The issue of ‘dishonest clients’ is an extremely weak premises for the drastic move to legalize such a grave
crime and sin as riba. Hadhrat Sayyiduna Umar (radhiyallahu anhu) said:

“We abstained from nine tenths of all lawful transactions for fear of falling
into riba.”

In violation of this spirit of extreme caution against riba, Hadhrat Mufti Saheb
has vaulted to the extreme opposite pole of being at great pains in his meandering
discussion to legalize the riba penalty in the bid to bring compliance between
the Muslim banks and the kuffaar banks.

Rasulullah’s (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) warning on procrastination
is in fact directed to dishonest clients. But neither he nor any other Authority
of the Shariah ordered the riba penalty to be imposed on dishonest clients
for their haraam act of procrastination. It is clear that Muslim traders have
to accept the small percentage of ‘dishonest clients’ as part of
the trading activity. It is an acceptable development in trade and commerce.
The capitalist counterpart seeks the immedi- ate increase and miserable gain
of this world in whatever way he can. Thus interest is perfectly in order for
him. But the Muslim trader is not expected to seek increase and gain in any
ways which are in con- flict with not only the juridical rulings of the Shariah,
but also in con- flict with the Code of Islam’s Morality. The Muslim’s
increase in his wealth is by the instrument of Barakat and Thawaab which he
gains in both worlds for having patience with not only genuine strugglers,
but with the procrastination of even dishonest defaulters. In both cases, he
gains and his wealth increases. It is therefore, despicable and entirely unexpected
of the Muslim to stretch his gaze in the di- rection of the haraam methods
which the kuffaar employ to‘increase’ their wealth.

Hadhrat Mufti Saheb claims that the Shariah’s restriction on riba is ‘sometimes
exploited by dishonest clients’. Did the Shariah not know this at the
time when the Divine Law was enacted? Was the Nabi (sallallahu alayhi wasallam)
and the illustrious Aimmah Mujtahideen and the Fuqaha of Islam not aware of
this attitude of exploitation of “some dishonest clients”? Inspite
of their awareness, they did not seek to introduce the riba penalty on late
instalments.

The factor of ‘dishonesty’ has been utilized as a pretext for
justifying a kuffaar economic rule, i.e. charging interest on late payments.
But in presenting this factor as the rationale for justifying the riba pen-
alty, which is the act of only “some dishonest clients”, the following
zulm is committed:

• Riba is legalized.

• The rule is to be introduced with uniform application to cover dishonest
as well as honest clients. The banks do not distin- guish between dishonest and
honest clients. In fact it has no means for making any such differentiation between
clients. Re- gardless of honesty and dishonesty, the law of riba penalty ap-
plies equally to all defaulters.

Now regardless of the dishonesty of any clients, the irrefutable Shar’i
fact is that riba is haraam, and the dishonesty of clients is not a basis for
abrogating the prohibition and legalizing the haraam act. Even if a way can
be found to determine who exactly are the dishonest de- faulters, riba cannot
be legalized. While the ostensible stated motive for embarking on the exercise
to justify the capitalist riba penalty is the ‘dishonesty of some clients’,
the veneer concealing the true de- sign is too flimsy for according any credence
to this motive which we discern to be simply to accommodate the riba practice
of the capi- talist banks which the so-called Muslim banks are emulating. The ‘dishonesty’ argument
has no credibility and no validity in terms of the Shariah and cannot be cited
as a basis for accepting the capitalist haraam riba penalty on late payments.