As for the ruling on riba (usury), it is one of the seven deadly sins—among the gravest of major offenses, and we seek Allah’s protection from it. Whoever engages in riba bears a resemblance to the Jews, the vilest of Allah’s servants, for they were the ones who devoured illicit gains and practiced riba. Thus anyone from this community who deals in riba displays a likeness to them; may Allah grant us wellbeing.

Regarding the threat pronounced against it, Allah says: “Those who consume riba will not stand except as one stands whom Satan has driven to madness by his touch” (2:275). Such is their fate: “they will not stand except as one stands whom Satan has driven to madness by his touch.”

Satan is given power over the children of Adam—may Allah keep us safe—unless Allah bestows upon a person the prescribed remembrances that shield him from the devils, such as reciting Ayat al-Kursi every night and other well-known invocations. When Satan overpowers a human being, he throws him to the ground; the person then flails with his hands and feet, staggering and stumbling. Those who consume riba are like that: they rise only as one whom Satan has struck—like madmen.

The scholars, may Allah have mercy on them, differed over the verse’s meaning. Does it mean that on the Day of Resurrection they will not rise from their graves except in this condition—emerging as though insane, as if Satan were beating them with madness? Or does it mean that, because they are obsessed with riba, they rise for nothing but riba, behaving like madmen driven by extreme greed, avarice, and miserliness—so that this description applies to them in this life? The sounder view is that, since the verse accommodates both readings, it embraces them both: in this world they flounder and act like one struck by Satan, and in the Hereafter they will rise from their graves in that very state. We ask Allah for safety.