Ar-Room (The Romans)

39. “And that which you give in present so that it may increase in the property of men it will not increase with Allah, and whatever you give in charity (Zakat) seeking the pleasure of Allah, it is these (persons) that shall get manifold.”

The privilege of Islam is in this fact that, besides wiping out poverty from the deprived, it considers the spiritual growth of those who pay expending, too.

This verse refers to two kinds of expending: one of which is for the cause of Allah, and the other is for the purpose of reaching the worldly wealth.

It says:

“And that which you give in present so that it may increase in the property of men it will not increase with Allah…” “…and whatever you give in charity (Zakat) seeking the pleasure of Allah, it is these (persons) that shall get manifold.”

The concept of the second sentence, viz., giving Zakat and paying expending in the path of Allah which causes abundant compensation and an immense reward, is clear, but as for the first sentence, regarding to the fact that /riba/ originally means ‘increase’, the commentators have cited different interpretation.

The first commentary, which is the most clear one and is the most consistent with the concept of the verse and adapts to the narrations of Ahlul Bayt (as), is that its purpose is the gifts and presents that some persons sent to others specially to the possessors of wealth and properties hoping to receive some more and better reward from them.

It is obvious that in giving such presents neither the need nor the eligibility of their receivers are considered, but all attention is focused on this that the present should be sent to a place where a better sum can be hunted, and it is natural that such presents that have not any sincerity in them are worthless from the point of ethics and spiritual aspects.

Therefore, the purpose of /riba/, in this verse, is ‘present’ or ‘gift’ and the objective of the Qur’anic sentence: /liyar bu fi ’amwalin-nas/, mentioned in this verse, is taking some more reward from people.

No doubt taking such a reward is not unlawful, since there is no condition or agreement between them, but it lacks the spiritual and ethical value. Therefore, some narrations from Imam Sadiq (as), recorded in authentic sources of tradition, it has been rendered into ‘lawful /riba/’ (interest) in spite of ‘unlawful /riba/’ in which there is condition and agreement contract.

In the book entitled Tahthib-ul-’Ahkam there is a tradition which has been narrated from Imam Sadiq (as) who, on the commentary of this verse, said:

“Its purpose is a present which you give to another person and you seek a reward from him more than that and this is a lawful interest.”

In another tradition Imam Sadiq (as) says:

“Interest is of two kinds: one is lawful and the other is unlawful.

The lawful interest is that one lends his (Muslim) brother (something) as a loan hoping that when he returns it he adds something to what he has taken from him without any condition between them, and if the borrower gives the lender something more than that which he has taken without any condition between them, this excess is lawful for him, but there will be no reward for him with Allah concerning his loan, and this is what the Qur’an says in sentence /falayarbu ‘indallah/ (it will not increase with Allah).

But the unlawful excess is the case that one loans someone with the condition that he returns it with something added to it. This is the unlawful interest.”1

Another commentary which has been mentioned on the above verse says that the purpose in this verse is unlawful interest.

According to this commentary, in fact, the Qur’an intends to compare usury with pure expending and to say that although usury is apparently an increase in wealth, but it is not an increase with Allah.

The real increase is found in expending in the path of Allah. Upon this foundation, they consider the verse as a preliminary on the prohibition of usury that, at first, before the migration of the prophet (S), it was stated as an ethical advice, and later, after the migration, its prohibition was gradually announced in three Suras of the Qur’an: Al-Baqarah, ’Al-i-‘Imran, and An-Nisa’.

There is not, of course, any contradiction between these two meanings. The verse can be rendered into a vaster scope of meaning which contains both the lawful interest and unlawful interest, and both of them may be matched with the expending in the path of Allah, but the concept of the verse is more consistent with the first commentary.

The apparent of the holy verse shows that here an action is fulfilled that has not any reward, but it is lawful, since it says:

“…it will not increase with Allah…”,

and this meaning fits with ‘the lawful interest’ which has neither any reward nor any sin, i.e. it is not a thing that causes the wrath and punishment of Allah (s.w.t.), and we said before that the Islamic narrations approve it, too.

It is also necessary to be mentioned that the Arabic term /mud‘ifun/ does not here mean ‘increaser’, but it means the possessor of the increased reward.

This matter must not be neglected that the words /du‘f/ and /muda‘af/ in the Arabic philology do not mean ‘increase’ but they mean ‘two fold’ and ‘several folds’ and, in this verse, the word means ‘twofold’ at least; as the Qur’an in other occurrence says:

“Whoever brings a good (deed), he shall have ten times its like…”2

Concerning the reward of ‘loan’, it increases into eighteen times, as in a tradition Imam Sadiq (as) said:

“It has been written on the door of Paradise that the reward of loan is eighteen times and (that of) alms is ten times.”3

Concerning the loan without interest in the path of Allah, it can be increased into seven hundred times, as Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 261 announces.