Is it permissible to pay taxes with the usurious funds that the bank gives him?

The questioner : Well, here is a question that I also asked Abu al-Harith before, and I want to be reassured about the answer, meaning once again.

The Shaykh : Please go ahead.

The questioner : That is, there are some jobs in America where the employer forces the employee or deducts a specific amount from his salary every month, and this is saved for him as compensation to be taken after he finishes his job. Usually, the employer adds another amount to it, meaning to increase this man's compensation, so he might put in the same value or double the value, and so on. This saved money is invested in means where the man has no choice, and usually, usurious investment of usurious funds is prevalent in it. So after a period of work, if the man wants to leave this job, he may be able to take the entire amount, but on the condition that he pays large taxes to the state. That is, if he takes the amount in one lump sum, it is considered a large income for him, so a large portion is deducted from it as taxes, meaning approximately, for example, a quarter of it or more. And also, a portion is taken from him as a penalty because he took it before its due date.The Shaykh : And that is another tax that the state takes. So the question now is that when he takes this amount, a lot of usury has accumulated on it, and he will lose a lot in taxes.

The Shaykh : May Allah have mercy on you.

The questioner : Is it permissible for him to use some of this usury that he received, which is usually much less in value than the value of the taxes, to use it to settle some of these taxes? For example, he says, "I took twenty thousand; this amount was twenty thousand and became twenty-five with the usury, and I have a penalty of, for example, ten thousand. I say, I will use these five thousand of usury to compensate for these ten thousand of taxes, so my loss will be only five thousand instead of ten thousand."

The Shaykh : No, we do not see this. Many people here ask, "Is it permissible for us to pay usury in exchange for these taxes?" This is treating the disease with the disease, and this is, of course, not permissible in Islam at all. The money that was deducted from the worker and the money that was added to it by the employer is what he is entitled to. As for what was added to it due to the investment of this money in usury, here comes the saying of Allah the Exalted: As for the issue of taxes, this is another matter. That is, the Muslim should not exploit his dealing in usury, even if forced as you mentioned in the question, to pay this injustice, which is the taxes imposed on him, especially if he is in the lands of disbelief where he lives and the systems there do not consider the rulings of the Shari'ah at all, unlike what is the case in some Islamic countries. Therefore, the Muslim should not respond to the disbelieving systems on one hand and then circumvent these systems by violating the Islamic Shari'ah on the other hand. In summary, in such a case, if only the amount deducted from his money and the amount added to it by his employer were involved, but the usury acquired in his name is not lawful for him. And in that case, his situation is like that of any person who works with his money for himself, like most of those sitting here. They must pay taxes to the state, so he pays them because they fall under the general meaning of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): so that disorder does not occur among the Muslims, and a person does not encroach upon the rights imposed on him, even in an unlawful manner, because the matter will expand. I said once, and it is good to mention it now, that some taxes cannot be said to be impermissible. There are taxes imposed that are required by the interest of the nation. But if the door is opened to paying taxes from forbidden funds, which are usurious funds, what is permissible of the taxes will be mixed with what is not permissible. And in that case, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) comes: .