According to the majority of doctors, everything in which the usuriousness of an excess has been established by the Prophet on the ground of measurement of capacity (such as wheat, barley, dates and salt), or on the ground of weight (like gold or silver), is for ever to be considered as of that nature, although mankind should forsake this mode of estimation; because the custom of mankind, which regulates the measurement, is of inferior force to the declaration of the Prophet; and a superior court cannot yield to an inferior. Abū Yūsuf, however, is of opinion that in all things practice or custom ought to prevail, although in opposition to the ordinances of the Prophet; for the ordinance of the Prophet was founded on usage and practice of his own time. In ordinances, therefore, the prevalent customs among mankind are to be regarded; and as these are liable to alter, they must be attended to rather than the letter of an ordinance.
Usury cannot take place between a master and his slave, because whatever is in the possession of the slave is the property of the master, so that no sale can possibly take place between them, and hence the possibility of usury is excluded à fortiori. Nor can it take place between a Muslim and a hostile infidel in a hostile country, in accordance with the saying of the Prophet: “There is no usury between a Muslim and a hostile infidel in a foreign land,” and on the further ground, that the property of a hostile infidel being free to the Muslim, it follows that it is lawful to take it by whatever mode may be possible, provided there be no deceit used. It is otherwise with respect to a ẕimmī, or protected alien, as his property is not of a neutral nature, because of the protection that has been accorded to him, and, therefore, usury is as unlawful in his case as in that of a Muslim. Abū Yūsuf and ash-Shāfiʿī conceive an analogy between the case of a hostile infidel, in a hostile country, and that of a ẕimmī, and hence they hold, contrary to the other Muslim doctors, that usury can take place also between a Muslim and a hostile infidel in a foreign land.
The testimony of a person who receives usury is inadmissible in a court of law. It is recorded in the Mabsūt̤, however, that the evidence of a usurer is inadmissible only in case of his being so in a notorious degree; because mankind often make invalid contracts, and these are in some degree usurious. (Hidāyah, Grady’s edition, p. 362.)
For further information on the subject of usury and for cases, illustrative of the above-stated principles, see Hidāyah, Hamilton’s translation, vol. ii., p. 489 seqq.; Grady’s edition, p. 289 seqq.; the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār; the Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, in loco.
USWAH, also ISWAH (اسوة). “An example.” The word occurs in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiii. 21]: “Ye had in the Apostle of God a good example” (uṣwatun ḥasanatun). Ar-Rāg͟hib says it is the condition in which a man is in respect of another’s imitating him.
UTERINE RELATIONS. Arabic ẕawū ʾl-arḥām (ذوو الارحام), called by the English lawyers “distant kindred.”
They are divided into four classes:—
(1) Persons descended from the deceased, how low soever, i.e. the children of daughters or of son’s daughters.
(2) Those from whom the deceased is descended, how high soever, i.e. False grand-parents, in contradistinction from the True, a true grandfather being one between whom and the deceased no female intervenes; a true grandmother, one between whom and the deceased no false grandfather intervenes.
(3) Those descended from the parents of the deceased, how low soever, i.e. the daughters of full-brothers and of half-brothers (by the same father only), the children of half-brothers (by the same mother only), and the children of sisters.