the sin; such repentance will not benefit him whatsoever. In fact, it is little more than mocking Allah Himself!
How can you say, “I repent to Allah from this sin,” while you stubbornly persist in it? How can you proclaim, “I repent to Allah from that sin,” when you are already determined to commit it?
If one human being treated another in this fashion, the latter would say, “He is laughing at me and ridiculing me! How can he disclaim something I can see him doing?” It would be nothing but jest and play—so what then of the Lord of all worlds?
There are people who claim to have repented of usury, yet—Allah forbid—they cling to it all the same. Some practice usury outright, while others disguise it. We have often pointed out that the one who practices usury by subterfuge is far more sinful and blameworthy than the one who does so openly, because a person who resorts to deception commits two offenses:
- falling into usury itself, and
- attempting to deceive Allah—as though, exalted be He, He did not know.
This occurs frequently nowadays. Those who deal in overt usury are obvious enough, but there are others who engage in it treacherously and deceitfully. You will find someone who has merchandise that has been sitting in his shop for many years. A wealthy man brings along a poor fellow—driving him, Allah protect us, to financial slaughter. He approaches the shopkeeper and has him “sell” the goods to the poor man on credit in a purely fictitious transaction. Everyone knows it is not a genuine sale: the supposed buyer—the debtor—does not inspect or even look at the goods, nor does he care about them. Even if the sacks were filled with sand but labeled as rice or sugar, he would still take them, for the goods themselves do not matter to him; what matters is securing the cash he needs, so the shopkeeper “sells” them to him, for example