Muhammad ﷺ claimed that interest would one day become so dominant that even those who try to avoid it will not be able to avoid being impacted by it: The Messenger of God said, “A time will come upon mankind when they will consume interest.” They said to him, “Is that all of the people?” The Prophet said, “Whoever does not take from it will be afflicted by its dust.”
Ref: Musnad Ahmad, Hadith #10191.
This clearly describes the state of the world economy today. As Muhammad ﷺ predicted, in the modern world it is virtually impossible to avoid dealing with, or at the very least being impacted by, interest. Just think about how many people have interest-bearing bank accounts, buy things using credit cards, and are only able to afford to purchase a home through an interest-based mortgage. Even if one somehow manages to avoid dealing in interest directly, almost every aspect of our lives is impacted by it.
Virtually every country in the world, even those considered to be wealthy, is drowning in interest-based debt. The United States, for example, is currently wrestling with a debt of trillions of dollars. Central banks influence the purchasing power of our money, and the financial system even suffered a global collapse in 2008 because of the widespread practice of buying and selling interest-based financial debt.
This was a disaster which has plunged the world into economic turmoil, the consequences of which will be felt for generations to come.
What makes Muhammad’s prediction amazing is that the financial state of the world over the last century is unique in history. At the time of Muhammad ﷺ, finance was based on commodities with intrinsic value, such as gold and silver coins. Gold and silver have been used as the most common form of currency throughout history. In many languages, such as Spanish and French, the word for silver is still directly related to the word for money. Even with the advent of paper money, there was still a dependence on gold and silver. Initially, paper money was backed by gold and silver. Every paper note that people possessed could be redeemed for gold at the bank on demand.
In 1933, the United States abandoned the world Gold Exchange Standard system, bringing to an end the existing world monetary system. The paper money that people held in their hands was no longer backed by physical gold. Under this new global monetary system, money only has value because governments say it does.
Unlike gold and silver, modern paper money is intrinsically valueless. Consequently, we now have a system where banks can print as much money as they wish as they no longer have the restriction of being tied to physical reserves of gold. Under the current system money is literally conjured out of thin air. Since banks can now print money on demand, it means that they can lend more money which in turn results in the creation of more interest-based debt.
We are living in a time that can only be considered monetary chaos, as our entire monetary system, as it now stands, is based on nothing but debt. Every physical coin and paper note has to be borrowed into existence.
With the old system of gold and silver there is a natural order to money, as its value increases and decreases in accordance with the supply and demand of the precious metals. Under the current system, banks can produce as much paper money as they like, and so the supply of this form of money is entirely elastic, it is entirely flexible.
In summary, modern finance is a debt and interest based system that is unique in history. The use of paper money with no intrinsic value, along with the massive debt and interest that it has resulted in, is a phenomenon of modern finance and not something that could have been easily guessed by Muhammad ﷺ over 1,400 years ago.
Now this is not to say that the concept of interest did not exist at all in seventh century Arabia, we know that it did because the Qur’an strictly prohibits believers from practising it: “…they say, ‘Trade is [just] like interest.’ But God has permitted trade and has forbidden interest. So whoever has received an admonition from his Lord and desists may have what is past, and his affair rests with God. But whoever returns to [dealing in interest] - those are the companions of the Fire...”
Ref: QUR'AN 2:275
Moreover, the practice of interest was also prohibited in the Christian world. The Roman Catholic Church had by the fourth century prohibited the taking of interest by the clergy; a rule which they extended in the fifth century to the laity. In the eighth century it was even declared a criminal offence [147].
Ref: Scott Gustafson, Altar of Wall Street: The Rituals, Myths, Theologies, Sacraments, and Mission of the Religion Known as the Modern Global Economy, p. 136.
So Muhammad’s prediction that it would come to dominate the world was in no way a forgone conclusion. In fact, it must have seemed strange to his companions, since Muhammad ﷺ had also predicted that Islam, which strictly forbids interest, would dominate over all religions and reach as far as the East and West. The fact that this prophecy was preserved by his companions shows the complete faith and trust that they had in what he said, and that it would come to pass, however unlikely it may have seemed to them.
Copied From Book: Forbidden Prophecy
