The prohibition of usury is clearly associated in these Quranic verses with charity, for inasmuch as charity is the broad basis of human sympathy, usury annihilates all sympathetic affections. The usurer is compared to one whom the devil has prostrated by his touch, so that he is unable to rise. Such is, in fact, the usurer who would not hesitate to reduce the debtor to the last straits if thereby he might add to his wealth. He grows in selfishness until he is divested of all sympathetic feelings. Usury, moreover, promotes habits of idleness, since the usurer, instead of doing any hard work or manual labour, becomes like a parasite living on others. In the great struggle that is going on between capital and labour, Islām sides with labour, and by its prohibition of usury tries to restore the balance between the two, not allowing capital to enthral labour. It is in reference to the honourable place that Islām gives to labour that the Holy Qur’ān says that “Allāh has allowed trading and forbidden usury,” for while trading requires the use of labour and skill, usury does not. To help the distressed one who is in straits is the object of Islām and to reduce him to further straits is the aim of usury, and hence it is that usury is called “war” with Allāh and His Apostle.
Ḥadīth is equally emphatic against usury. It condemns not only the usurer but also the man who pays the usury1 because he helps the cause of usury; and, according to one ḥadīth, the witnesses and the scribe in a usurious transaction are equally blamable.2 Certain details are also added, describing the exchange of gold with gold and wheat with wheat, and dates with dates, as ribā (usury), unless it is a hand to hand transaction.3 Another report makes it more clear. Usāma reports that the Holy Prophet said, “There is no ribā unless there is postponement in payment.” (Bu. 34:79). This shows that only those cases were treated as usury (ribā) in which there was a barter only in name, the transaction being really usurious. Gold was given to a man on condition that he would pay a greater quantity of the same after some time, or wheat was delivered on condition that he would
1 Bu. 34:25.
2 Ibid., 34:24.
3 Ibid., 34:54.