The Ruling on Bank Loans, Credit Cards, and the Sale of Stocks

Question:
A number of questions have also been received regarding loans offered by some banks, as well as dealing with credit cards, and also buying and selling what is called stocks. We hope for guidance?

Answer:
Banks do not lend except with interest. They lend you a sum and recover more from you than that; this is riba (usury or interest) by consensus. Every loan that brings a benefit is riba. A loan is for doing good, not for investment. A loan is when you lend money to a needy person who benefits from it and then returns its equivalent. This is the loan: the loan of kindness, the good loan, which is intended for the reward and the benefit of the needy, and then his money returns to you. You obtain the reward, and what you lost returns to you; in fact, you have profited. This is the loan. As for the investment loan in banks, for which interest is taken, this is riba by the consensus of the scholars. However, they may call it by a name other than riba. They call it fees, saying, "These are fees, these are the costs of our work. We lend to you, and we have a book and tools that you use; these are fees." Riba is riba, no matter what it is called. If it is named by something other than its name, it does not cease to be riba. This is riba, not fees. This is explicit riba; if you call it by another name, it does not become other than riba. This is deception and is not permissible. This is the issue of the bank loan. The credit card is also riba. Why? Because they give you a card with which you buy whatever you wish from stores in the name of the bank or the name of the issuer. The bank that issued the card becomes a guarantor and surety for you. Take what you want from the stores, and we will pay for you, then we will recover from you what we paid with an increase. This is the same as the loan: they lent to you and recovered what they paid on your behalf, recovering it with an increase. This is riba. This is like the first one; there is no difference. But they deceived regarding it, calling it a credit card.
As for the sale of stocks, stocks are unknown. It is a condition for the item being sold that it be known, and stocks are unknown. It is not known what they contain, where they operate, or who operates them. Just stocks? No, it is not permissible to sell something unknown. You must know, you must know the item being sold. It is a condition for the validity of a sale that the item being sold be known in its type, quantity, and description. Here, the matter is one of risks and ignorance. Yes. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you