The Ruling on Commercial and Cooperative Insurance and Insurance Companies
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Question:
Raise the call. The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, our father, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. In these days, many insurance companies have multiplied, and each of these companies claims to have a fatwa permitting insurance. Some of them distinguish, or some express it by saying that the money you pay to insure a car is returned to you in full as soon as it is sold. Is this matter permissible? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
There are two types of insurance. The Council of Senior Scholars studied it years ago and issued its decision regarding it. However, many people confuse the permissible with the forbidden, or they deliberately name the forbidden as permissible to mislead people. The permissible cooperative insurance is when a group gathers and puts in money, each person putting in one hundred, two hundred, one thousand, or two thousand dirhams for charity, to build a mosque, or to help the poor. This is what is called cooperative insurance. So many people took this and made it an argument for insurance in general.
Commercial insurance, and this is an error. As for insuring one's car or his goods that come from abroad for such and such, this is commercial insurance. This is gambling, because he insures for such and such and is given more, and perhaps nothing comes to him, and perhaps nothing happens to him. Money is taken from his wealth for nothing, and perhaps he insures for a little and takes a lot of money through accidents. This is the gambling (maysir) about which Allah said:[Al-Ma'idah 5:90] It is [Al-Ma'idah 5:90].
So many of these merchants and these promoters name commercial insurance as cooperative, citing the Council’s decision, and this is a mistake on their part, and a deception. Either it is deliberate on their part, or it is a mistake on their part.
Intentional insurance is what a group, for example, from the people of one house or several houses, gathers and donates a known amount of money for a Sharia purpose, to help the poor of a certain place, to maintain the mosque, to help orphans, or for other forms of good. Yes.
Raise the call. The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, our father, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. In these days, many insurance companies have multiplied, and each of these companies claims to have a fatwa permitting insurance. Some of them distinguish, or some express it by saying that the money you pay to insure a car is returned to you in full as soon as it is sold. Is this matter permissible? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
There are two types of insurance. The Council of Senior Scholars studied it years ago and issued its decision regarding it. However, many people confuse the permissible with the forbidden, or they deliberately name the forbidden as permissible to mislead people. The permissible cooperative insurance is when a group gathers and puts in money, each person putting in one hundred, two hundred, one thousand, or two thousand dirhams for charity, to build a mosque, or to help the poor. This is what is called cooperative insurance. So many people took this and made it an argument for insurance in general.
Commercial insurance, and this is an error. As for insuring one's car or his goods that come from abroad for such and such, this is commercial insurance. This is gambling, because he insures for such and such and is given more, and perhaps nothing comes to him, and perhaps nothing happens to him. Money is taken from his wealth for nothing, and perhaps he insures for a little and takes a lot of money through accidents. This is the gambling (maysir) about which Allah said:
indeed, intoxicants
إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُgambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan
وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِّنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِSo many of these merchants and these promoters name commercial insurance as cooperative, citing the Council’s decision, and this is a mistake on their part, and a deception. Either it is deliberate on their part, or it is a mistake on their part.
Intentional insurance is what a group, for example, from the people of one house or several houses, gathers and donates a known amount of money for a Sharia purpose, to help the poor of a certain place, to maintain the mosque, to help orphans, or for other forms of good. Yes.
Source
وجوب التفقه في الدين — islamhouse.com (55:54)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.