RIBA

You know how the holy verses say about Interest(Riba). Al-Baqarah:275,276,278,279,Al-Imran:130,Al-Nisaa:161,Al-Room:39. A relevant Hadeeth is as follows Hazrat Jabir radiyallahu anhu has reported that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihe wasallam cursed the devourer of usury, its payer, its scribe and its two witnesses. He also said that they were equal (in sin). (Muslim)

The following is my personal opinion and not anyone else's, so you may agree to it or reject it. I think the basic principle for forbidding Riba is not the effortless profit someone or an institution can make based on his/their personal fortune but the issue is that the person/institution is making profit by taking advantage of 'time'. And who other than Allah is the owner of time. What I mean is that given the circumstances that a person doesn't have a desired amount of money at a given time another person or institute takes advantage of the situation and increases his/its wealth with the passage of time. So here we are talking about people who are playing mischief with time. Now how important is "Time"? Allah swears by "Time" in Sura Asr. Allah asks to reflect about the Companions of the Cave in Surah Kahf where "Time" was brought to a stand still for the companions. The names Al-Qayyum,
the One who remains and does not end. Al-'Awwal, the One whose Existence is without a beginning. Al-'Akhir, the One whose Existence is without an end. Allah is in complete control of time. The conflict arises when our fellow human beings try to gain control of this commodity. I heard somewhere that when you ask 'what time is it' in Arabic the literal translation of the question is 'when has the time been dissected or cut'. I hope my personal views don't bother you. But this is how I feel about Mortgage, interest, down payment etc.