as he also declared that taking even a single dirham of interest is more grievous than committing thirty-three acts of fornication in Islam—in another wording, thirty-six—and that usury comprises seventy-two gates, the least of which is equivalent to a man having intercourse with his own mother.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The prohibition of usury is more severe than the prohibition of maysir, that is, gambling, because the usurer takes a definite surplus from someone in need, whereas the gambler may win a surplus or may not. Usury, therefore, is a certain form of injustice, for it empowers the rich over the poor. Gambling is different: the poor person may prevail over the rich, and the two gamblers might be equal in wealth or poverty. So although gambling is wrongful consumption of wealth and is forbidden, it does not contain the oppression and harm to the needy found in usury. It is obvious that wronging the needy is graver than wronging one who is not in need.” End quote.

Consuming usury is also among the traits of the Jews for which they have incurred an everlasting and continuous curse. Allah the Exalted says, “Because of the wrongdoing of those who were Jews, We forbade them good things that had been lawful for them…” (Q 4:160).