The 365 · Verses · Day 102 · Justice
Riba consumers will rise on the Day of Resurrection like the demon-possessed. Allah blights riba; He grows charity. The economies are inverse.
Qur'an Q 2:275-276
ٱلَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ ٱلَّذِى يَتَخَبَّطُهُ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ مِنَ ٱلْمَسِّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّمَا ٱلْبَيْعُ مِثْلُ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ ۗ وَأَحَلَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ ۚ فَمَن جَآءَهُۥ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ فَٱنتَهَىٰ فَلَهُۥ مَا سَلَفَ وَأَمْرُهُۥٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَـٰلِدُونَ
“But those who take usury will rise up on the Day of Resurrection like someone tormented by Satan's touch... God blights usury, but blesses charitable deeds with multiple increase: He does not love the ungrateful sinner. (Abdel Haleem)”
Svenska: DE SOM livnär sig på ocker skall uppstå [till Domen] lika ostadiga på benen som den som Djävulen med sin beröring slagit med vansinne... Gud utplånar vinsten av ockret men låter allmosornas värde växa. Gud är inte vän till dem som framhärdar i förnekelse och synd. (Knut Bernström)
The story
Ibn Kathir cites Bukhārī's hadith of the Prophet's ﷺ dream of the riba-consumer: 'We reached a river red as blood. A man was swimming in the river. On the bank stood another man with a collection of stones. The swimmer would swim, then come to the man with stones, who would fill his mouth with a stone, and he would swim back.' The Prophet ﷺ was told this was the riba-consumer. (Bukhārī 2085, narrated by Samurah ibn Jundub in the long dream-hadith.) Ibn Kathir then cites the Conquest of Makkah hadith: the Prophet ﷺ said: 'All cases of riba during Jāhiliyyah are annulled and under my feet, and the first riba I annul is the riba of al-ʿAbbās (my uncle).' The Prophet ﷺ established the structural cancellation of pre-Islamic riba debts on the day of the Conquest. Ibn Kathir cites Ibn Mājah's hadith: 'Riba is seventy types, the least of which is equal to one having sexual intercourse with his mother.' (Ibn Mājah 2274.) And: 'May Allah curse whoever consumes Riba, whoever pays Riba, the two who are witnesses to it, and the scribe who records it.' (Muslim 1598, narrated by Jābir.)
In the language
يَمْحَقُ (yamḥaq, 'blights') is from m-ḥ-q, the root of erasing, gradual destruction. Allah names riba's wealth as structurally erodable: it appears to grow but is being erased. يُرْبِي (yurbī, 'grows') is from r-b-w, the same root as ribbā. The Quran is making a structural pun: ribbā (interest) does not actually grow; sadaqah does. كَفَّارٍ أَثِيمٍ (kaffār athīm, 'ungrateful sinner') pairs disbelief with sin: riba is theologically tied to kůfr al-niʿmah (denying Allah's bounty by seeking unjust increase).
Why this verse
Q 2:275-276 establishes the structural opposition between riba and sadaqāt. The riba-consumer's resurrection-state is named: he rises like the demon-touched. The reason is structural: he denied Allah's prohibition by claiming 'trade and riba are the same.' Allah's verdict: trade is permitted, riba is forbidden. The two verses pair: riba is blighted (yamḥaq), sadaqāt is grown (yurbī).
Bring it into today
Audit your finances for riba: mortgages, credit-card interest, savings interest, conventional bonds, riba-based business loans. Structurally exit each. Use Islamic alternatives (murābaḥah, mushārakah, ijārah) where available. The transition takes years; begin this week. The Quran's pairing of riba and sadaqāt names the cure: replace riba-flows with sadaqah-flows; the divine multiplication inverts.
A reflection to carry
The verse's structural pairing is one of the Quran's most precise economic statements. Riba (yamḥaq, blighted) and sadaqah (yurbī, grown) operate in opposite directions in Allah's economy. Worldly accountants see riba as growing wealth and sadaqah as depleting it; Allah sees the inverse. The Day of Resurrection makes this visible: riba's apparent gains evaporate; sadaqah's apparent losses become mountains. The Prophet ﷺ cursed five parties to a riba transaction (consumer, payer, two witnesses, scribe), making clear that proximity to riba is itself transgressive. Modern Muslims engaged in riba-based mortgages, credit cards, savings interest, or business loans must structurally reorganize away from these. The Quran's pairing leaves no ambiguity.
Read the longer reflection
Ibn Kathir's commentary on the riba-dream-hadith (Bukhārī 2085) is theologically severe. The riba-consumer in the river of blood, mouth filled with stones, is the dream-vision Allah granted the Prophet ﷺ. The image is structural: the consumer is permanently filled with what cannot be digested; he cannot escape the river. Ibn Kathir then quotes ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb's lament: 'I wished that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had made three matters clearer for us: the grandfather (in inheritance), the kalālah, and some types of riba.' The lament is operational: even ʿUmar found riba's edges hard to identify. The Prophet's ﷺ rule (Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr): 'Both lawful and unlawful are evident, but in between are matters not clear. Whoever saves himself from these unclear matters saves his religion.' (Bukhārī 52, Muslim 1599.) The believer's posture: avoid the doubtful as well as the certain.
Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free