Chapter on Usury

Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—was asked:

About the prohibition of usury and the transactions people engage in today as a means of practising it; about an insolvent debtor who, when his debt falls due, rolls it over into another transaction for an increased amount; about the duties of those in authority in this regard; and whether the owner of the money should receive only his principal, without the increase arising from the usurious transaction.

He replied:

Engaging in usury is forbidden by the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus.

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, cursed the recipient of usury, its payer, its scribe, and its two witnesses. He also cursed the man who marries a woman to make her lawful again for her former husband, and the man for whom this is done.”

Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is an authentic hadith.” Thus, both are accursed.

Even if the original form of usury in the pre-Islamic era was as follows: a man was owed money by another man, payable at an appointed time. When payment fell due, he would ask him, “Will you repay, or will you pay an increase?” If the debtor paid him in full, that settled it; otherwise, the creditor extended the term and the debtor increased the amount owed, so that the debt kept multiplying.