Al-Mawrid Queries

Questions and Answers on Islam

Bank Loans And Interest Based Transactions

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July 10, 2024

3 min read 3 min

Economic Issues

Question

1. As every one knows that in Belgium all Banks are working on the basis of interest and none of them is working without interest because that is their way of income and without that they can’t run their system. Please guide that is it right that we may deal with them or we don’t have to.

As some one is paying rent for years and years and he is losing for nothing and instead of paying rent he may buy it, so does our religion allow us to do that in Europe or U.K.

2. Is it allowable to start some business getting the loan from a Bank?

3. Some time when we are travelling far away from our home where the halal food is not easy to get, in that situation what will be the orders for a Muslim.

4. Is it allowable to buy property with the help of a Bank and renovate it? Can we do the renting business in Belgium?

Looking forward to your response.

Answer

As for your 1^st, 2^nd and the 4^th question, in principle the rule is that we should not get involved in an interest based financial transaction, definitely not as the receiver of the interest and preferably not as the payer of the interest (as it is being involved in a Haram act).

However, the fact is that unfortunately most of us are living in an interest based world and in such world, it can become quite difficult to avoid any interest based transaction while trying to have a life with dignity that is financially healthy and secure. Every human being deserves to have security (including financial security) and dignity in his life.

Accordingly if you find that in order to have these essential aspects of your life, you need to take benefit of bank services then you can be flexible about it and use the service with the intention that as soon as you find a better alternative (i.e. one with no involvement in interest) you will go for it.

As for being in places where Halal food is not available, I don’t think there will be any harm in using vegetarian food in those places while we are there. However in an extreme case where there is really nothing else to eat and we are staying in the place for a long time, then the Qur’an has given us permission to temporary consume what otherwise is considered Haram. Of course in such situation the preference is to eat from a meat that is in principle Halal though it is not slaughtered in accordance to the Sharī‘ah (e.g. eating pork and other forbidden meats has to be our very last option in these exceptional situations).

Answered by: Farhad Shafti

Date: 2015-03-21

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