The promise to purchase is not binding
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Is a promise to purchase binding? For example, the National Bank has a department called Islamic Banking Services. They offer installment payments to those who wish. If you request any item from them, they ask the applicant to bring a price quote. For instance, regarding a car, they tell the one who wants to buy it: "Bring a price quote from the showroom." He brings the quote, and the bank buys the car, then they conclude a contract with him after the rate is determined. If the person changes his mind about this purchase, they are now selling the car to the bank, and if there is a loss, he bears it on the basis of the promise to purchase. Is this permissible?
What is your opinion if the bank said to this man: I give you fifty thousand to buy a car, on the condition that it be paid in installments of sixty thousand.I ask you: What do you say, is it forbidden or lawful?The questioner: Forbidden.
Answer: Is it not exactly the same as saying: "Go and look at the car you want, and I will buy it for fifty thousand and sell it to you for sixty thousand in installments"? Is it not the same? That is, instead of the riba (usury or interest) coming openly like the sun, it comes to him through a trick. And a trick—my brothers—regarding forbidden things is more wicked than committing forbidden things openly, because you have combined the harm of the haram (forbidden) with deceiving the Lord of the Worlds (Mighty and Majestic). For this reason, the Jews who tricked their way around the Sabbath were turned into apes, as Allah the Exalted said: [al-Baqarah: 65].
I say: This is forbidden,And their saying: If the bank does not bind you to this if you buy it, that is a statement of no benefit.Is this the one who came to the bank and said: I want such-and-such a car. Can you imagine that he would return when he needs it? It is possible. And if it happens that one in a million returns, the bank lists him on the blacklist, considering that he is not trustworthy in his buying and selling. But—by Allah—the person regrets greatly that the Muslim community has begun to dare to commit riba (usury or interest) through tricks and deception. It is feared that pains will appear in it that were not in previous nations, and it is feared that Allah will strike the hearts of some of them with others.
The questioner: Do they have a Sharia board?The Shaykh: Fatwas and the like are referred to whom? To the Book and the Sunnah. Everyone knows that this trick is closer to the trick of the Jews. When Allah forbade the Jews the fats, what did they do?They said: We melt the fat so it becomes lard, then we sell the lard and eat its price. This trick is further away.And yet the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: (May Allah kill the Jews. When Allah forbade them its fats, they melted it, then sold it and ate its price) But this painful reality is the verification of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "You will surely follow the ways of those who came before you."
They said: The Jews and the Christians?He said: So whoever) commits what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade, where he said: "Do not commit what the Jews committed, so that you make lawful the prohibitions of Allah for the sake of tricks".
Is a promise to purchase binding? For example, the National Bank has a department called Islamic Banking Services. They offer installment payments to those who wish. If you request any item from them, they ask the applicant to bring a price quote. For instance, regarding a car, they tell the one who wants to buy it: "Bring a price quote from the showroom." He brings the quote, and the bank buys the car, then they conclude a contract with him after the rate is determined. If the person changes his mind about this purchase, they are now selling the car to the bank, and if there is a loss, he bears it on the basis of the promise to purchase. Is this permissible?
What is your opinion if the bank said to this man: I give you fifty thousand to buy a car, on the condition that it be paid in installments of sixty thousand.I ask you: What do you say, is it forbidden or lawful?The questioner: Forbidden.
Answer: Is it not exactly the same as saying: "Go and look at the car you want, and I will buy it for fifty thousand and sell it to you for sixty thousand in installments"? Is it not the same? That is, instead of the riba (usury or interest) coming openly like the sun, it comes to him through a trick. And a trick—my brothers—regarding forbidden things is more wicked than committing forbidden things openly, because you have combined the harm of the haram (forbidden) with deceiving the Lord of the Worlds (Mighty and Majestic). For this reason, the Jews who tricked their way around the Sabbath were turned into apes, as Allah the Exalted said:
and We said to them, "Be apes, despised."
فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَI say: This is forbidden,And their saying: If the bank does not bind you to this if you buy it, that is a statement of no benefit.Is this the one who came to the bank and said: I want such-and-such a car. Can you imagine that he would return when he needs it? It is possible. And if it happens that one in a million returns, the bank lists him on the blacklist, considering that he is not trustworthy in his buying and selling. But—by Allah—the person regrets greatly that the Muslim community has begun to dare to commit riba (usury or interest) through tricks and deception. It is feared that pains will appear in it that were not in previous nations, and it is feared that Allah will strike the hearts of some of them with others.
The questioner: Do they have a Sharia board?The Shaykh: Fatwas and the like are referred to whom? To the Book and the Sunnah. Everyone knows that this trick is closer to the trick of the Jews. When Allah forbade the Jews the fats, what did they do?They said: We melt the fat so it becomes lard, then we sell the lard and eat its price. This trick is further away.And yet the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: (May Allah kill the Jews. When Allah forbade them its fats, they melted it, then sold it and ate its price) But this painful reality is the verification of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "You will surely follow the ways of those who came before you."
They said: The Jews and the Christians?He said: So whoever) commits what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade, where he said: "Do not commit what the Jews committed, so that you make lawful the prohibitions of Allah for the sake of tricks".