usurious claim I strike down is that of al-ʿAbbās.’ Such is the ruling; such is the exercise of authority: the ruler must begin with his own relatives. How different this is from the custom of people today, where the ruler’s family enjoys something like diplomatic immunity and does whatever it pleases. In the Prophet’s time, however, he proclaimed, ‘The first usury we abolish—every last dirham of it—is the usury of al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib; it is cancelled in its entirety.’

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb reinforced the same principle. Whenever he forbade the people from some practice, he would first assemble his household and kin and say, ‘I have prohibited the people from such-and-such, and they will be watching you the way a bird eyes a piece of meat. By Allah, if news reaches me that any one of you has done it, I will double the punishment for him—yes, punish him not once but twice!’ He did so because relatives are prone either to break the law in secret or to rely on their closeness to the ruler for protection. ʿUmar would tell them, ‘Your nearness to the ruler only means the penalty will be harsher for you.’ Allahu akbar! By applying justice in this manner they conquered East and West, and nations submitted to them.

In other societies the ruler’s relatives are untouchable, but in the Islamic community—under the caliphate—the very first to feel the force of these rulings are the ruler’s own kin, so that no one can say he judged merely to shield his family from the punishment due the wrongdoers.

To sum up: through His grace, generosity, mercy, and kindness, Allah offers repentance to sinners: ‘So whoever receives an admonition from his Lord and desists, he may keep what has passed’ (2:275). We ask Allah to grant repentance to us and to you.

He also says, ‘Indeed, those who persecute the believing men and believing women…’ (85:10). This verse concerns the People of the Trench, who dug pits in the earth, lit fires in them, and hurled every believer into the flames: ‘…while they sat watching what they were doing to the believers. And they resented them only because they believed in Allah, the Mighty, the Praiseworthy’ (85:7–8).