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Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

No, it is not true that transactions on credit card in countries other than the issuing country are prohibited. If we look carefully at how these transactions are handled, we notice that payments at each stage does not violate the rules of sarf (currency exchange) as known in Shari`ah. The seller is paid upon presentation of the credit card slip by the sellers’ local bank while the credit card holder is charged the amount of purchase in the currency of the credit card issuing agencies when the transaction reaches this agency. In other words, the currency exchange from the point of view of the purchaser is done exactly at the time the agency credits its correspondent bank for the amount in a different currency. The period of time between the purchase and the recording of debit/credit by the agency does not affect the transaction; it is only inter-bank time.

You can also read:

Is It Allowed to Use Credit Card?

Allah Almighty knows best.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

If the purchase contract of refrigerator mentions a cash price, and interest additive and then installment price, the contract has a grave error from the Shari`ah point of view, because it amounts to selling at two prices, one cash, and one as installment. About this kind of purchase/sale contract, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that the lowest price applies or the transaction is riba-based. Riba is prohibited being one of the worst sins a Muslim may ever commit.

If the contract only mentions one price or the installment sale (even if this price is calculated on the basis of cash-price + interest) the contract is then valid because Shar`iah recognizes and allows that the price of the deferred payment sale may be higher than cash sale.

Now if the contract is made according to the first paragraph, the remedy is to pay all remaining installment as soon as possible and negotiate with the seller to eliminate or at least to reduce as much as possible of the contractual interest and make repentance and istighfar (seeking Allah’s forgiveness) with a pledge inside your own conscience to avoid entering into any prohibited transaction in the future. Remember that one must check on the permissibility of a transaction before starting it.

You can also read:

Sale by Installments

Allah Almighty knows best.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

As long as the producer of these new programs offers this possibility of using them by several people without requiring every user to pay, free users are permitted because the program itself allows it. Don’t worry much about the producers of these programs, they must have charged the first client sufficiently to make the profit they want.

Allah Almighty knows best.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

I answered this question many times before. In principle, it is permissible as long as you do not sign interest-based contracts on behalf of the bank.

You can also read:

Accepting a Gift from a Bank Officer

Allah Almighty knows best.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

The income of a lottery conducting organization is no doubt forbidden as far as the issuing organization is concerned, because lottery is a form of gambling that is prohibited in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. This means that it is forbidden for any Muslim individual/organization to initiate lotteries even if the objective is charitable or generally benevolent.

What do you do with such income after it happens? The only way, and the best way is to give it to charity and similar uses that provides help to the poor and needy at large. Usually Muslim scholars do not like using such “unlawful” money for building a place of prayer (masjid or musalla) or for buying copies of the Qur’an. The reason is obvious, but feeding the poor and financing other public welfare projects is certainly the only way in which such “prohibited” money can be used. The same applies to Islamic organizations and projects in the UK.

Allah Almighty knows best.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

If you can avoid placing funds on interest in any bank (or any other place too), this would be the proper and best way of dealing with your savings. This means you should invest in useful projects instead of leaving your savings to a riba-based bank that will use them to generate more prohibited transaction.

You certainly will be much better off making extra payments on your mortgage because then you would be reducing the amount of riba in the mortgage.

But if for any reason you find yourself with a large sum of money that you do not want to commit to any immediate investment (as in the case when you have future plans), it is not better to put such large sum in no interest accounts in a conventional banks. You know that the bank will use them for interest-based lending, and it is better to reduce the evil of the interest-based capability of the bank by taking the interest on such temporary large sums and giving it to a Muslim charity. Reducing the evil is always better even by one single drop.

Remember that you will be rewarded insha’Allah for reducing the evil and for not allowing interest to stay with your own money by giving it to a Muslim charity, but this cannot be considered as sadaqa or Zakah as these terms are known in Shari’ah, because both must come from your own money and you do not own any earned interest.

You can also read:

Rules of Shari’ah regarding Funds Deposited in Interest-Based Banks

Bank Interest for Charity

Should We Take Interest Money or Leave It for the Bank?

Allah Almighty knows best.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Taking interest-based loan is prohibited because interest is riba that is prohibited in the Qur’an and the Sunnah with a threat of most severe punishment that includes a war declared by Allah and His Messenger (the Qur’an, 2:79) and the wrath of Allah as mentioned in authentic sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Of course, cases of necessity are excluded and necessities mean a serious threat to life, mind, religion, or property. Please also notice that India has an Islamic bank with several branches in several of the Indian states. It also has many local Islamic cooperatives that provides financing in accordance with Shari`ah.

Allah Almighty knows best.

To correct my mistake, I plan to pay 2.5 percent of my total gross worth (what I have now savings + cash in a brokerage account) in August 2003 and ask forgiveness from Allah for my mistake. But, I read in an article that I must pay all the Zakah that I owe in each one of those years, is this true? If the above is true, how can I calculate it? How much money I had each year back then? I don't have the data. Do you have a solution or should I just do as I plan in August?

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Unpaid Zakah remains as a debt on you until you pay it. Zakah is due on accumulated savings at the end of each lunar year, the first year begins on the day your accumulated savings + debts on others + cash on hand + any business inventory = the amount of nisab which is $ US 1000.

Now that you do not have record of past years, the solution is to make an educated guess on the first time you had a total of one thousand US dollars and from that date count the number of lunar year (354 days) until today, and pay 2.5 % x number of past lunar years x the total of present balances you have today of all zakatable items including your brokerage account both cash and investments and pay this amount of due Zakah as soon as you can. Additionally, remember that when your current Zakah lunar year comes to an end, you should calculate the due Zakah for the present period following the same rules and pay it either directly to deserving poor Muslims or through trustworthy Muslim charitable organizations.

Allah Almighty knows best.

How could, my friend argue, that Islamic finance burden the consumer worse than does the conventional finance. Thus, no difference between the two. What would be our logical response to this kind of comments? Thanks.

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

The point that some Islamic financing institutions charge their customer more than what conventional banks charge for similar transactions indicates that such Islamic financial institutions expertise monopolistic powers on their customers, such monopolies are forbidden in Shari`ah and these companies are making grave mistakes.

On the other hand, it is true there is certain similarity between riba and Islamic financing. The Qur’an itself does not deny it (2: 279). There is also similarity between the man/woman relation in marriage and in adultery, but in both cases the differences are also substantial to an extent that make one permissible and the other prohibited. Interest-based transactions are prohibited as clearly mentioned in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

Allah Almighty knows best.

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

The fatwa of boycotting American products also applies to American stock market and other financial investments in the United States. This fatwa was issued prior to the aggression on the Iraqi people the American government started early this year. This aggression also confirms the fatwa since the present American government conducts continuous campaigns to support aggression and occupation of Muslim land by foreign and alien countries and people. The fatwa certainly applies to all Muslims outside the United States and they must all avoid, without harming their own interest, dealing with American markets, stocks and the like as much as they can.

Allah Almighty knows best.

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