وَأَحَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا
God has permitted sale and prohibited ribā. (Qurʾān 2:275, excerpt)
The linguistic scope and legal referents of sale and ribā must be established. Other evidence may clarify the legal meaning of these expressions or exclude certain forms from a broad apparent category.
The broad lexical sense of ribā is not identical with every juristically defined instance. The key distinction here is between generality of wording and clarification of its technical legal content.