The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 431
PT. 3 AL-BAQARAH b CH. 2 وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلى مَيْسَرَةٍ And if any debtor be in. 281 straitened circumstances, then وَاَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ اِنْ كُنْتُمُ grant him respite till a time of تَعْلَمُونَ ease. And that you remit it as charity shall be better for you, if only you knew. 287 The system of credit prevailing in Western countries is destructive to the peace of the world in two ways. On the one hand, it helps the accumulation of wealth in a few hands and, on the other, it facilitates war. No government can be imagined as entering upon a great war unless it relies upon its ability to raise money by means of loans carrying interest. Long and devastating wars are made possible only by the institution of interest. If huge loans on interest were not possible, many countries would refuse to enter what appeared to be a long war; and if they entered such wars at all, they would certainly hasten to withdraw from them long before they actually terminated, for their treasuries would become empty and their people would revolt in protest against the criminal waste of men and money. But the system of what appear to be easy loans makes it possible for governments to carry on ruinous struggles as they are able to obtain the sinews of war without having to resort to a system of direct taxation. The people of belligerent countries do not, at the moment, feel the burden which is laid on their backs, but after the war is over their backs are bent double under the staggering weight of national debts and future generations are kept busy 431 reducing the weight. Take, for instance, the case of the last Great War. If huge loans had not been possible, the result of the war would still have been the same, but the devastation and the heavy indebtedness of the different countries would have been avoided. Nay, the War itself might have been avoided; and even if it had taken place, the belligerents would soon have been exhausted, peace would have been signed within a year, and the world would have proceeded on its forward march of progress. A worse fate is perhaps awaiting the Western countries at the termination of the present World War. 287. Commentary: The preceding verse enjoined the taking back of the original sums only. The present verse further exhorts the creditor to grant delay to a debtor in straitened circumstances. Creditors are exhorted to deal kindly and beneficently with their brethren so that God may also (deal with them kindly. They should remember that if they have advanced loans to others, God has also advanced certain loans to them by conferring on them His numberless favours and bounties; and if they have a right to charge interest, God