These, then, are six qualities of those entitled to charity. Most people disregard them, noticing only the outward appearance and dress of poverty, without regard to its reality. As for the other qualities mentioned, those who possess them are rare, and those who recognize them are rarer still. Allah grants His guidance to whomever He wills. These are the people who do good with their wealth.

The second category consists of the wrongdoers, who are the opposite of these people: they bleed the needy and desperate dry. When necessity drives someone to them, they will relieve his distress only in return for an increase over what they advance him. These are those who deal in interest. Allah, Most High, mentions them next, saying:

[Surah al-Baqarah (2): verse 278]
“O you who believe, fear Allah and give up what remains due to you of interest, if you are believers.” (278)

He begins the verse by commanding them to fear Him, which is incompatible with dealing in interest. He commands them to relinquish whatever interest remains outstanding after the revelation of this verse, while pardoning them for what they had already collected before the prohibition. Otherwise, they would have had to return what they had collected before it was forbidden. He makes this compliance conditional upon their having faith; whatever depends upon a condition is absent when that condition is absent. He then reinforces the prohibition with the gravest and sternest warning: that the one who deals in interest is at war with Allah and His Messenger.

[Surah al-Baqarah (2): verse 279]
“But if you do not, then be warned of war from Allah and His Messenger. If you repent, you may have your principal, neither wronging others nor being wronged.” (279)

Implicit in this warning is that the one who deals in interest is at war with Allah and His Messenger, and that Allah has declared war on him. No such warning has been issued concerning any major sin other than dealing in interest, highway robbery, and spreading corruption in the land. Both the highway robber and the one who deals in interest spread corruption in the land and obstruct people’s paths: the former by overpowering and dominating them, and the latter by refusing to relieve their distress except by burdening them with still greater distress. Thus, He describes highway robbers as waging war against Allah and His Messenger, and warns those who deal in interest of war from Him and His Messenger unless they abandon it.

Then He says: “If you repent, you may have your principal.” This means that if you abandon interest and repent to Allah of it, having already contracted for it, you are entitled only to your principal. You may not increase it and thereby wrong the borrower, nor may it be reduced so that the borrower wrongs you. If the borrower is in hardship, he must be granted respite until he can repay. But if you forgo it as charity and release him from the debt, that is