In my Halaqa last week someone challenged me about the prohibition of interest-based finance and said, “There is no alternative, so what can we do? Without interest-based finance Muslims can never have a big business or industry.” I asked him, “No alternative to what? No alternative to making money, buying a house or whatever? Or no alternative to buying the enmity of Allahﷻ and His Messengerﷺ? Ask, ‘What am I buying? A house, or war with Allahﷻ and Rasoolullahﷺ? Allahﷻ said as we know:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَذَرُوا۟ مَا بَقِىَ مِنَ ٱلرِّبَوٰٓا۟ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَفَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا۟ فَأْذَنُوا۟ بِحَرْبٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ وَإِن تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَٰلِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ

Baqara 2: 278-9   O you who believe! Be afraid of Allah and give up what remains (due to you) from Riba (interest) (from now onward) if you are (really) believers. And if you do not do it, then take a notice of war from Allah and His Messenger but if you repent, you shall have your capital sums. Deal not unjustly (by asking more than your capital sums), and you shall not be dealt with unjustly (by receiving less).

Nobody can say that the matter was not clear. Do we really want to live as Allahﷻ’s enemies? What do you call those you are at war with? Buying war with Allahﷻ is not an option for a Muslim. Nothing is worth that. Is there?

Let me give you some facts. Let me do a primer on this: we have two options:

Option 1: Get into interest-based transactions and write our name in the list of the enemies of Allahﷻ. Eat doubtful or Haraam stuff and get our Ibaadah and dua deleted.

Option 2: Choose to live our life with dignity as good Muslims and remain in the list of Allahﷻ’s Awlia and look forward to His Forgiveness. Whatever Allahﷻ decreed for us, will come to us. All the effort we make to get it, will be rewarded. And when we die, we hope to die with Allahﷻ’s Mercy.

Which is the better of the two? Let us get this settled once and for all and decide that we are not going to sacrifice our Aakhira for this life. About believing that there are no alternatives to interest-based finance, let me assure you that we have many alternatives. What we don’t have, is excuses to disobey Allahﷻ and indulge in Haraam.

What we must do therefore is to change the glasses through which we see the world. First, let us ask ourselves if we believe in resurrection and the meeting with Allahﷻ to give account for our lives. That is where we need to start. We are Muslim and that means that Allahﷻ’s Ridha (Pleasure) should be the basis and criterion for all our decision making. Fundamental to that is our faith in resurrection and accountability. For Muslims, all decision making must be based on that. And not on anything else. Because remember, our money, fame, family, wealth, business, authority, even knowledge will stay here when we die but the way we made all that will go with us.

That is why the title of my Khutba is, ‘Change your glasses.’ Just as, if our sight starts to go foggy and blurred, we go to an ophthalmologist to check if we need new glasses, so also, when our sight is getting blurred with the fog of Dunya, we must turn to Allahﷻ to clear our vision. The Sahaba looked at Dunya through the lens of the obedience of Allahﷻ, cleaned and polished daily in the Suhba (company) of Rasoolullahﷺ. Not only did they not have an alternative to obeying Allahﷻ, but they also did not even seek one. So, Allahﷻ gave them Dunya and Aakhira. We have turned that criterion upside down. We look at the obedience of Allahﷻ through the lens of our desires (Dunya) and our desires have no alternative for us. So, Allahﷻ does not give us Dunya and may Allahﷻ protect us ...