Prohibition of charging interest to well-off people

Question:
Banks today do not give loans to any needy persons; they lend only to those who can provide guarantees. And any person who can give guarantees, does not deserve sadaqah. Why then do you deem the charging of interest unacceptable for such well-off people?

Response:
It appears from the Qur'an that the borrowers at the time of revelation of the Qur'an were mostly well off people. Only few of them were needy. The Qur'an mentions this exception when asking the borrowers to return the principal amount to lenders:

"In case they (the borowers) are in straitened circumstances, give them relief until such time that their circumstances improve." (2:280)

What it is indicating is that even at the time when the Qur'an prohibited riba, most of the borrowers were not poor people.

Views: 314