The Garden of Knowledge

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

05 Rajab 1444/27 January 2023

All praise is due to Allah, the Cherisher, Sustainer, Nourisher and Provider of the entire creation. May peace, blessings and salutations be upon our Beloved Prophet Muhammed ﷺ.

In previous articles, we looked at the first 2 sets of verses which were revealed pertaining to riba. In this week’s article we shall explore the third set of verses which revealed pertaining to riba.

Allah ﷻ makes mention in Surah Al Imran, verse 130:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَأْكُلُوا۟ ٱلرِّبَوٰٓا۟ أَضْعَـٰفًۭا مُّضَـٰعَفَةًۭ ۖ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
“O believers! Do not consume interest, multiplying it many times over. And be mindful of Allah, so you may prosper.”

Scholars have estimated this verse to being revealed in the second year of Hijra around the time of the battle of Uhud on the basis of the context of previous and following verses.

The above mentioned verse contains a clear prohibition for Muslims to abstain from riba and it can be deduced that this was the very first verse which explicitly and expressly prohibits riba for Muslims.

Commentators of tafsir have mentioned that another possible reason as to why this verse was revealed around the time of the battle of Uhud was that invaders of Makkah had financed their armies by taking out usurious loans to arm theirselves against the Muslims hence the prohibition of riba in order to prevent the Muslims from using this approach.

In support of the view that this verse was revealed around the time of the battle of Uhud, we find that Abu Hurairah (R.A) narrated that Amr ibn Uqyash was a man who used to give usurious loans and he did not want to embrace Islam until he collected what was owed to him and was afraid that if he accepted Islam he would have lost the amount of interest due to him. At one point, it so happened to be the day of Uhud and he decided to no longer delay his acceptance of Islam and approached the battlefield. He fought on behalf of the Muslims and achieved the rank of a martyr in the same battle. [Sunan Abi Dawud 2537]

May Allah ﷻ accept our efforts from us and grant us understanding In Sha Allah!

References:

• Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani; The Historical Judgement on Interest
• Tafsir Ibn Kathir
• Tafsir An Nasafi
• Tafsir Qurtubi