Forty Gems of Beauty — Page 104
104 1. Simple credit, in common parlance known as Qar d ah H asanah (a debt of honour), which a relative or friend or neighbour lends to another relative, friend, or neighbour. 2. A mortgage loan, or loan raised against property, movable or immovable, which is pledged, and 3. A business loan, or lending money to someone, in a loss and profit partnership with him, in trade, industry or craft. Islam does not permit any loan transaction outside the above three forms and declares usury, irrespective of whether the rate of interest is low or high, as unlawful. To think that it is hard to get along without raising a loan on interest is a mistaken idea which is the creation of the contemporary environment of misleading notions. During the glory days of Islam, the vast international commerce flourished without the help of interest. And so shall it flourish again when the wheels of fortune turn in favour of Islamic supremacy, and people wake up to its realities after blunders and falls. The fifth evil to which attention has been invited is the eating up of the property of the orphans. This vice is also destructive of families and nations. For it leads, on the one hand, to the ruination of the youth of the community and, on the other, to an elimination of the feelings of human sympathy and to a spread of dishonesty. Thirdly, it opens the way to the oppression of the weak, and fourthly, the spirit of sacrifice wanes among the people. Members of a community [who are] used to the spectacle of orphans being robbed and ransacked can never boldly take to the path of self-sacrifice. For, in that case, there would naturally arise in their hearts the fear that in the event of their death, their orphans would meet a similar fate. Islam has therefore declared the care of the orphans as a gravest responsibility, and the Holy Quran has laid extreme stress on it.