Blindspot: What Scholars are not telling us?

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Specially Merciful.

All praise is due to Allah, The Provider.

"Allah destroys "ribaa" and gives increase for charities. And Allah does not like every sinning disbeliever." (Quran 2:276)

When I listen to my teacher teach us about fiqh of trade, one thing keeps circulating in my mind, and that is "Ribaa". This word is one of the most misunderstood word in Islam. I intentionally did not translate above, as it is mistranslated in many translations. Literally, it means increase or excess, or something that is unreasonably increases, or the excess that is not natural. And Allah knows best.

So, why did Allah used this word? Does it means Interest?

Allah used this word, because it represent the concept that is banned for us, and interest is just one way to implement it, but it is not the only way to implement it. Muslims who avoid interest are not aware that "Ribaa" is implemented around them in several ways, and everything they buy or sell has at least fumes of Ribaa in it. That is exactly what Prophet (PBUH) told us. So, what does it exactly means?

I was reading an article about how home prices have plunged 30% costing $7 trillion loss to US economy. I started to think. How can we lose $7 trillion? Did something break that we constructed? Where was the money that we lost? If we lost it, who gained it? Then, I realized that this money is Ribaa that Allah destroyed. In essence, the whole economy of this world is based on Ribaa, and the wealth is created, not earned. I will try to explain it in simple terms, because this topic can get complicated.

Majority of Scholars of Islam discuss the details that they can see which are halal or haram, but there is a blind spot that they don't realize. They do not include the global economy in the equation. This is what causes depression and downturn in the economies, and people are fooled into investing their wealth into a black hole of Ribaa system that sucks in everything but provides nothing. Alright enough of cliches, lets look at the example.

In the old days, price of commodities did not increase, and everything cost the same regardless of passing time. Now a days, prices go up, and if you convert one currency into other, you may get more goods for your money in a poor country. This is because that the standard of value is the currency, and it is not the price of the product that is going up, it is the currency that is being devalued. Moreover, the different currencies are traded by the standard of US dollar. So, everything in the world values against US dollar. Before 1973, US dollar was backed by gold and silver, so if Pakistan got bored, they can call US treasury, and say, "Hey, I would like to cash some of this dollars into my gold I gave you 20 years ago, and US will handover the gold". So, Gold and Silver value was static, as it has always been in the past.

Now, US dollars is the independent standards for the wealth of this world. So, the wealth is not grounded in the crops and cattle that Allah can increase, but it is in the hands of Federal Reserve of USA. Mr Bernake decides to print money and value of dollar goes down, and bread is more expensive in Karachi.

If we look at the value of Gold and Silver against any commodity like barrel of Oil, it is roughly the same since 1970, but the price in dollar has increased. That is Ribaa.

So, every country including Saudi Arabia has a currency that is circulated through their economy on federal lending. Banks are given permission to lend $10 on $1 deposit they have in the central bank, and ask the people to pay that $10 back by borrowing from another bank, and on and on it goes. This can usually be sustained for 15 - 18 years, before the balloon pops and the economy resets. So, where does the reset comes from. It comes from you and me. When you deposit your income in the bank, you receive exactly the same amount you deposit plus interest, but in reality, the value of dollar has gone down since then, so the buying power of the same money has reduced to 50% after 5 years or so. They should be giving us according to the increase in the value of Gold. (Value of Gold has also become a traded commodity, but thats another topic)

I see people so happy to see the interest on the large amount of money they have in the bank, not realizing that even with interest gains they lost their wealth. It is due to Ribaa that is the foundation for the value for the money we use. This is how Allah destroys our wealth if we deal with Ribaa. World economy will always be going through cycles sucking up our blood as fuel, until we re-establish the Islamic Economy.

Unfortunately, these details falls in the blind spot of the Scholars, so only a few knows about it, and the rest are slaves to this system without knowing about. I try to get rid of my income as soon as possible so I don't lose any wealth. Pay your debt. Give Charity. Give it to your wife :-). What ever it takes, keep only what you need for sure in the near future. Don't keep money in savings if there is no plan use for it. That is the Sunnah. Of course, if you want to go to Hajj, or send your kids to College, save it for that purpose, and may be invest it in Gold, business, cattle, something that Allah can increase for you.

May Allah give us strength and knowledge so we can avoid Ribaa not as interest only, but as business transaction, daytime trading, currency exchanges, money laundering etc. Of course, we can't avoid the fumes of Ribaa, that is in the air, because we have to breath to stay alive.

So, today any money we save will be destroyed, and any money we give in charity is locked in for us on the day of judgement at the same conversion rate. And Allah is the most just currency exchanger. This is what this verse of the Quran means.

And Allah knows best.

JazakAllah Khairin

Aware of the blindsopt
AbuArman Jumani