“Put That on My Mastercard, Please”
All praise is for Allah, we praise Him, we seek His aid, and we ask His forgiveness. We seek Allah’s refuge from the evil within ourselves and from our evil actions. Whomsoever Allah guides then none can misguide him, and whomsoever Allah lets astray then none can guide him. We testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah alone, with no partner; and we testify that Muhammed is His slave-servant and His messenger.
“I think I’ll put that on my Mastercard!” That’s the thought that many Muslims may have had at recent Islamic fund-raiser dinners. ‘Why?’, you might ask, ‘Why would a Muslim, who knows that interest (Riba) is haram, have thoughts about charging ANYTHING on a credit card?’ Well read on…
I recently attended a fund-raiser dinner, at which many Muslims from the D/FW area were attending. The dinner was held in a grand and quite beautiful hotel. As I entered the hotel, I noticed there were signs for various fund-raiser dinners for the evening. There were two large signs standing side by side; one for an Islamic fund-raiser, the other dinner was a fund-raiser for teen crisis pregnancy. ‘Alhamdulillah’, I thought, ‘Muslims do not need the other type of fund-raiser. Alhamdulillah, Muslims do not act like non-Muslims, and Alhamdulillah, we do not have the multitude of problems that go along with it either.’
Upon entering the dinner hall, I began looking for a place to sit down. I couldn’t help but take notice while glancing through the women’s section, the large number of uncovered heads among the Muslim women. I soon found myself a seat, surrounded by the nine women sitting at my table, only myself and a close friend were wearing hijab. I thought to myself, ‘Don’t these women know that the hijab is obligatory and it distinguishes them from the non-Muslims?’ The dinner program began. The guest speaker was announced and he began his energetic speech. After a short while, as the task of raising money was underway, the guest speaker began shouting at the crowd of Muslims, “Put it on your credit card! Have something concrete to present to Allah on the Day of Judgment!” I thought to myself, ‘What? What is he saying? That’s like gambling in Las Vegas and using your winnings to go to hajj!’
A short while ago, I discovered that charging sadaqah on credit cards is the new trend, not just at the dinner I was attending, but all over the D/FW area! I was sickened to find out that many of the Islamic communities in the D/FW area are planning to accept credit cards to build their masjids and Islamic schools!
Sitting at the dinner, I wondered if the speaker who said, “Bring something concrete to Allah on the Day of Judgment!” would be able to answer my questions:
What will you bring, O speaker?
Will you be waving your Mastercard or Visa for evidence of your sadaqah payments?
Is the action of charging on credit cards, the ‘concrete action’ that you plan to present to Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment?
Will you be ready to be leading the crowds that will follow you with their credit cards in hand?
I wanted to remind him and the others that feel this action is acceptable: Allah (SWT) has told us in the Quran [2:279] if we don’t give up interest, we must take notice of a war from Allah!
Are you ready to go into battle against Allah (SWT)?
Will you and your army of feeble credit card holders be sufficient to do battle with Allah (SWT)?
How can you justify doing something haram?
There is no justification for doing something haram, even if it is for sadaqah. You cannot make something halal out of something haram. These dinners also handed out pledge forms to enable donations to be paid off in interest-free monthly installments. Why then, are these Muslims who organize these dinners pushing the use of credit-cards? By promoting the use of credit cards at these fundraising dinners, you are saying to Muslims (including new Muslims) and non-Muslims alike, “Credit cards are okay! Use them!” Have we all forgotten what Allah (SWT) has taught us?
'Allah will destroy interest (riba) and will give increase for sadaqah (deeds of charity, alms, etc.) and Allah likes not the disbelieves, sinners. ’ [2:76]
‘O you who believe! Be afraid of Allah and give up what remains (due to you) from interest (riba) (from now onwards) if you are (really) believers. And if you do not do it, then take notice of war from Allah and His messenger …’ [2:278-279]
As the dinner ended, a ill feeling came over me. I kept seeing the women with their heads uncovered, and I kept hearing the speaker shouting, “Charge it in your credit card!” I thought about the dinner that had been going on downstairs for the teen crisis pregnancy center. I thought about the multitudes of problems that the non-Muslims face because of their lifestyle and their disobedience to Allah. Then like a knife in my heart, a final thought came to my mind: 'Are the Muslims of today really so different than the non-Muslims? ‘No’, I thought to myself sadly, ‘I guess not’.
A Person too BE!