What is the ruling on life and car insurance?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The questioner asks: What is the ruling on the insurance that many companies are currently providing?
The Shaykh : And what is its nature? It is necessary to explain the nature.
The questioner : Do we mean "we seek safety"?
The Shaykh : We do not know insurance except when the imam says to the lost ones, we say "Ameen." This is insurance: when the imam seeks safety, you seek safety. You, the questioner? Yes?
The questioner : The history of insurance. One insures his life.
The Shaykh : If one insures his life, does he say to the Angel of Death when he comes to take his soul, "I have insurance"? Yes, what?
The questioner : The heirs.
The Shaykh : But by what means do they take it? Yes.
The questioner : Meaning, only the value of what was paid. Yes.
The Shaykh : Let us suppose he died quickly, meaning he insured in the morning and died in the evening, he takes everything. Well, let us suppose Allah gave him a life of five hundred years. Well, may Allah bless you. In any case, we now know about life insurance.
And this is not permissible, without doubt, because the contract revolves between one who gains or one who loses, and every contract that revolves between one who gains or one who loses is from gambling (maysir). And Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Ma'idah 5:90-91] Who are you asking? So, life insurance is forbidden (haram). What does car insurance mean? Who will explain this? Who will explain it to us? Come on, ten cars, where did you acquire them? Let us have one car. Well. If it is damaged, do they return a new one? If it is damaged, it is gone; it is neither new nor old, glory be to Allah.
The questioner : They repair it.
The Shaykh : Even if the fender is broken, do they give a new one? Hmm? Well, wait. Now we understand car insurance: one agrees with the company to pay it five hundred riyals every month, well, on the condition that if the car is destroyed, they guarantee it for him, and if it suffers damage less than destruction, they repair it for him, is that right? Well.
Perhaps he pays five hundred riyals a month; five hundred riyals a month, how much is that in a year? Six thousand, well. Perhaps nothing happens to the car, so the company gains, or perhaps the car is lost and its value is sixty thousand, so the company gains. Therefore, it is gambling (maysir), so it is not permissible, because every contract that revolves between gain and loss is from gambling (maysir) due to the presence of risk and excessive uncertainty (gharar). So, life insurance is not lawful, it is not permissible, and car insurance is not permissible, and house insurance is not permissible because it is like the car. Well.
The questioner : Compulsory? There is no compulsory. And we change. Or with permission.
The Shaykh : Well. One of the brothers is now asking, he says: If the insurance is compulsory, meaning the state says you must insure, we say this is among the things by which Allah makes some people dominate others.
Because Allah the Exalted may make the rulers dominate the subjects, so this is from that domination. Pay the insurance. And I believe you are wronged in it, and the one who forced you to do it will take from his good deeds on the Day of Resurrection, if any of his good deeds remain, otherwise it will be taken from the bad deeds of the wronged and placed upon him, then he will be thrown into the Fire.
You are required to pay the insurance, and then if the accident happens, take from them, meaning from the insurance company, the amount you paid them, and do not take more.
Because if you take more, this means you have executed a defective (fasid) contract, and defective contracts are not permissible to execute, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)Sunan Ibn Majah 2521Sahih (Darussalam) And because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was brought good dates. He was brought good dates and he said, "What is this?" They said, "O Messenger of Allah, we take one sa' of this for two sa' of the man, and two sa' for three." He said, "Or, or," meaning he was pained by this action. It is pure riba (usury or interest), pure riba. Return it. So he ordered it to be returned, meaning the contract was invalidated. So every contract that is not lawful in the Book of Allah is an invalid (batil) contract, and it is not permissible for anything to be established upon it except return and cancellation. And based on this, note: if you are in a country where they force insurance, then pay. And you will be wronged. So if Allah wills that an accident happens to you, take the amount you paid. If we suppose the accident is six thousand and you have paid in the year
The Shaykh : And what is its nature? It is necessary to explain the nature.
The questioner : Do we mean "we seek safety"?
The Shaykh : We do not know insurance except when the imam says to the lost ones, we say "Ameen." This is insurance: when the imam seeks safety, you seek safety. You, the questioner? Yes?
The questioner : The history of insurance. One insures his life.
The Shaykh : If one insures his life, does he say to the Angel of Death when he comes to take his soul, "I have insurance"? Yes, what?
The questioner : The heirs.
The Shaykh : But by what means do they take it? Yes.
The questioner : Meaning, only the value of what was paid. Yes.
The Shaykh : Let us suppose he died quickly, meaning he insured in the morning and died in the evening, he takes everything. Well, let us suppose Allah gave him a life of five hundred years. Well, may Allah bless you. In any case, we now know about life insurance.
And this is not permissible, without doubt, because the contract revolves between one who gains or one who loses, and every contract that revolves between one who gains or one who loses is from gambling (maysir). And Allah the Exalted said:
(90) O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. (91) Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِّنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَن يُوقِعَ بَيْنَكُمُ الْعَدَاوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ فِي الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَعَنِ الصَّلَاةِ فَهَلْ أَنتُمThe questioner : They repair it.
The Shaykh : Even if the fender is broken, do they give a new one? Hmm? Well, wait. Now we understand car insurance: one agrees with the company to pay it five hundred riyals every month, well, on the condition that if the car is destroyed, they guarantee it for him, and if it suffers damage less than destruction, they repair it for him, is that right? Well.
Perhaps he pays five hundred riyals a month; five hundred riyals a month, how much is that in a year? Six thousand, well. Perhaps nothing happens to the car, so the company gains, or perhaps the car is lost and its value is sixty thousand, so the company gains. Therefore, it is gambling (maysir), so it is not permissible, because every contract that revolves between gain and loss is from gambling (maysir) due to the presence of risk and excessive uncertainty (gharar). So, life insurance is not lawful, it is not permissible, and car insurance is not permissible, and house insurance is not permissible because it is like the car. Well.
The questioner : Compulsory? There is no compulsory. And we change. Or with permission.
The Shaykh : Well. One of the brothers is now asking, he says: If the insurance is compulsory, meaning the state says you must insure, we say this is among the things by which Allah makes some people dominate others.
Because Allah the Exalted may make the rulers dominate the subjects, so this is from that domination. Pay the insurance. And I believe you are wronged in it, and the one who forced you to do it will take from his good deeds on the Day of Resurrection, if any of his good deeds remain, otherwise it will be taken from the bad deeds of the wronged and placed upon him, then he will be thrown into the Fire.
You are required to pay the insurance, and then if the accident happens, take from them, meaning from the insurance company, the amount you paid them, and do not take more.
Because if you take more, this means you have executed a defective (fasid) contract, and defective contracts are not permissible to execute, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
Every conditions that is not in the Book of Allah (SWT) is invalid, even if there are one hundred conditions.
كل شرط ليس في كتاب الله فهو باطل وإن كان مائة شرط
Source
قناة «خزائن الرحمن»، دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام {1418}{26} سماحة الشيخ العلامة محمد بن صالح العثيمين — youtube.com (1:21:35)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.