An Examination of the Indications of Aṣḥāb Sabt Verse for the Prohibition of Usury Stratagems

The word “ḥila” (stratagem) is used in Islamic jurisprudence to indicate an action in which topic alteration is used to prevent the establishment of a defining or declaratory law or remove an established law. Many scholars believe that the perpetration of stratagem to change a law through topic alteration, including the case of usury, is prohibited from the viewpoint of Islamic law. It is even called “pious fraud” by laypeople.  A piece of evidence adopted to prove the ineffectiveness of using stratagem to change a law is the story of Aṣḥāb Sabt narrated in the noble Qur’ān. The results of this study, which has been done via a descriptive-analytical approach using library research method, demonstrate that the noble Qur’ān verses do not refer to the action of Aṣḥāb Sabt as a stratagem, and the assertions of the exegetes and related narrations in this regard do not enjoy a sufficient level of validity to prove the common interpretation made about the action of Aṣḥāb Sabt. Therefore, this story cannot be used to prove the prohibition of usury stratagems