The law and order should be given by law of volition. There are two different things altogether. In bank, you are compelled. It is sometimes a matter of survival. Survival is not always individual. It is also a survival for a class, for a group, a survival in trade, in business. They are very important things. So for that, some things could be permitted. But when you have a choice of volition, you cannot give interest to any individual. That is totally forbidden. It is out of question. I have spoken on this subject at length in one of my sermons and told people that this is really very singularly.
In fact, it is the individual relationship more which is hit by the Holy Quran in those injunctions. And for that, Allah has given you, I mean, Allah has provided you with a way out. Why don’t you adopt that? Allah, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, encouraged this, and it is based on the Holy Quran, this injunction of Allah, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that if you borrow money from someone, it is always good and appreciated that without condition, when you pay back, you pay back more than what you borrowed. And this was a consistent habit of Allah, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He always gave the lender more money than he had lent. But it was not binding upon him.
So if you want to give your sister or your father or your mother any money out of your own free will, you are most welcome. But it should not be conditional. But the thing is that I feel much better if you give them more. You give them as you please, but without condition. If you make a condition, then you are practicing humility. This is Islam. Yes, but I don’t follow that. I can profit the bank, I can give the money to the bank, but I can’t give to my sister. Who says that? You can not… It’s not logical. No, what you are saying is not logical to me. The point is, who prevents you from giving money to your sister? Nobody does. But for you to borrow money from someone who is also a Muslim and encourage usually between this relationship, if you permit this, the whole society will turn into a society of usually. There will be no end to it.
Then you will defeat the entire purpose of the Holy Quran completely. This is why it is also discouraged to borrow money from the bank. It is not encouraged at all. If possible, you must avoid all situations where you must borrow money with the condition that you have to say interest. The question is not whether you should pay more to your friends or relatives or not. That’s not the question. The question is whether you are bound to pay or not. Suppose you borrow money and your money is lost. You run into business difficulties and troubles and ultimately you land up in a very difficult situation. Conceive the converse of this. Does it satisfy your conscience? That you borrowed money from your parents or your sister and you are suffering heavily so that you have lost almost all your capital and still you have to pay more than the capital back to them. Does that situation satisfy your conscience? Of course, that’s right. This is why I said that banking is not within your control. I started with this. Banking is not within your control, within your power. It is the international monetary system which has not been created by you.
But when you permit individual transactions unusually, that is of your own creation. They are two different things altogether. For instance, to eat pork when you are dying, it is different. But to say that when I am permitted to eat pork in that situation, why shouldn’t I eat pork when I am invited by friends? That is a more likely situation for me to enjoy pork. Why am I not permitted that? It is not a question of your enjoyment. It is a question of principle. There it is a compulsion in the system of bank.
There is a compulsion and the banking system is not of your making. If it is possible for the MLA community anywhere to enforce its monetary system of its own, it will not be a system of banking based on duty. That I assure you. But when the entire monetary system is completely out of your control, you are not responsible for what they do. But when you promote these things within individual meetings, then you are responsible for what you do.
