al-Sarim al-Battar lil-Ijhaz ala man Khalafa al-Kitab wa al-Sunna wa al-Ijma wa al-Athar
- Author died
- 1413 AH
- Editions
- al-Ri'asah al-Ammah li-Idarat al-Buhuth al-Ilmiyyah wa-al-Ifta wa-al-Da'wah wa-al-Irshad
al-Sarim al-Battar lil-Ijhaz ala man Khalafa al-Kitab wa al-Sunna wa al-Ijma wa al-Athar (The Decisive Sword to Dispatch Those Who Oppose the Book, the Sunnah, Consensus, and Traditions) is a polemical legal treatise written by the Saudi scholar Hammud ibn Abdullah al-Tuwayjiri (d. 1413 AH / 1992 CE) to refute modern arguments permitting interest-bearing banking transactions .
Background and Occasion
Al-Tuwayjiri composed the work in response to a contemporary writer, Ibrahim ibn Abdullah ibn Nasir, who published a treatise titled Mawqif al-Shari'a al-Islamiyya min al-Masarif ("The Position of Islamic Law on Banks") . In that writing, Ibn Nasir argued for the permissibility of transactions with commercial banks and restricted the prohibited usury (riba) exclusively to a single pre-Islamic practice (riba al-jahiliyya) . Al-Tuwayjiri regarded this title as an inversion of reality and a misrepresentation of Islamic law, asserting that it would be more fittingly described as the position of those who wage war against God and His Messenger regarding interest in banks . Al-Tuwayjiri also directed his critique at contemporary researchers from the fourteenth century AH upon whose theories Ibn Nasir relied, citing criticisms by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir and Mahmud Shaltut against attempts to reframe modern financial practices under Islamic legal guise to appear reformist or profound .
Content and Method
The work is designed as a concise manual detailing the legal rulings and scriptural warnings concerning usury and those who engage in it . Al-Tuwayjiri structures his critique by identifying ten major transgressions in his opponent's thesis, the first being speaking about God and His Messenger without knowledge and falsely attributing to Islamic law the authorization of interest .
To refute the opponent's premises, al-Tuwayjiri adduces explicit proofs from Quranic verses, prophetic traditions, consensus (ijma'), and reports (athar) transmitted from the Prophet's Companions and early generations of Muslims (al-salaf) . He demonstrates the blanket prohibition covering all categories of usury, including usury of disparity (riba al-fadl), usury of delay (riba al-nasi'a), loan-based usury (riba al-qard), and conventional banking interest . Al-Tuwayjiri also referred back to the book in his subsequent work Taghlizh al-Malam, recommending it as a sufficient guide for anyone influenced by fatwas permitting bank interest .
Reception
The book received an endorsement and introduction from Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, then General President of the Administrations of Scientific Research, Ifta, Da'wah, and Guidance in Saudi Arabia . Ibn Baz affirmed that he had listened to the entire treatise as well as the opposing text, praising al-Tuwayjiri for exposing the flaws of the arguments permitting bank usury, confirming that the title accurately suited its content, and noting that he had previously published his own concise refutation of the same writer .
Answer updated