UṢŪL (اصول), pl. of aṣl. Lit. “Roots.” The roots or fundamentals of the Muḥammadan religion, as opposed to furūʿ (فروع), “branches,” a term used for Muḥammadan law, civil, ceremonial, and religious. The uṣūl of Islām are universally held to be four: (1) The Qurʾān, (2) The Ḥadīs̤, (3) Ijmāʿ, and (4) Qiyās, terms which will be found explained under their respective titles.
ʿIlmu ʾl-Uṣūl is the science of interpretation or exegesis of these four fundamentals.
USURY. Arabic ribā (ربا). A word which, like the Hebrew נֶשֶׁךְ neshek, includes all gain upon loans, whether from the loan of money, or goods, or property of any kind. In the Mosaic law, conditions of gain for the loan of money or goods, were rigorously prohibited: “If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.” ([Exodus xxii. 25].) “If thy brother be waxen poor … take no usury of him or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.” ([Leviticus xxv. 35–37].)
(1) The teaching of the Qurʾān on the subject is given in [Sūrah ii. 276]: “They who swallow down usury, shall arise in the Last Day only as he ariseth, whom Satan has infected by his touch. This for that they say, ‘Selling is only the like of usury,’ and yet God hath allowed selling and forbidden usury; and whosoever receiveth this admonition from his Lord, and abstaineth from it, shall have pardon for the past and his lot shall be with God. But they who return to usury, shall be given over to the Fire,—therein to abide for ever.”
(2) In the Traditions, Muḥammad is related to have said:—
“Cursed be the taker of usury, the giver of usury, the writer of usury, and the witness of usury, for they are all equal.”
“Verily the wealth that is gained in usury, although it be great, is of small advantage.” (Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim, Bābu ʾr-Ribaʾ).
(3) Ribaʾ, in the language of the law, signifies “an excess,” according to a legal standard of measurement or weight, in one of two homogeneous articles (of weight or measurement of capacity) opposed to each other in a contract of exchange, and in which such excess is stipulated as an obligatory condition on one of the parties, without any return, that is, without anything being opposed to it. The sale, therefore, of two loads of barley, for instance, in exchange for one load of wheat, does not constitute usury, since these articles are not homogeneous; and, on the other hand, the sale of ten yards of cloth in exchange for five yards of cloth, is not usury, since although these articles be homogeneous, still they are not estimable by weight or measurement of capacity.
Usury, then, as an illegal transaction, is occasioned (according to most Muḥammadan doctors) by rate, united with species, where, however, it must be observed, that rate, amongst the Musalmāns, applies only to articles of weight or measurement of capacity, and not to articles of longitudinal measurement, such as cloth, &c., or of tale, such as eggs, dates, walnuts, &c., when exchanged from hand to hand. Ash-Shāfiʿī maintains that usury takes place only in things of an esculent nature, or in money, and according to him, therefore, articles of the last-mentioned description would give occasion to usury. It is, furthermore, to be observed, that superiority or inferiority in the quality has no effect in the establishment of the usury; and hence it is lawful to sell a quantity of the better sort of any article in exchange for an equal quantity of an inferior sort. Nor does usury exist where the qualities of an article of weight or measurement by capacity are not ascertained by some known standard of measurement. Thus it is lawful to sell one handful of wheat in exchange for two handfuls, or two handfuls for four, because, in such case, the measurement not having been made according to a legal standard, the superiority of measurement, establishing usury, has not taken place, and, since the law has fixed no standard of measure beneath half a ṣāʿ, any quantity less than such is considered equivalent to a handful.
Where the quality of being weighable or measureable by capacity, and correspondence of species (being the causes of usury) both exist, the stipulation of inequality or of suspension of payment to a future period, are both usurious. Thus it is usurious to sell either one measure of wheat in exchange for two measures,—or one measure of wheat for one measure deliverable at a future period. If, on the contrary, neither of these circumstances exist (as in the sale of wheat for money), it is lawful, either to stipulate a superiority of rate, or the payment at a future period. If, on the other hand, one of these circumstances only exist (as in the sale of wheat for barley, or the sale of one slave for another), then a superiority in the rate may legally be stipulated, but not a suspension in the payment. Thus one measure of wheat may lawfully be sold for two measures of barley, or one slave for two slaves: but it is not lawful to sell one measure of wheat for one measure of barley, payable at a future period; nor one slave for another, deliverable at a future period.