we had parted—it would be usury. This is because Ibn Abbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—understood this restrictive wording to preclude usury from occurring in any other form. It is well known that “only” conveys restriction, indicating that anything else is not usury. The fact, however, is that the hadith of Ubādah shows that excess is itself a form of usury, for the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “Whoever gives more or asks for more has engaged in usury.” 1

How, then, should we understand the hadith that Ibn Abbās cited as evidence? We should interpret it in a manner that reconciles it with the other hadith, which indicates that usury also occurs through excess. We may therefore say: the only severe form of usury—the kind deliberately practiced by the people of the pre-Islamic era of ignorance and concerning which Allah Most High revealed, “O you who believe, do not consume usury, doubled and multiplied” 2—is usury involving deferment. Usury involving excess, by contrast, is not that severe and grave form of usury. Hence, Ibn al-Qayyim maintained in his book I‘lām al-Muwaqqi‘īn that usury involving excess is prohibited as a means to an end, rather than being prohibited for its own sake.