Fear Allah; claim only your principal—wrong neither others nor yourself. As for pocketing the interest and saying, “I will give it away in charity,” such a person is like someone who scoops up excrement with his own hand, squeezes it, and then asks, “Where is the water so I can wash my hands?” This is plainly unsound.
Besides, who can guarantee that if one million—or two—of usurious gain came your way you would truly donate it? Miserliness might overtake you and you would say, “Two million! Shall I give it away or not? I’ll wait a while.” The days pass, you die, and the money is left to someone else.
Once you have acted thus you become a model for others. People will say, “So-and-so, a God-fearing man, put his money in the bank and took the interest—so there is no problem.” You will have set the precedent.
Moreover, if we grow comfortable with taking usury we will never strive to establish an Islamic bank, for founding such a bank is no simple matter: it is difficult, obstructed by hurdles and by people who block the Muslims’ way. If the public finds taking interest easy, they will say, “We’ll take it—it is a small thing—until Allah provides an Islamic bank.” But were we to declare, “This is forbidden to you,” Muslims would feel compelled to create Islamic banks that spare them these usurious institutions.
In sum, whoever says, “Take the interest and give it in charity,” is pitting analogy against revelation, even though Allah has made the ruling perfectly clear: “you may have your principal; you will neither wrong nor be wronged.” If the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, abolished every usurious contract from the Age of Ignorance—though it preceded the Sacred Law and its people deemed it permissible—how can any Muslim who knows usury is forbidden say, “I will take it and give it away in charity”?
Sadly, this point has been confused for some well-known scholars, and they imagined there was no harm in taking the interest and donating it. Had they examined the matter carefully and reflected, they would have realized their error. What answer shall we present before Allah on the Day of Resurrection? “But if you repent, you may have your principal…”—He never said, “unless you are dealing with unbelievers.”