Riba/usury/interest

Riba/usury/interest


IS it really that bad???

The prophet (may Allahs peace and blessings be upon him) has compared it to sleeping with ones own mother ...and can be worse than that:
His  statement,
"Riba has seventy-three doors. The least one (in sin) is as that of a man who sleeps with his mother. And worst form of Riba is harming the honor of a Muslim man."
(Al-Hakim, who graded it Sahih)

Allah says:
O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and give up what remains of your demand for usury, if ye are indeed 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 than your capital sums).
Quran (2:278-79)


"Allah has permitted trading and forbidden Riba." (2:275)
 
"O you who believe! Eat not Riba doubled and multiplied ." (3:130)

And the statement of the Messenger:
"Allah curses the one who accepts Riba (usury and interest), the giver of it, the two witnesses of it, and the one who writes it." (The Sunan compilers and At-Tirmithi graded it Sahih)

"One dirham of Riba that a man devours, while knowing it is Riba, is more severe (in crime) than thirty-six acts of fornication (or adultery)." (Ahmad with a Sahih chain of narration)

One punishment narrated in Al-Bukhaari (1386, 7047) that the individual will swim in the river with rocks being thrown into his mouth because he consumed riba (usury).

We must stop ourselves having anything to do with usury immediately InshaaAllaah, it is a major sin and the ONLY sin in which Allah has declared war on the individual involved in it...what would this mean for the individual in the hereafter? How would they live in the hereafter when Allah is the ONLY One who can protect them? Yet they declared war on Allaah ...

If this terrifying thought isn't enough to stop us from staying away from it, what is?

May Allah save us and forbid us from the terrifying punishments associated with riba, Ameen.