The Ruling on Commercial Health Insurance
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: Your Eminence the Shaykh, some companies these days are advertising health insurance where a person pays one hundred riyals per month or per year, and treatment is provided up to a value of two hundred and fifty thousand riyals. Is this valid? We ask for a detailed clarification, and may Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
Insurance is not permissible. This is called commercial insurance, and it is not permissible, because this is gambling. One pays a certain amount each month and a certain amount each year; he may need a lot of treatment, or he may not need any treatment, in which case his money is lost. This is called commercial insurance, and it is a form of deception and gambling. It is not permissible.
The questioner says: Your Eminence the Shaykh, some companies these days are advertising health insurance where a person pays one hundred riyals per month or per year, and treatment is provided up to a value of two hundred and fifty thousand riyals. Is this valid? We ask for a detailed clarification, and may Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
Insurance is not permissible. This is called commercial insurance, and it is not permissible, because this is gambling. One pays a certain amount each month and a certain amount each year; he may need a lot of treatment, or he may not need any treatment, in which case his money is lost. This is called commercial insurance, and it is a form of deception and gambling. It is not permissible.
Source
فضل العلم وآدابه — islamhouse.com (35:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.