life which God has forbidden except for a just cause, (according to Islamic law), to eat up Riba (usury), to eat up an orphan's wealth, to give back to the enemy to flee from the battlefield at the time of fighting, and to accuse chaste women who never even think of anything touching chastity and are good believers." According to Sunan Ibn Majah, the Islamic prophet Muhammad declared the practice of riba worse than "a man committing zina (fornication) with his own mother".In that hadeeth, he said that there are 70 sins of riba. Of these, the minimum sin is to commit adultery with oneself's mother, and the greatest riba is dishonoring any Muslim. In another Hadith, Muhammad said that, knowingly consuming one dirham of riba is equivalent to do adultery 36 times. Sharia/fiqh and riba How Muslims should deal with riba is disputed. Some believe riba is a violation of sharia (Islamic law) to be prohibited by the state and violators punished. Others believe it is simply a sin to be left to God to judge and punish. Orthodox jurists tend to be less strict on its prohibition for Muslims in non-Muslims lands, and strictness tends to vary throughout the Muslim world with Sudan being the most severe and Malaysia the least. At least one scholar (Abdulkader Thomas) has stated that not only is interest in violation of sharia, but is such a menace that failure to "combat" it indicates unbelief in Islam, (potentially punishable by death). According to Thomas, "Riba is part of a broader problem of belief and behavior. Refusing to combat riba is akin to disbelief. Conceding the argument that money has an intrinsic value is potentially a greater act of disbelief". Author/economist Muhammad Akran Khan has noted that contemporary orthodox scholars have argued that interest is a violation of sharia law primarily on the basis of two sources: the Farewell Sermon (mentioned above where the Prophet abolished all claims of riba on loans), God has decreed that there will be no usury, and the usury of ‘Abbās b. ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib is abolished, all of it. and the fact that the Banu Thaqif clan was threatened with war by Muhammad for abrogation of their treaty with the early Muslims if they tried to collect interest on loans from Muslims. (Banu Thaqif are the ones who are warned against "being at war with God and His messenger"