(29, 30) “O you who believe, do not consume your wealth among yourselves by false means, except through trade conducted by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves. Indeed, Allah is ever merciful to you. * Whoever does that in aggression and injustice, We shall cast him into a Fire. That is easy for Allah.”
Allah Most High forbids His believing servants to consume their wealth among themselves by false means. This includes taking it through usurpation or theft, and acquiring it through gambling and corrupt means of gain. Indeed, this may also include consuming one’s own wealth out of wantonness and extravagance, for that is falsehood, not truth.
Having forbidden them to consume wealth by false means, He permits them to consume it through trade and lawful earnings that are free of impediments and fulfill the requisite conditions, including mutual consent and other such conditions.
“And do not kill yourselves”—that is, do not kill one another, nor may a person kill himself. This also includes casting oneself into destruction and undertaking dangers that lead to death and ruin. “Indeed, Allah is ever merciful to you.” Part of His mercy is that He has safeguarded your lives and property, forbidden you to squander or destroy them, and prescribed the corresponding legal penalties.
Consider the concision and comprehensiveness of His words, “Do not consume your wealth” and “Do not kill yourselves.” They encompass another person’s wealth and one’s own, as well as killing oneself and killing another, in wording more concise than saying, “Let none of you consume another’s wealth,” and, “Let none of you kill another”—expressions limited solely to another person’s wealth and life.
Moreover, attributing wealth and lives to ⦗176⦘ the believers collectively indicates that, in their mutual love, mercy, compassion, and common interests, the believers are like a single body, since faith unites them in what serves their religious and worldly interests.
After forbidding the wrongful consumption of wealth—which causes the utmost harm to them, both to the one who consumes it and to the one whose wealth is taken—He permits them the beneficial forms of earning and trade, occupations, and hiring and lease arrangements. He says, “Except through trade conducted by mutual consent”; that is, such trade is lawful for you.
By stipulating mutual consent in addition to its being trade, He indicates that the contract must not be a contract of ribā (usury), for ribā is not trade; rather, it runs counter to its purpose. Each contracting party must also consent to the transaction and enter into it voluntarily.
Complete consent also requires the subject matter of the contract to be known, for if it were not known, genuine consent would be inconceivable, and it must be capable of delivery, since what cannot be delivered resembles a gambling transaction. Every form of sale involving uncertainty is therefore devoid of genuine consent, and its contract does not take effect.
The verse also indicates that contracts are concluded through any words or actions that signify them. Since Allah has stipulated consent, a contract is concluded by whatever means establishes that consent. He then closes the verse with His words, “Indeed, Allah is ever merciful to you.” Part of His mercy is that He has made your lives and property inviolable, protected them, and forbidden you to violate them.
(30) He then says, “Whoever does that”—that is, wrongfully consumes wealth and takes lives—“in aggression and injustice,” meaning not out of ignorance or forgetfulness, “We shall cast him into a Fire,” meaning a great Fire, as indicated by the indefinite form. “That is easy for Allah.”