What is your opinion, O Shaykh, regarding those who say that installment payments are permissible, as is the opinion of Shaykh Ibn Baz?

The questioner : O our Shaykh, what is my position when we hear from your eminence the prohibition of installment payments, and we hear from other scholars, such as the honorable Shaykh Ibn Baz and others, who also permit installment payments?

The Shaykh : That is correct, by Allah.

The Shaykh : What is my position?

The Shaykh : This question. Your position, first of all, and peace be upon you, is to listen to the evidence of each of the disputing parties and to be free from following desires, may Allah protect you from following desires.

The questioner : Amen, and to you as well.

The Shaykh : Amen, amen.

The questioner : And to all the listeners.
Another questioner: O Allah, amen.

The Shaykh : So you free yourself from following desires, and you reflect on the evidence of this one and the evidence of that one, and after that you follow what the evidence leads you to, even if you are an ordinary man. You do not say, "This is a Shaykh and this is a Shaykh, this is a scholar and this is a scholar," and then you take what suits your desire. No, you will be held accountable by Allah the Mighty and Majestic if you follow your desire on the pretext that there are two opinions in the issue. No, it is obligatory that you look at the evidence of this one and the evidence of that one. If the evidence leads you to prohibition, it becomes forbidden for you. If the evidence leads you to permissibility, it becomes lawful for you. As for following what is most suitable and most pleasing to you, this falls under the general prohibition of following desires in the Book and the Sunnah. This is the first thing, and it is necessary for escaping the disagreement of scholars in a certain issue. The second thing is that you adopt the principle of and this is not my word or the word of such-and-such a Shaykh, but rather it is the saying of the Prophet of all of us and if the issue does not involve caution, then in the final stage comes his saying, peace and blessings be upon him, with the observation of avoiding desires and my personal belief is that people today neglect applying all these stages. For example, I imagine a man from our brothers hears an opinion from me, or from the brothers of such-and-such a Shaykh hears an opinion from him, but he will quickly leave the opinion of his Shaykh, the one in whose study circles he lived, when he finds his desire and his interest with the other Shaykh, while he is biased toward the first Shaykh. This is our problem: that we do not use the scale to know whether the saying of so-and-so is the correct one or the saying of so-and-so, but rather we look at the interest and the desire and the dispensation and the facilitation and so on with whichever opinion we proceed, even if it is contrary to the saying of the man whose scientific and intellectual methodology you adopt, and so on. And therefore, we must get rid of two problems, one of which we have perhaps gotten rid of, which is taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), the other is the problem we have not gotten rid of, which is following desires. Following desires is a very great danger. "The worst thing in a man is a desire he follows, and the self-pleasing of every opinion with its own opinion" And therefore, I advise that it is obligatory for the Muslim, if he is confused between two opinions, that he should search, to the extent of his ability, for the evidence of each of them, and then follow what the evidence leads him to, whether it is for him or against him. If there is, for example, a doubtful matter, then he follows what we mentioned earlier, meaning if the issue does not end, hypothetically, with this one or that one, it ends finally with and it does not mean that "consult your heart" means "follow your desire," because the heart of the believer in Allah the Mighty and Majestic, who is mindful of the observation of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, who knows what is in the breasts, and perhaps this amount is sufficient, O Abu Ahmad, and allow us to go, if Allah wills.
The questions, what Allah wills, hehe. A noble guest came to us here, we are forced to...