Means for Getting Rid of Usuary
One of the special features of Islam is that it doesn’t prohibit something without providing a lawful alternative which will make the unlawful things unnecessary. For instance, liquor is prohibited to drink, but it is permitted for a Muslim to drink any kind of juice (orange juice, grape juice, lemonade, etc.).
And when Riba was prohibited, business and trade in lawful commodities was made permissible. One form of permitted business is Mudaraba, which is a form of partnership where one person invests money and the other invests his skill and effort, and they share the profit or loss of the enterprise, so Islam did not impose any hardship on the people (by prohibiting Riba ) but rather it provided them with viable alternatives to it, among them are the following:
1. Qard Hasan (a beautiful loan): Instead of a Muslim loaning his money on interest which causes pollution and blight on all his property and oppresses the borrower, Islam encourages him to make the loan Qard Hasan, and promised him a gracious reward for it; Allah (SWT) said:
“Who is he that will lend to Allah a goodly loan so that He may multiply it to him many times...” (V. 2 :245)
2. Giving an extension to a person who cannot repay the loan on time because of financial difficulty, until he gets back on his feet. And Islam encourages the lender to forgive the loan altogether in this circumstance; Allah (SWT) said:
“And if the debtor is in a hard time (has no money), then grant him time till it is easy for him to repay, but if you remit it by way of charity, that is better for you if you did but know.” (V.2: 280)
3. Mutual aid by all means: This encompasses mutual aid on a social level, in industry and in agriculture, and social security by financing farmers and industrialists and craftsmen in order to enable them to produce effectively. This returns a benefit to the whole Ummah. Also, opening schools and building hospitals and homes for the elderly and the incapacitated and all other items alike fall under the mutual aid mentioned in the verse:
“….. Help you one another in All-Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness, and piety);…
The society which realizes these means will proceed, in the shade of this comprehensive mutual aid, happily and far removed from the distress of Ribba.
4. We should not forget the payment of Zakat to those who deserve it. This will have a major impact on getting rid of Ribba.
In conclusion: Beware, my Muslim brother, from putting your money in a (non-Islamic) bank. Even if you don’t take interest on it, the bank takes your money and loans it out to gain interest. So you are helping the Ribba system and are indirectly responsible. And beware, my brother who is poor, from taking loans from those banks.