Surat Al-Humaza 104

This sura’s power lies in its sounds, and it’s message. Of course, those sounds can only be heard in Arabic; but before presenting how that works, notice how the message is described in a series of unexpected connections. The first unexpected element is how a “fault-finding backbiter” is not found fault with because of his backbiting, but rather from his amassing of wealth and counting it. Backbiters are not associated with wealth, but rather with gossip. And this guy’s big sin is counting his wealth? Nowadays, one might ask, “well, shouldn’t someone with money count it to know how much he has? What’s wrong with that? And who thinks having money will make them immortal? So ok, backbiting is bad, and I suppose greed is bad too, but fire? Aren’t these guys the supply side who get the economy going? Reserve hell for the murderers and rapists.” But let’s look a little deeper.

Satan, the First Racist, Tells Us “Be Arrogant” Like him

The above Quranic aya encapsulates what racism is: to say “I am better than he is/they are” because Allah “created me this way” and “created him/them that way.” It’s about saying I am better than someone only because of something they were created to be, not by anything they did. It’s an act of arrogance, and it is this arrogance that made Satan the expelled and accursed. So anyone who thinks he is better than another for being of another race or anything other than piety is actually claiming that Allah should prefer him/her to them. This is a judgment call on Allah the Almighty Himself, an act of extreme denial, and puts anyone who does so right down there with Satan. It’s also an act of extreme injustice, against Allah, oneself, and all humanity. And the consequences?

Divine vs. Worldly Compound Interest for Investment and How Loans are Weaponized

The subject of usury is way too large for a blog post, so first I will compare “compound interest” as it is commonly understood now to Allah’s Divine “compound interest” in the Quran, only used for investment, because Allah only gives, and show how this same principle of compound interest applied to loans (which in Islam, and other religions, is defined and prohibited as usury), is used to create monolithic income inequality, hence is the major source of the problems that result from that in the modern world, arguably even climate change.