Buying Cars Through the Hire-Purchase System
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
What is the ruling on buying cars through the hire-purchase system, given that this system is the prevailing one in the Kingdom?
Answer:
This is not permissible. One or more decisions have been issued by the Council of Senior Scholars forbidding it, because it combines two contracts: a sale contract and a lease contract. Each contract has rulings that differ from the other. It also harms the poor person, as he takes the car and works hard to strive to obtain its value, but in the end he is unable to do so, and they take it from him and confiscate it, saying he did not complete the payment, so all his effort is lost. It is an exploitation of the poor and a burdening of the poor. Therefore, it must be either a sale only or a lease only, and the two must not be combined, due to the excessive uncertainty (gharar) involved and the harm caused to the poor person, because only the poor person resorts to this; only the poor person resorts to this complex transaction. Then, in the end, he does not get anything; his effort is lost. Or, if he does get the car after toil and hardship, he gets a worn-out car that is of no use. The last thing they give him is of no benefit, because he has used it up until he obtained the value. So when he obtains the value, the car is worth nothing after the long toil. Thus, all the harm falls on the weak and the poor.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence the Shaykh!
What is the ruling on buying cars through the hire-purchase system, given that this system is the prevailing one in the Kingdom?
Answer:
This is not permissible. One or more decisions have been issued by the Council of Senior Scholars forbidding it, because it combines two contracts: a sale contract and a lease contract. Each contract has rulings that differ from the other. It also harms the poor person, as he takes the car and works hard to strive to obtain its value, but in the end he is unable to do so, and they take it from him and confiscate it, saying he did not complete the payment, so all his effort is lost. It is an exploitation of the poor and a burdening of the poor. Therefore, it must be either a sale only or a lease only, and the two must not be combined, due to the excessive uncertainty (gharar) involved and the harm caused to the poor person, because only the poor person resorts to this; only the poor person resorts to this complex transaction. Then, in the end, he does not get anything; his effort is lost. Or, if he does get the car after toil and hardship, he gets a worn-out car that is of no use. The last thing they give him is of no benefit, because he has used it up until he obtained the value. So when he obtains the value, the car is worth nothing after the long toil. Thus, all the harm falls on the weak and the poor.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence the Shaykh!
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/103 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (24:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.