The Strong Language of the Prophet (SAW) on Riba

The Strong Language of the Prophet (SAW) on Riba.

Finally, the Prophet (SAW) himself echoed the extreme gravity and dire warning in the Divine language by using the strongest possible language in connection with riba: Abu Hurairah (RAA) said that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said:  

"Riba is of seventy different kinds, the least grave being equivalent to a man marrying (i.e., having sexual intercourse with) his own mother."

(Ibn Majah, Baihaqi)

Abdullah Ibn Hanzala (RAA) reported that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: "A dirham (silver coin) of riba, which a man receives knowingly, is worse than committing adultery thirty-six times."

(Ahmad)

Baihaqi transmitted it, on the authority of Ibn Abbas (RAA), with the addition that the Prophet (SAW) continued to say: "Hell is more fitting for him whose flesh is nourished by what is haram." Abu Hurairah (RAA) reported Allah's Messenger (SAW) as saying: "On the night I was taken up to heaven I came upon people whose bellies were like houses which contained snakes which could be seen from outside their bellies. I asked Jibra'il who they were and he told me that they were people who had consumed riba."

(Ahmad, Ibn Majah)

Abu Hurairah (RAA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said: "Allah would be justified in not allowing four persons to enter paradise or to taste its blessings: he who drinks habitually, he who takes riba, he who usurps an orphan's property without right, and he who is unmindful to his parents."

(Mustadrak Al-Hakim, Kitab al-Buyu')

Samura Ibn Jundab (RAA) reported that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: "This night I dreamt that two men came and took me to a holy land whence we proceeded on till we reached a river of blood, where a man was standing, and on its bank was standing another man with stones in his hand. The man in the middle of the river tried to come out, but the other threw a stone in his mouth and forced him to go back to his original place. Whenever he tried to come out the other would throw a stone in his mouth and force him to go back. I asked, 'Who is this?' I was told, 'The person in the river was one who consumed riba.'"

(Bukhari)

The Prophet (SAW) also reaffirmed the declaration of war from Allah and His Messenger in connection with the prohibition of riba in the following hadith:

Jabir Ibn Abdullah (RAA) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (SAW) say: "If any one of you does not leave mukhabara he should take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger." Zaid Ibn Thabit said: I asked: What is mukhabarah? He replied: "That you have the land for cultivation for a half, a third, or a quarter (of the produce)." (The danger here is that it leads deceptively to slave labor.)

(Abu Daud)

It should be clear from the material presented above that the subject of the prohibition of riba is of supreme importance. Riba poses the gravest of all dangers to which the Ummah of the Prophet (SAW) is exposed today. Nearly every other danger pales into insignificance when compared with it. What, then, should we do about it?

Source: The Importance of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam

To Be Continued....