# What was the riba of the jahiliyyah that the Quran condemned? *Three kinds of riba, and the loan-shark riba of the jahiliyyah* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/3/ - Date: 2017-10-19 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Are Mortgages & Bank Loans Haram? - Mufti Abu Layth (5:31–9:16) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucdrbLyGY70&t=331s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/ **Topics:** Riba, mortgages and loans; Pre-Islamic Arabia **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Riba is spoken of as three kinds: riba al-jahiliyyah, riba al-fadl and riba al-nasi'a. The riba of the jahiliyyah was a tyrannical loan-shark practice of compounding debt enforced by killing, torture and enslavement. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth describes the riba of the jahiliyyah as a tyrannical loan-shark practice in which compounding demands on a debtor who could not repay could end in killing, torture and the enslavement of his family. **Evidence, his words at 6:30:** “Ribal jahiliyyah is the riba that it's a kind of inc- a tyrant like a very uh draconian highly oppressive loan shark kind of riba.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucdrbLyGY70&t=390s) ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth cites the verse that Allah permitted sale and forbade riba, and says that in Islam riba is spoken of as three things, though the Quran uses the word generally and usually refers to one of them: riba al-jahiliyyah, riba al-fadl and riba al-nasi'a. He describes riba al-jahiliyyah as the draconian, highly oppressive loan-shark riba of pre-Islamic Arabia: a borrower in need of gold who could not repay faced compounding demands, and when he still could not pay he could be killed or worse. After a tangent on a famous Arabic poem about surviving the death of loved ones and one's own death being the greater tragedy, he says the debtor might be tortured, his children enslaved and dragged away, and his wife or wives tortured, and that this highly oppressive context, a loan-shark culture to the power of ten, is what the concept of riba contained. ## Sources and names cited - Quran 2:275 (Allah has permitted sale and forbidden riba): https://quran.com/2/275 - riba - riba al-jahiliyyah - riba al-fadl (riba of excess) - riba al-nasi'a (riba of delay) ## Transcript (machine tier, 5:31–9:16) [5:13] 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. [5:45] So what is this riba? Riba in the Quran uh is mentioned as three things. Okay. Sorry, not in the Quran, in Islam it's mentioned as three things. In the Quran riba is just generally used as riba and it is usually referring to just one thing. [6:08] But people will say all three. Okay, fine. These three things are ribal you've got ribal jahiliyyah, what is called ribal jahili, the riba of jahiliyyah. You have ribal fadl and riban nasa. These are three categories of riba. [6:30] Ribal jahiliyyah is the riba that it's a kind of inc- a tyrant like a very uh draconian highly oppressive loan shark kind of riba. Where that's the best way I can describe it. It's what the pre-Islam the kind of riba that was going on. [6:57] So people would uh they would they would require wealth. So I require certain amount of gold. Somebody gives me. Now obviously I struggle to pay it back. There will be compound kind of demands made. So you will give me this much this much this much on top. And each time I can't do that that continues to be compounded. And then it's usually followed by I could be killed in return or worse. [7:25] Sometimes being killed I mean, being killed is an utter tragedy obviously. Obviously, it's an utter tragedy and What's that? What's that poem? Where he says He says uh He says what in tabqa tufja bifana'il ahibbati is that No, something like uh Ah, it's a famous poem, man. [7:58] He says wa fana'u nafsika afja'u. That if you do survive you will come to see like witnessing the death of many loved people will be shocking to you. Be And he says wa fana'u nafsika la abalaka afja'u. [8:21] But surely you you dying is indeed a greater tragedy. So I'm not kind of denying that it's not a great tragedy. Uh Doctor uh ahlan wa sahlan and ahlan wa sahlan to all those uh just coming on late. Do click like and share the live feed. I'm trying to um discuss the topic of riba here. So people sometimes obviously they would kill you, but they would sometimes torture you, enslave your children, drag your children away from you. [8:54] Uh torture them, your wife or wives back then or whatever it is and you know, it was the whole highly oppressive kind of context to this usury that what that which contained this concept of riba. This kind of loan shark culture but to the power of 10. ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment ucdrbLyGY70/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ucdrblygy70/s/3/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.