Boreal
Remembering Uzza
If Islam Was Explained to Me in a Pub
A Matter of Interest
Gerry:
Sometimes it is difficult to ascertain the moral or ethical imperative on which
Allah bases His instructions. For example, His condoning of slavery and His
condemning the practice of lending money at interest. Both convey an economic
advantage to the slave-owner and the money-lender respectively.
Uzza: The transaction involving only money, however, can be to the benefit of both contracting parties. The transaction in humanity, on the other hand, usually benefits only the title-holder while confining the other, the slave, to a life of miserable servitude.
Gerry: Then why would someone invent a world where slavery is good, and interest on borrowed money is bad?
Uzza: What if that someone was a slave owner in debt? I am just saying.
Bob: I thought the Prophet was rich from the Zakat and the plunder?
Uzza: It would be awhile before the plunder and the Zakat was enough to make ends meet, let alone finance a war of expansion. In the meantime, Muhammad used his own money and that of his first wife, Khadijah. And when that ran out[335], he borrowed from his uncle Abbas and some say from the Jews[336].
Bob: His wife had money of her own?
Uzza: Before Islam, females could accumulate wealth and keep it. It was theirs to do with as they wished, even after marriage.
Archie: And this woman gave money to a man to create a religion that would take a woman’s right to own anything except perhaps her dowry. What a stupid woman.
Uzza: Khadijah was not a stupid woman. She trusted the young man she first hired to lead her caravan, then later married when he was twenty-five and she forty-something, to do the right thing.
Archie: But he didn’t?
Uzza: It all depends on your point of view. He obviously struck a nerve with women across the ages. His most ardent supporters today are women.
Gerry: Struck may not be the right word.
Archie: I think it is.
Bob: Did he pay interest on the money that he borrowed from his uncle Abbas and others?
Uzza: He was expected to, yes.
Archie: But he didn’t, did he?
Uzza: No, he did not. Not to his uncle, that is certain[337].
Archie: Because he got a revelation from Allah that said that he did not have to, right?
Uzza: No, Allah revealed that no one had the right to charge interest on borrowed wealth.
Archie: Same difference.
Uzza: Allah did include Muhammad in a warning of a war waged by Him and Muhammad on those who will not forgo interest owed, and that would, of course, include the interest owed by Muhammad [338]. The inclusion of Muhammad, a debtor, in such a warning − which, unlike most other warnings by Allah is retroactive − could be significant.
Bob: Isn't that a conflict of interest?
Archie: The Prophet got away with not paying money he owed for the same reason he got away with everything else he got away with.
Gerry: I feel another sermon from the bar coming on.
Archie: That Aisha broad got it right when she said Allah was always quick to please her husband when it came to his sexual needs, and all his other needs from what I can make out. He made charging interest on borrowed money a sin because it freed His Prophet from having to pay it, just like he took away the sin of marrying your son’s wife while he was still alive so that Muhammad could do just that. As I said before, I don’t blame him for using a manufactured relationship with God to get God to do his bidding. I don’t blame him. I blame those who put together the book after he was dead and left in it all that self-serving crap.
Uzza: I would not call it that. And you forget that Allah is also the author of the Torah. In that first draft of his instructions for mankind He forbade the Jews from charging interest[339]. It is only logical that you would find that prohibition in the Koran, the final draft. And then there is the example of Jesus banning the money changers from the Temple.
Gerry: In the Torah, God tells the Jews not to charge the needy interest, and Jesus banned the money changers from doing business in the Temple, Uzza, not from not doing any business. And then there is the parable of the Talents which implicitly allows the increase of one’s wealth from the investment of currency.
Uzza: Jesus may be a bad example.
Archie: The Prophet was very much a merchant or a businessman like myself, and how we make money is by selling what we sell for more than we paid for it. How is increasing your wealth through strictly monetary transactions different than increasing it through barter or through the purchase of an item, then selling it for more than you paid for it?
Uzza: Allah does not go into the specifics, even when demonstrating an accountant’s understanding of compound interest[340], except to warn those involved in trade to know the difference if they did not want to burn in Hell for an eternity[341]. The question was obviously asked of Muhammad who goes into much detail as to how you do this. A modern economy could not function if you followed his instructions (Appendix: Selling It!).
Bob: So, the Prophet’s example is not always a good one.
Uzza: No, not in this day and age. Which is one reason why Islamists insist on turning the clock back, if only to prove Muhammad right about everything.
Archie: It’s too bad he wasn’t wrong about warfare and how you get people to kill and die for you or give up without a fight. So, what did he do after capturing Mecca that way?
Footnotes
[335] Khadijah died destitute and penniless in a makeshift habitat in a ravine on the outskirts of Mecca. She did not live long enough to witness her husband’s triumph over his enemies; a triumph which would not have been possible without her wealth and support when Islam was in its infancy. She could not have foreseen that after Islam, the right to learn, the independence and the freedom she enjoyed and which made it all possible would be severely curtailed by a religion which became increasingly male-centric after her death.
[336] Narrated Aisha:
The Prophet purchased food grains from a Jew on credit and mortgaged his iron armor to him.
Bukhari 34.282
[337] According to Virgil Gheorghiu, Abbas’ nephew still owed his uncle the equivalent of twenty ounces of gold, including interest, when he abandoned Mecca for Medina. Abbas was one of the seventy Meccans captured at the famous battle of Badr. After much discussion as to whether they should be burnt alive or decapitated by a close Muslim relative to avoid having to pay blood money to the family of the prematurely deceased, the merchant in Muhammad decided, after seeking the angel Gabriel’s advice, that the prisoners, or their families, could pay a ransom to obtain their freedom. To obtain his freedom, Abbas proposed to his nephew that his ransom be considered the substantial amount of money Muhammad still owed him.
Muhammad would have none of it. He told his uncle that he will have to do better than that because, “those twenty ounces of gold was something of yours that the mighty and powerful Allah gave to me.” The kin whose money kept his nephew’s dream alive after Khadijah's ran out paid the additional ransom, and wisely forgot all about the loan.
2:278 O believers, fear Allah and forgo what is still due from usury, if you are [true] believers.
2:279 But if you fail to do that, take note of a war [waged] by Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent you will have your capital, neither wronging (sic) nor being wronged.
Exodus 22:25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.”
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4:160 And it was on account of the wrongdoing of the Jews that We forbade them certain good things which had been lawful to them; as well as on account of their frequent debarring [of people] from Allah’s path;
4:161 Their taking usury, although they had been forbidden from doing it and their devouring other people’s wealth unjustly. We have prepared for the unbelievers among them a very painful punishment!
4:162 But those firmly rooted in knowledge among them and the believers do believe in what was revealed to you (Muhammad) and what was revealed before you. Those who perform the prayers, give the alms and believe in Allah and the Last Day – to these We shall grant a great reward!
3:130 O believers, do not devour usury, double and redoubled, and fear Allah that you may prosper!
2:275 Those who take usury will not rise up (On the Day of Resurrection) except like those maddened by Satan’s touch. For they claim that trading is like usury, whereas Allah has made trading lawful and prohibited usury. Hence, he who has received an admonition from his Lord and desisted can keep what he has taken (prior to the prohibition) and his fate is to be left to Allah. But those who revert [to it (taking usury)] – those are the people of the Fire in which they shall abide forever.