What is the ruling on murabahah sales in banks and depositing money in them?

The questioner : The questioner asks: Is it permissible for banks to practice murabahah sales? And is it permissible for a person to deposit his money in them?

The Shaykh : Yes. First, what is a murabahah sale? A murabahah sale is when a person sells a commodity for its capital plus a known profit, after it has become his property and after the price is known. That means there must be two conditions for a murabahah: that he sells the commodity for its capital plus a known profit, and that there are two conditions: that it is the property of the seller and that its price is known. If it is not his property, for example, if the seller and buyer agree that he will sell him a commodity for a price in which he will make a profit of one in ten, and then he goes to a third man to buy the commodity from him and sell it to this buyer, then this is haram (forbidden) and not permissible. This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith of Hakim ibn Hizam: . And perhaps you sell a commodity based on the assumption that it is in the showroom, then you go to the showroom and find that the showroom is empty, and at that time there may remain a dispute between the seller and the buyer. What is the second condition? That the price is known. Known to whom? To the seller and the buyer. Also to the seller and the buyer. How is it known to the seller and the buyer? Has not the seller known the price? We say: No, perhaps the seller does not know the price. How is that? The seller may have appointed an agent to buy the commodity for him, and the agent has not informed him of its price. At that time, the buyer comes to buy it from the seller, and the seller does not know the price. Ha. Go to your father. The agent bought it for the seller, and the seller does not know the price, and the buyer knows the price. That is why we say that the price must be known to both the seller and the buyer. Good.
An example of this is: I bought a car for thirty thousand, so a man came and asked to buy it from me via murabahah, on the condition that I make a profit of one thousand for every ten thousand. So I sold it to him. Is the sale valid or not? The sale is valid. So what is its value now? Thirty-three thousand. And this is a known price for the seller and the buyer, and the commodity is present with the seller and owned by him, and there is no harm in it. As for placing money in banks, placing money in banks is of three types. The first type is to deposit it with the bank as a pure deposit. Listen, my son, as a pure deposit. And how is it a pure deposit? That means you give them the money and it remains in its original form with the bank, preserved and kept safe for its owner. The bank does not put it in its vault, but keeps it safe for its owner. It is well known that a bank in this situation will not keep it safe for its owner except for a monthly, annual, or daily fee. This type is permissible and there is no problem with it. I think banks use this for jewelry, meaning that there are storage facilities for jewelry at the bank. So a woman has a lot of jewelry, she brings it to the bank, and they keep it in the storage facility on the condition that they take a monthly, daily, or annual fee from her. As for the second type, it is when a person gives the bank money, and the bank puts it in its vault and disposes of it. This type is called by people today "deposits," but in reality, it is not a deposit. A deposit is one in which the depositor cannot dispose of it. That is why the scholars said in the chapter on deposits: if the depositor gives the depositary permission to dispose of the deposit, it becomes a loan. And so, in reality, if I place money in the bank and put it in the vault, the reality of this deposit is a loan, because they dispose of it, and if I ask for it, they give it to me.
The third type is to place money with the bank on the condition that the bank gives him an annual or monthly profit, by percentage or not by percentage. This is haram (forbidden) because it is riba (usury or interest). And riba, as we all know, has warnings issued against it that have not been issued against anything else except shirk (associating partners with Allah).
Listen: Ha. Who is able to declare war against Allah and His Messenger? By Allah, no one declares war against Allah and His Messenger except that he is humiliated and defeated. For Allah the Exalted has no opponent. If you do not do it, meaning if you do not leave what remains of the riba that you have been warned about, and you have seen its contract before, then you have declared war against Allah and His Messenger. So what about riba whose contract is renewed? Is it not greater and more severe? Yes. And if you repent, what is made lawful for you? But the people of riba, when they read the end of the verse, said to us: The riba that is haram (forbidden) is that which contains injustice. As for what does not contain injustice, it is not haram (forbidden). Because Allah says: "If you repent, then yours are your principal; you do not wrong and are not wronged." And this is evidence that riba is not haram (forbidden) except when it contains injustice. And if we take ten thousand riyals from you and give you eleven thousand after a year, have we wronged you? These people. No, we did not think so. We gave him more than his money, and injustice is reduction, as Allah the Exalted said: Meaning, you did not reduce. Listen. And am I, who take this increase, unjust to the one from whom it is taken? Ha? No. He says: We did not wrong. We took his money and sold and bought with it, and gave him ten percent, but we made a profit of twenty percent from it. So in reality, we did not wrong by taking the increase. Rather, we benefited from his money. So there is no injustice on us and no injustice on him. And Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: So why do you make it ugly for us to take riba that contains no injustice? Why do you argue with us using the beginning of the verse and close your eyes to the end of it? Why do you look at the text like a one-eyed person who sees with one eye? Why do you treat us in this text as if you said what your Lord said: "Woe to those who are intoxicated," and only said "Woe to the worshippers." Allah says what He said: "Woe to those who are intoxicated," and he omitted "those who are heedless of their prayer," and then he says: Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: And you are silent. You say: Do not eat riba, and you are silent about His saying: "If you repent, then yours are your principal; you do not wrong and are not wronged." If you are sincere in your argumentation and free from desire, then say: Riba is not haram (forbidden) except where there is injustice.
Otherwise, it falls under the generality of His saying: "And Allah has made lawful sale." What do we say? Say. He gives you the color and he gives you the cloth. It does not benefit and it does not benefit. If you leave it and take from the principals, this is not between the two parties. Meaning, His saying "you do not wrong and are not wronged" is a refutation of His saying: "If" But I believe that this does not remove the problem, because it returns to the fact that riba was made haram (forbidden) because it is injustice, so the issue returns to the root. Yes. What? Do you need a telephone wire or the nearest one? There is a possibility of loss. There is a possibility of loss. Meaning, the bank. Ah, there is a possibility of loss, my young men. And so, keep me in the same state of benefit, even if it is a loss. Repeat the answer? Meaning, it is guaranteed, meaning absolute, or do you specify the women, but it is not guaranteed absolute. As for the one who gave the money, it is guaranteed for him. He says now: We took one hundred thousand from you, we will give him twelve thousand. If my profit is forty, it is from one strike, and if the cold is good. Good. Meaning, this is not guaranteed for the bank. It may trade with this money and lose, so it is wronged. And it may trade and make a profit greater than what it gave, so it is wronged. Is the one who took this percentage wronged or not? The one who took the riba, because we wronged him by giving him less than the profit of his money, correct? Good. This is a good point, but we say that the Sunnah indicated the establishment of riba even when injustice is absent. The Sunnah indicated the establishment of riba even when injustice is absent, definitely. For the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was brought good dates. So he asked: Is this our date? They said: No, but we take one sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of this for two sa's, and two sa's for three. So he said: Return it, return it. This is riba. Sell our dates, then buy with their price dates. If you sell one good sa' for two bad sa's and the value is the same, is there injustice or not? I ask you, my people. If you sell one good sa' for two bad sa's and the value is the same, there is absolutely no injustice. There is no injustice without doubt. And yet the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made it riba and ordered it to be returned. And this is evidence that riba is established whether injustice is realized or not. Is it clear, my people?
Zayn, we continue to mention the verses concerning riba (usury or interest). Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: So. What comes after that? Before it, before it. And if he looks at it in isolation and with a glance until he becomes entitled to it. Yes. Ya. For other than this, Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: And Allah has made lawful sale and As for the one who returns to riba after he has known its ruling, Allah has threatened him that he is among the companions of the Fire, abiding therein forever. And it is established in the authentic collections from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he cursed the one who eats riba, the one who gives it, its two witnesses, and its scribe, and he said: They are all equal.
We mentioned that a deposit is permissible. We mentioned the ruling of what happens. We mentioned that a deposit is permissible and there is nothing wrong with it, but we mentioned that the bank must take a fee,

The questioner : Where did you learn that?

The Shaykh : And the second, yes, the second is depositing it in the form of a loan, meaning that I give him dirhams without profit, but he puts them in the vault and benefits from them. This is permissible if there is a pressing need for it, such as if a person has money he fears for and finds no trustworthy person to deposit it with except the bank. If not, he does not deposit it, because if he deposits it, he will increase the bank's capital, which consequently leads to an increase of riba in his money. Oral questions are prohibited, whether as a follow-up or initially. All right, yes.