The Koran, Sura 57 (“Iron”), Verse 11 says “Who is he that will lend a generous loan to God?” The verse continues by assuring that Allah will “double it” as repayment to the lender.
Several passages of the Koran parallel this verse. From a theological standpoint, it is curious that an all-powerful god would request a loan from the people he created. An outsider could wonder, as did some of the Jews in Arabia during the time of Muhammad, if “Allah is poor and we are rich.”
But Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s best friend and himself a rich man, did not like being confronted with the possibility of Allah’s state of financial dependence or the verse from the Koran which suggested it. Here’s the story of the Jewish rabbi Finhas, who resisted Abu Bakr’s appeals by saying:
“We have no need of Allah, but He has need of us! We do not beseech Him as He beseeches us. We are independent of Him, but He is not independent of us. If He were independent of us, He would not ask for our money as your master Muhammad does [for a war against Mecca]. He forbids usury to you, but pays us interest; if He were independent of us He would give us no interest.”
At this, Abu Bakr became angry, and struck Finhas violently, saying, ‘I swear by Him in whose hands my life rests that if there were no treaty between us I would have struck off your head, you enemy of Allah!’
Abu Bakr wished he could cut off Finhas’s head for pointing out the contents of the Koran and the contradictions of riba. Even assuming that the loan-to-Allah verse is a non-literal expression, we are still left with the contradiction that Allah will “double” the repayment of loans made to him, which sounds a lot like the riba (interest) or usury which is outlawed throughout most other texts of Islam.
Many Muslims now claim in public that the loan to Allah in Verse 11 is actually charity for the poor, but the preceding verse of the Koran suggests, as Finhas suspected, a more warlike purpose: “Those among you who contributed before the victory, and fought, shall be differently treated from certain others among you!” (Koran 57:10). Charity toward “victory”? Charity toward “fighting”? Charity toward “iron”? No—in context, the loan does not appear to be for charity for poor people, but financing the conquest of Mecca and the establishment of the Islamic state.
Rewards promised to those who give their money toward the military victory of Islam are frequent throughout the Koran.