Islam. They may not fully understand what riba is. But they understand this to be an important aspect. So I don't know what it is.

But they think whatever it is it's incredibly important. The other thing is that they think riba I mean, they understand that riba is something Allah has declared war on. Fa'azanu biharbim minallah. That Allah says in the Quran that he has declared war. Yamhaqullahur riba wa yurbis sadaqat.

It's been highlighted something distinct to sadaqat and Allah destroys riba as in destroys as in you know, it has no baraka and Allah kind of detests it. This is the the understanding that God detests usury. Now ahallallahu al bay'a wa harrama riba, the verse in the Quran that Allah made transactions he legislated and authorized transactions, but he prohibited riba.

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Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-10-19-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7

Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, October 19). Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand? [Video, segment 2017-10-19-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/2/

Chicago author-date

Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand?" Video, segment 2017-10-19-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded October 19, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/2/

BibTeX

@misc{abulayth-2017-10-19-S02,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand?}},
  year = {2017},
  month = {10},
  date = {2017-10-19},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/2/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/2/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2017-10-19-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}

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