The Garden of Knowledge

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

19 Safar 1447/15 August 2025

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.

Alhamdulilah, a few months ago, The Garden of Knowledge carried out an anonymous public survey with regards to Riba, posing the following questions:

• Do you know what is riba?
• How prevalent is riba in your life ?
• What do you do to avoid riba?
• Share with us any negative experience you had when dealing with riba
• Did it affect any of your relationships (family, friends or business)? How so ?
• Did you get through it and how ? If not, what are you doing to get out of this situation?
• Do you have any thoughts/advice you would like to share ?

We are grateful to all those who have shared their responses. The purpose of this week’s article is to share the results of our survey.

It brings great joy to share that every single person that responded to the survey is completely aware of riba and it’s impermissibility in Islam.

When asked the question of how prevalent is riba in your life, once again it brings joy to notice that 83.3% of those who responded to the survey try their best to avoid riba whether in terms of banking or day to day transactions as illustrated below.

What do people do to avoid and abstain from riba?

We came across 2 lovely responses which we would like to share.

“You have to make an effort to abstain from it. Riba is everywhere, especially in todays time. Islamic banking is there to assist us yet many muslim have conventional bank accounts because they do not understand the difference and aren’t educated enough. Work for shariah compliant companies. In your own business endure you have strict policies and give lots if Sadaqah,insha allah this will help.”

“Avoid loans or accounts that are interest related. If any bank savings accounts earn interest always check accounts and donate it. Also only use shariah compliant insurance and for loans, albaraka“

We asked for participants to share any negative experiences with riba and some of the responses received are as follows:

“Not personally. But I’ve seen MANY people get so consumed that they can never get out. One loan to pay another“

“During difficult times we used our credit cards and a wooliies account card, both are riba related so our accounts became so high and the situation just worsened . Once we cleared those alhamdulillah and avoided such we feel there is barakah in our wealth..“

Has dealing in riba affected any personal or work relationships?

Some of the response we received are as follows:

“Yes for sure , If it’s in the family then there will never be peace and quiet in the house, in business there will definitely be problems until in the end our business goes from smooth to bankrupt. If with friends, sometimes friendship can be dissolved because of debts“

“People become violent in order to accumulate money that is earned from based investments“

Did you get through it and how ? If not, what are you doing to get out of this situation?

“We did .. i sold my gold….”

“Yes, I was able to get through the usury period by selling some of my personal assets, so now I live a quieter life because I have avoided one of the major sins in Islamic law“

Some food for thought was shared by our participants:

“If you can’t pay cash for something accept that you can tagboard it. Our community is too engrossed in materialism and that has eaten up the fabric of what we’re supposed to stand for“

“My advice, if you can or are able to avoid usury, do it, because it will only make your life like being in a dark tunnel that has no end.“

From our side at the Garden of Knowledge, we could have not asked for a greater response.

There is an article where the President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo proclaimed the following in August of 2000:

“All that we had borrowed up to 1985 or 1986 was around $5 billion and we have paid about $16 billion yet we are still being told that we owe about $28 billion. That $28 billion came about because of the injustice in the foreign creditors’ interest rates. If you ask me what is the worst thing in the world, I will say it is compound interest.” (Jubilee 2000 news update, 18 August 2000)

Not only do many of these responses show that people felt the loss of barakah and mercy in their wealth while dealing with riba, it also shows the harms and effects it has on our relationships with others and it shows the sacrifices made by those in debt to obtain clean financial health.

It feels appropriate to once again share the command of Allah in verse 278 and 279 of Surah Baqarah:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَذَرُوا۟ مَا بَقِىَ مِنَ ٱلرِّبَوٰٓا۟ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

“Oh you who believe, fear Allah and give up what remains (due to you) of interest, if you should be believers”

فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا۟ فَأْذَنُوا۟ بِحَرْبٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ ۖ وَإِن تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَٰلِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ

“If not, then be informed of a war (against you) from Allah and His Messenger ﷺ , but if you repent, you may have your principal (capital) thus you do not wrong, nor are you wronged”

Abdullah ibn Masud (R.A) makes mention in a Hadith:

لَعَنَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم آكِلَ الرِّبَا وَمُوكِلَهُ وَشَاهِدَهُ وَكَاتِبَهُ ‏.‏

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed the one who accepted usury, the one who paid it, the witness to it, and the one who recorded it. [Sunan Abi Dawud 3333] [Sahih Muslim 1597].

The above once again highlights the severity of engaging in riba. We implore all our readers to save yourself from this evil of riba, which could bring about more harm then goodness in your life. Secure your Aakhirah, even if we may not be able to 100% avoid riba, let us make a concerned effort to ensure that whatever is within our control is riba-free.

We ask Allah to save us from riba and to make us from amongst those who assist our fellows solely for the pleasure of Allah. May Allah accept our efforts from us and grant us understanding In Sha Allah!