哦，信道的人们啊！你们当敬畏真主，放弃尚未收取的利息，如果你们是信士的话。

O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers.

如果你们不这样做，那么你们要知道，将有来自真主和他的使者的战争[向你们宣战]。但如果你们悔悟，你们仍可取回本金——这样，你们既不会不公，也不会受到不公的对待。212

And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal—[thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.212

贾比尔·本·阿卜杜拉传述：安拉的使者ﷺ诅咒了食利者、付息者、记录者和两位见证人，并说：“他们在罪过上是一样的。”213 过去和现在，人们都淡化了附息交易的危害，尤其是在双方自愿达成的情况下。然而，真主的智慧超越了我们的短视，认为从事附息交易是极大的罪恶。如今，我们亲眼目睹附息体系如何使国家陷入无法挽回的境地，尼日利亚和牙买加的经济崩溃便是两个悲惨的例子214，它们说明了当国家年度预算中如此巨大的一部分被用于偿还债务时会发生什么。以收取利息的方式放贷，其邪恶本质显而易见：它看似是快速获取资金的途径，却往往使个人和国家陷入更深的债务之中。它将大部分风险转嫁给债务人，而放贷、以“投资”自居的债权人所承担的风险却很小。正如亚里士多德所论证的那样215，它也贬低了生产力与劳动，因为在这里生钱的是钱本身，而非努力或技艺。结果，富人日益富有，穷人日益贫困，以至于达到难以想象的毁灭程度，进而成为金融崩溃和底层民众起义的导火索，而这些事件历史上曾吞噬过许多国家，正如柏拉图曾经警告的那样。

Jābir ibn ‘Abdillāh  reports that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم cursed the consumer of interest, its payer, its documenter, its two witnesses, and said, “They are all equal [in sin].”213 Past and present, people have downplayed the danger of an interest- bearing transaction, especially when effected by mutual consent. However, the wisdom of the Divine transcends our short-sightedness and deems engaging in interest-based transactions an enormity. Nowadays, we observe firsthand how interest-based systems have destroyed nations beyond repair, with the debacle of the Nigerian and Jamaican economies being just two tragic examples214 of what happens when such an enormous part of a nation’s annual budget is apportioned to debt repayment. The villainous nature of dispensing loans for interest is clear; it appears to be an avenue for quick funds, but it often buries people and countries further in debt. It places the bulk of the risk on the debtor and little risk on the creditor who “invests” by lending. It also disparages productivity and labor, as Aristotle argued,215 since money is what begets money here, not effort or craftsmanship. As a result, the rich steadily get richer while the poor steadily get poorer—to points of unthinkable devastation, which then become catalysts for financial meltdowns and uprisings by the underclass which have historically devoured many nations, as Plato once warned.

因此,先知穆罕默德ﷺ禁止以借贷牟取世俗意义上的利润,并说:“利润与责任(即可能的亏损)相伴而生。”216

Hence, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم outlawed profiting in the worldly sense from loans by saying, “Profit is contingent upon liability (the possibility of loss).”216

除了禁止放贷人收取利息外，借款人同样被禁止借贷此类款项。这可以防止借款人过度消费，从而减少他们被放贷人剥削的可能，也减少了消费主义造成的生态破坏。若再加上高利贷的危害，以及先知ﷺ同样禁止的过度投机（gharar），便具备了经济危机的全部要素。2008年的金融危机就是近期的一个例子。因此，欧洲及其他地区正出现一种全球性趋势，认为伊斯兰金融法规为经济困境提供了一种新颖的替代方案和解决之道。 218 《古兰经》中关于金钱的经文highlight了这些法规的一个主要目标，安拉说：“……使财富不在你们中的富人之间流转。”219 这一补救措施的另一个组成部分，是通过天课制度减少财富的集中。

In addition to lenders being prohibited from charging interest on loans, borrowers are also prohibited from such loans. This prevents borrowers from living beyond their means, which mitigates their being exploited by lenders, and the ecological damage caused by consumerism. When you add to the perils of usury those of excessive speculation (gharar), which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم forbade as well,217 you have all the ingredients of an economic crisis. The 2008 financial meltdown was a relatively recent example of this. For this reason, a global trend is emerging in Europe and elsewhere that recognizes that Islamic financial regulations offer a refreshing alternative and remedy for economic woes.218 Highlighting a primary objective behind these regulations, Allah says about money in the Qur’an, “…so that it will not become a perpetual circulation [solely] among the rich from among you.”219 Another component of this remedy is the lessening of wealth concentration through the Zakat system.

zakat是伊斯兰教的五大基本支柱之一，是一种对达到一定数额资产所必须履行的义务性施舍：每年需拿出2.5%进行分配，主要分配给穷人，也用于其他崇高的事业。当然，天课制度将这些财富直接输送给有需要的人，因此人们常提到的担心——政府因征收富人的财富而变得过于充裕——便不复存在。此外，与政府税收不同，天课制度强调个人在真主面前的责任感；真主是不会像政府审计人员那样被富有创意的逃税者欺骗的，那些人会把资产转移到国外。

Zakat is one of Islam’s five foundational pillars; an obligatory charity due on significant amounts of capital, whereby 2.5% must be redistributed annually, primarily among the poor but also to other noble causes. Of course, with the Zakat system funneling this wealth directly to those in need, the oft-cited concern of governments being overfed by taxing the rich’s wealth vanishes. Also, unlike governmental taxation, the Zakat system emphasizes one’s personal accountability before God; the One who cannot be deceived the way government auditors often are by creative evaders who move their assets outside of the country.