Text copied Link copied

Al-Fatawa – home

﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

Scholar
Search mode

How to get rid of the profit from forbidden bank stocks?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question : The questioner says: A person bought shares in one of the banks, and after a while he discovered that they are forbidden, and he wants to get rid of the profit that comes back to him from these shares. So how can he spend the profit that comes back to him?

Answer : It is known that participation in banks is forbidden because it is participation in riba (usury or interest), and riba is among the greatest of major sins. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said:
O you who have believed, do not consume usury, doubledيَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا الرِّبَا أَضْعَافًا
[Ali 'Imran 3:130]
doubled and multiplied, but fear Allah that you may be successful.مُّضَاعَفَةً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
[Ali 'Imran 3:130]
And Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said:
O you who have believed, fear Allahيَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
[Al-Ahzab 33:70]
and leave what remains of riba if you are believers. If you do not do so, then be aware of war from Allah and His Messenger. What sin other than shirk (associating partners with Allah) is like this sin, such that its owner, may Allah protect us from that, declares war on Allah and His Messenger? For this reason, Allah the Exalted guided the human being when he wants to repent from this sin, saying: And if you repent, then your principal is yours; you do not wrong and you are not wronged. So Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, made it clear that the one who repents from riba must take only his principal and it is not permissible for him to take anything of the riba, whatever the case may be. Because if a scholar permits taking something of this riba and giving it in charity, it is said to him: If you want to give it in charity to draw near to Allah, then that does not benefit him, because it is forbidden earnings. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Allah is Good and He therefore, accepts only that which is goodإن الله طيب لا يقبل إلا طيبا
Sahih Muslim 1015
And if you want to take this profit to give it in charity or spend it in other interests to get rid of its evil, then this is also not correct. First, because it contradicts the guidance of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, where He said: If you
you may have your principalتُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ
[Al-Baqarah 2:279]
and He did not say: Take the riba and benefit from it in interests and spend it in public interests, but rather He said:
and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers.وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ الرِّبَا إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
[Al-Baqarah 2:278]
.
Also, a person may take this earnings in order to get rid of it by spending it on public interests, but because of its large amount, his soul refuses to spend it on these interests. Then he remains in a great struggle with himself, which may overcome him or he may overcome it, and he stands in a prohibited state. Then we say: What is the benefit of him taking it and then spending it? If he wants safety, he should not take it at all, because it is not reasonable to say to a person: Disobey Allah and then repent. Rather, we say to him first: Do not disobey Allah. Then, if he takes it with the intention of getting rid of it, does everyone who sees him taking this forbidden riba know that he will spend it and get rid of it? Not everyone knows that, so he falls into the suspicion of Muslims, or falls into something worse than suspicion, which is that people follow his example and take this riba and do not spend it as this one who claims he wants to get rid of it spends it. Also, if he takes it, he will be before these usurers, especially if they are non-Muslims, violating the sanctity of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, regarding this riba, while they do not know about it, and they will find an entry point to attack Muslims, since riba is forbidden among the Jews as Allah the Exalted mentioned in the Qur'an. So if they see that the Muslims themselves take the forbidden, no doubt they will attack the Muslims.
So it is obligatory for the Muslim man not to take these profits. If someone says: If you leave it for them, they may spend it in missionary interests or spend it in a war declared against Muslims. We say: They will support the interests they call missionary, and they will support with their money the war against Muslims, whether we give them this or not. And if we are right in that we do not want them to take this riba and have it as a weapon against us, then we do not give it to them at all. And let us Muslims strive to establish Islamic entities that develop these great, abundant funds among Muslims through lawful ways. For example, a development fund is established through Islam, and by this we are safe from these riba funds, and we obtain
Source دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام لعام 1403هـ - 1 — binothaimeen.net (38:41)

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

Flag this fatwa