Any loan that produces profit is Ribaa
13-9-2005 | IslamWeb
Question:
I want to ask you about a very serious issue which has caused a lot of destruction in the past in my family between the two sisters. My khala's husband took 8 lakh from my father within different passage of time making 3 to 4 years. My mother is a kind hearted woman who told her husband that her sister is in need and she kept on giving money to them in their financial crisis with the consent of my father. But when some years passed my father began to be impatient and asked my mother to go and bring the money from her relatives. She went and quarreled with them because my father used to force her. There were fights in our home. On the contrary, my khala's husband (now dead) was not willing to pay the money even by selling his house which he could do to avoid fights in our house. He was very dominant on his family and would not listen to his wife and children. Many years passed money came to them and they returned debts to the friends and ignored us. One thing I want to say that my mother has suffered a lot in this crisis, my father used to blame her, and became hard to her even fought with her because of the money that she was responsible of giving to her sister and her husband. Finally after many years he returned the debt. Now my khala is a very rich woman (having billon of rupees).Since 10 years or so my mother is demanding money in return of the money she used and the insults that my mother suffered from my father and the chaos we suffered. She says it is interest. Should not my khala (aunt) realize my mother's suffering and pay her the money? It is also the saying of the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, TO PAY DEBT WITH OPEN HEART. And relatives have more rights. My mother suffered because of her and was aggressively blamed by her husband. I want to be guided IS MY MOTHER DEMANDING HER RIGHT OR IS IT INTEREST OVER DEBT. And is yes how much money should my aunt be giving her.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
Your maternal aunt is only obliged to repay the amount of money that she borrowed from your mother without any interests. Your mother has no right to ask her for any interest, as there is a rule which says that any loan that brings any profit is Ribaa. When the debtor procrastinates though being able to repay is not an excuse to ask him/her for any interest because of the delay. On the contrary, the creditor is rewarded for being patient and the debtor is sinful for delaying repayment of his debt from the time allocated for it. It is reported in a Prophetic narration: "The procrastination of a rich person is an injustice." [Al-Bukhari]
Allaah Knows best.