In my experience teaching Quran, I've come to recognize that the flow of the ayaat in a passage is much more discernible in Arabic but when you translate directly into English, the same continuity is much harder to capture. That is one of the reasons a passage might feel disjointed in English translation. I have a theoretical solution to this problem. I'm taking a stab at writing a paraphrased commentary on a passage instead of a translation for the sole purpose of illustrating how ideas progress from ayah to ayah. Again this isn't translation but an attempt to highlight the continuity of the text by filling in the gaps created by the process of translation. The following isn't a translation of 275-281 of Al Baqarah, but rather a composition inspired by these ayaat along those lines. It would be a fun exercise for you to read a translation of your choice and against its backdrop read the following (it's a first draft so chill)
Those who consume usury aren’t stable and well established as it might appear, unless you consider someone tormented by the devil and thus having lost their senses completely, well established! Their satanic insanity is demonstrated by the fact that they have the audacity to say that trade in all its forms is no different from the practice of usury as if abandoning it would be the equivalent of abandoning the fundamentals of commerce itself! While Allah has made trade permissible and decreed its benefits to be unleashed and widespread while at the same time Allah decreed that usury be forbidden and decreed that it accompany deprivation! Then whoever finds that the counsel from his Master has reached Him regarding this issue and by it he is deeply impacted as a result of which he stops his consumption of it, he may still get to keep whatever was earned previously. Don’t pass judgment on him for doing so as that judgment isn’t for you, it is for Allah. While at the same time whoever heard this counsel, disregarded it and blatantly went back to the same evil practice, then he is along with all those who are fit for hell to remain there forever! Get out of usury and save yourself from deprivation in this world and the next as God has decreed that usury and every apparent benefit that comes with it shall be rendered void of goodness and life, while charities are going to be blessed with growth and continuous enhancement. For any that allow their greed to take Allah’s gift of sustenance and use it to spread the cancer of usury, He has no love for them. Such people are deeply and repeatedly ungrateful and constantly defying Gods verdict and are thus in perpetual sin until they abandon this practice. It isn’t hard to earn Gods favor and be free of the fear and grief that is looming over you if you don’t quit this evil. Be of those who retain their faith by their commitment to prayer and that faith inspires them to do the deeds that create harmony, the first of which is charitable giving. Also recognize that when one stands before God, that softens their heart to give the needy and when one stands disturbed because of the devils touch, he goes around sucking wealth out of the needy through usury! Thus those of you that claim that you in fact have faith, be mindful of God and abandon whatever elements of usury you have left in your lives. That is, if in fact your claims to faith have any truth to them. If you aren’t willing to do so, then listen clearly, you’ve taken the side of the devil and thus are on the wrong side of this war as God and His messenger stand against you. If this warning was enough for you to take heed and repent and thus come back to Allah and abandon the devil, you may still seek to collect the original principal amount you lent out without charging any interest on top. The point is first and foremost that you shouldn’t be wrongfully charging anyone but God also doesn’t want you to be shortchanged either. As for the borrower that owes you who has fallen upon hard times, it’s a good idea to give him the comfort of waiting to collect until easier times come around. Because you have the weight of previously earned usury on your conscience, consider giving up your accounts receivables as charity to the borrower. You may think that such debt forgiveness is economically disadvantageous, but if truly you’ve come to know and internalize that charitable giving is for your own good through these revelations, you’ll think of this debt forgiveness as advantageous to you. Put yourself in the shoes of your borrower. He’s constantly afraid of the day of debt maturity, terrified of the consequences of not being able to pay up. Do you have difficulty visualizing yourself in such a compromising position? Just remind yourself of the fear and anxiety you should have of the day in which you yourself are the commodity that is taken back before the owner Allah to be compensated in full for your good but also to pay in full for your wrongdoings.
Nouman Ali Khan
https://www.facebook.com/noumanbayyinah/posts/1020708224728586
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