Chapter on Usury (Ribā)
Introduction
Ribā—with the initial rāʾ pronounced short, derived from rabā yarbū, whose original third root-letter is wāw—
Linguistically, it signifies “increase,” as in the Almighty’s words, “Then when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells” (al-Ḥajj 5), meaning: it grows.
Technically, it is an unlawful increase connected to a specific type of property.
Ribā is forbidden by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, consensus, and analogical reasoning.
Allah, Exalted is He, says: “He has prohibited ribā” (al-Baqarah 275).
In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (1598), Jābir reports: “The Messenger of Allah cursed the one who consumes ribā, the one who pays it, its scribe, and its two witnesses, and said: ‘They are all alike.’”
The Muslims unanimously agree on its prohibition and on the fact that it is among the major sins.
Ribā is blatant injustice, and the consistent principle of the just Sharīʿah is the prohibition of injustice.
Categories of Ribā
Ribā is divided into three categories:
- Ribā al-faḍl: this is the sale of a measured commodity for the same measured commodity of its own genus when both are edible, or the sale of a weighed edible for the same weighed edible of its genus— even if the sub-types differ—when one of the two amounts exceeds the other.