Assalamualaikum,
We have purchased a house in India worth 42 Lakhs. We have already given 32 Lakhs in installments. Presently we don’t have 10 more Lakhs. So we need to take debt from others. I am 100% against taking bank loans. My relatives are also ready to give the money. My husband thinks what if anything bad happens and no one wants to or able to give the money. He says it is permissible to take money as a bank loan in case if no one gives or no one is able to give the debt money. Presently we haven’t taken money from anyone/anywhere. We have paid the last installments in June.
Please tell my husband to be patient and trust Alllah and stop thinking about bank loans.
الجواب وباللہ التوفیق
Masha-Allah, you have a religiosity and your ambition is great. You should make effort to mold the mind of your husband, and narrate the warnings mentioned in the Quran and Hadith, and tell him that the impermissibility of interest-based loans is proven from Quran and Hadith.
Allah ta’ala has proclaimed the declaration of war against persons taking and giving interest. In Hadith, riba is stated to be equivalent to committing adultery with one’s own mother. If any Muslim is told that if you commit adultery with your own mother or get ready to have war with Allaah ta’ala, we will give you money or will fulfill such and such need of yours, would any Muslim be ready for it? It is clear what the condition of the person will be just with this visualization, no description is required.
Although these words may seem harsh but considering the fact that the abhorrence of riba is continuing to dwindle, and it is being taken lightly more and more, and that people, considering unnecessary things to be necessary, are looking to make room in Islam for interest-based loans, and then complain of the narrow-mindedness of the Islamic commandments and the Muslims, especially of ‘Ulama, the need for this analogy to describe its perversion was felt, , with all of this in mind.
Hazrat ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “In order to avoid riba, we used to leave nine parts out of ten of the permissible and would take only one part”, therefore, it is necessary to avoid it as much as possible.
Although the Ulama have given permission for taking interest-based loan to the extent of need in helplessness and extreme constraint when there is no hope of anyone giving a loan, however, in your situation it is impermissible for your husband to take interest-based loan as your relatives are ready to give loans.
Please find below some references from the Quraan and Hadith regarding the impermissibility of interest:
احل اﷲ البیع وحرم الربوا(البقرہ: ۲۷۵)
Allaah ta’ala has made trading permissible and made riba haram.
یمحق اﷲ الربوا ویربی الصدقات (البقرہ: ۲۷۶)
Allaah ta’ala destroys riba and nourishes charities.
So is it not rebellion and competition with Allah to acquire that which Allaah ta’ala destroys?
فان لم تفعلوا فاذ نوا بحرب من اﷲ ورسولہ (البقرہ: ۲۷۹)
But if you do not give it up (riba), then listen to the declaration of war from Allah and His Messenger.
One who has declared war with by Allah and His Rasool, peace and blessings be upon him, and he does not refrain from it, will he meet a good end?
In Hadith, very severe warnings have come on interest-based dealings:
عن جابر رضی اﷲ عنہ لعن رسول اﷲ ﷺآکل الربا وموکلہ وکاتبہ وشاھدیہ وقال ھم سواء (مسلم شریف ج۲ ص ۲۷)(مشکوٰۃ شریف ص ۲۴۴باب الربوا)
Hazrat Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him, says that Rasool ﷺ has cursed the one taking interest, the one giving it, the one writing an interest-based deal, and the witnesses of an interest-based deal and said that they all are sinners and cursed.
عن ابی ہریرۃ رضی اﷲ عنہ قال قال رسول اﷲ ﷺالربوا سبعون جزء ا ایسرھا ان ینکح الرجل امہ (مشکوٰۃ سریف ص ۲۴۶ باب المنھی عنہا من البیوع)
Hazrat Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, says that Rasool ﷺ said that a person dealing in interest gets 70 kinds of sins, the lowest sin among them is equivalent to a person commiting adultery with his mother.
It is narrated by Hazrat Abdullah bin Hanzlah, may Allah be pleased with him, (who was given bath by the angels when he became a martyr):
قال رسول اﷲ ﷺدرھم ربوایا کلہ الرجل وھویعلم اشد من ستۃ و ثلثین زینۃ۔(مشکوٰۃ شریف ص ۲۴۶ باب ابربوا)
Nabi ﷺ said: To consume one Dirham of riba (i.e. using it) knowing that it is from interest, in the sight of Allah, is more severe than committing adultery 36 times.
Further, it is in Hadith that Rasool ﷺ has said that there are four people about whom Allaah ta’ala has taken it upon Himself that He will not enter them in Jannah and will not let them taste the blessings of it. Those four are: a habitual drinker, a consumer of riba, a usurper of the orphan’s wealth, and one who is disobedient to his parents. (This narration is in Mustadrak Haakim). (بحوالہ معارف القرآن حضرت مولانا مفتی محمد شفیع صاحب ؒ ص ۶۸۰،۶۹۱ سورہ بقرہ)
Furthermore, it is in the Hadith: Rasool ﷺ has said that when the interest-based dealings prevail in any nation then Allaah ta’ala imposes on them the scarcity of the essentials of life, and when bribery prevails in any nation then the awe and fury of the enemies overpower them. (This narration is in Musnad Ahmad). (بحوالہ معارف القرآن ج۱ ص۶۸۱)
Nabi ﷺ has said that wherever adultery and riba dealings prevail, the people of that locality have invited the wrath of Allah upon themselves. (This narration is in Mustadrak Haakim).
(بحوالہ معارف القرآن ج۱ ص۶۸۱)
وفی القنیۃ والبغیۃ یجوزللمحتاج الا ستقراض بالربح (الا شباہ والنظائر ص ۱۱۵ ا)(البحرالرائق ج۶ ص ۱۲۶باب الربوا)
واللہ اعلم بالصواب