Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Hararī’s Approach on Interest (Ribā) in His Tafsīr Work Ḥadāʾiq al-Rawḥ wa al-Rayḥā

Abstract

Interest transactions and contracts are too old to be known precisely and exist in every society. The issue of the legitimacy of interest has been constantly discussed by clergy, philosophers, economists, and those who are interested in the subject since its emergence. While interest transactions with are prohibited in all divine religions based on revelation, some preventive measures have been taken against interest in many systems that are not based on religion. In the pre-Islamic period, the interest transactions, which were widely applied in the society of ignorance (jāhiliyya), are mentioned in the Qur’ān and the Prophet. It is forbidden in the hadiths of the Prophet. Interest, which is expressed with the concept of ribāin the Qur’ān, hadiths, and fiqh literature, has been forbidden with all its forms. Since the texts prohibiting interest are clear, there is an agreement on this issue. Discussions on ribā and interest in Islamic society were carried out over details such as the types of ribawī goods, which types of contracts are included in transactions with interest. Islamic scholars and mujtahid imams have developed a holistic approach when dealing with the issue of interest and have evaluated the issue in connection with the dimensions of creed, practice, morality, social life, and economics. In the contemporary period, the subject of interest has started to be discussed in different dimensions, due to reasons such as industrialization, the diversity of economic and commercial areas, the capital in the world-changing hands mostly through banks, and the fact that the capital is in the hands of non-Muslims rather than Muslims. Different views have been put forward in the discussions on the meanings of ribā, interest, credit etc.. While explaining the related verses by reflecting the problems of the period in which they lived in their commentaries, the commentators also included the discussions in question. Muḥammad el-Amīn al-Hararī (d. 2019), one of the contemporary commentators, has put forward his own original views by referring to these discussions in the interpretation of the verses about interest in his tafsīr work Ḥadāʾiq al-rawḥ wa al-rayḥān. In this study, al-Hararī’s comments on the verses related to the prohibition of interest in his tafsīr are focused, and the views on this much discussed subject of today's economic life are tried to be grounded by using classical and modern sources. Al-Hararī’s views on interest are important because he offers some suggestions to the problems of today's people. While interpreting the verses of 2/275.-279. of the sūrat of al-Baqara, al-Hararī adopted the classical understanding of interest. In the interpretation of the verse of sūrat Āl Imrān 3/130 he put forward his own unique views on interest, especially on loans taken from banks. He divided the harams into “li-aynihī harām” and “li-gayrihī harām”, that is, haram due to himself and haram due to something else. He considered the loans that today's people take from banks in return for interest as “ribā al-nasī’a”, that is, li-aynihī harām. However, based on the principle of necessity, he defended the view that a bank loan could be obtained in case of need. He said that if a Muslim cannot find any other kind of debt, the responsibility of obtaining an interest loan based on need and necessity will be on the recipient, not the lender. The main subject of this study is al-Hararī’s views on interest rate loans.