Some contemporary scholars in Australia have issued a ruling that money accumulated from usury or interest (riba) is forbidden (haram) for its owner but lawful (halal) for others. What is your opinion?

The questioner : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : O brothers, we are pleased to meet our honorable Shaykh,The Shaykh : Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, at his home in Jordan. Allah the Mighty and Majestic has decreed that we meet with him after we contacted him and sent him a fax. We ask Allah the Mighty and Majestic that our meeting with him be a meeting of good, blessing, and benefit, if Allah wills.
His EminenceThe Shaykh : We have some questions, some concerning general matters and some concerning women’s matters, which we have been entrusted to ask you.
The first question: Your Eminence,The Shaykh : Some contemporary Shaykhs, during his visit to Australia, ruled that money accumulated from usury or interest (riba) is forbidden (haram) for the owner of the money but lawful (halal) for others, especially the needy. To what extent is this statement correct in the Shari'ah?

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and upon those who follow his guidance. As for what follows:
I would have liked it to be said to this mufti, if it has not already been said, , because this fatwa contradicts some general texts that are considered among the principles and rules of Islam, in addition to some specific texts that are branches detailing that rule. As for the rule, its origin is the statement of our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He: As for the specific texts upon which that rule is based, it is well known the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) which relates to this very question: , and among them is his saying (peace be upon him) regarding intoxicants: , beginning with those who serve them, then completing the number with those who cooperate with the server in preparing this forbidden drink for him, such as pressing, selling, buying, carrying, and the like, as mentioned in the hadith. If the statement you heard for the first time just now is made, that usury, which they call today by a name other than its true name, namely interest, is forbidden for whom?

The questioner : For the owner of the money.

The Shaykh : For the owner of the money and lawful for others. We say: whatever is built upon a defective foundation is defective. Because holding this weak opinion means that it is permissible for a Muslim to deposit his money in the bank, and thereby take usury or interest (riba) and feed it to others. In that case, the curse falls upon him from two sides: first, that he fed the bank, and second, that he benefited from the usury or interest (riba) and fed it to others. So, to put it correctly, he is more cursed than if he had eaten it himself, because the hadith then applies to the eater and the one who delegates the eating. To whom is the delegation? To the bank or the people of the bank. But here, the delegation, to put it correctly, has two branches and two sides.
Therefore, the reality we feel, unfortunately, in many of the fatwas issued in the present age is that they are either issued with good intentions, but they are issued by those who are not among the people of knowledge, from those about whom our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us about their like when he said, as in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As, narrated byThe Shaykh : al-Bukhari and Muslim (may Allah be pleased with them both), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , if it is with good intention.
But it is possible that there are people who issue fatwas with the intention of misleading and taking Muslims off the straight path that our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) laid out for them, through the clarification and explanation of the texts of the Book and the Sunnah. The verse we referred to just now, as a rule for dealing with others, is the statement of the Mighty and Majestic: , which indicates that the one who issued this fatwa does not care about the hadiths that detail such a verse and derive branches from it. Muslims are in greatest need of them in every time and place, especially in the time of estrangement that we are living in these days. Therefore, the statement that usury or interest (riba) is permissible for anyone other than the owner of the money, as mentioned in the question, contradicts both the principles and the branches.
What we see, and knowledge is with Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, is that the one who is afflicted by dealing with some banks, then repents to Allah the Mighty and Majestic and turns back to Him, is in this case between two things:
Either he leaves the usury or interest (riba) for the people of usury, the owners of the bank.
Or he takes it without benefiting from it himself, and without a specific person benefiting from it.
Here the jurisprudential answer begins, contrary to that statement, based on the evidence we have presented. This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, as in the hadith of Muslim in his Sahih, from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Indeed, Allah is Pure and does not accept except what is pure, and indeed, Allah commanded the believers with what He commanded the messengers, saying: يَا أَيُّهَا الرُّسُلُ كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا O messengers, eat from the good foods and work righteousness[Al-Mu'minun 23:51]. Therefore, the one who engaged in usury or interest (riba) and then repented to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, and was given the usury or interest (riba) along with his principal, it is not permissible for him to benefit from the usury or interest (riba), due to the explicit statement of the Blessed and Exalted is He: وَإِنْ تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.[Al-Baqarah 2:279]. This verse is explicitly clear that if the usurer repents to Allah the Mighty and Majestic, then what is lawful for him is to retrieve his principal, without the usury or interest (riba) that accrued to it, which they call interest: وَإِنْ تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ But if you repent, you may have your principal[Al-Baqarah 2:279].
If that is the case, we said: either he receives from the bank his principal and its usury or interest (riba), or he leaves the usury or interest (riba) for the bank. In both cases, there is a prohibition. If he leaves it for the bank, the bank benefits from it. If he takes it, that means he took the usury or interest (riba). But if we say that it is not permissible for him to benefit from it for himself, as we mentioned earlier from the evidence, the matter remains either that he benefits others with this money, as stated regarding that mufti, or that he benefits a project whose benefit does not return to a specific person.
One of two things is necessary: either he benefits a specific person with this usury or interest (riba), or he spends it in what is called in the language of jurists public utilities. Public utilities: it is known to the people of knowledge that they mean any project whose benefit returns to a group of Muslims and not to an individual among them, such as, for example, bringing water as a public water source in a place where there is no water, or paving a road, or building a bridge over a river, or the like.
If it were not, and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, if it were not that the first option, which is leaving the usury or interest (riba) for the people of the bank, would strengthen them, it would be better for him to take his principal as Allah the Mighty and Majestic said. But there is an important jurisprudential rule that every student of knowledge must always keep in mind, which is: if a Muslim falls between two harms, he must choose one of them. In this case, he chooses the lesser harm over the greater harm; from the perspective of repelling the greater evil with the lesser evil. The greater evil here is: leaving the usury or interest (riba) for the people of usury, for the bank. The lesser evil is: spending this money in public utilities where no specific person benefits from it, as stated by the one referred to in the question.
With this, it is possible to refute the statement of that mufti, and the treatment of this usury or interest (riba) remains by one of two ways: either leaving it for the bank or spending it in public utilities; and this is less evil than the evil of the first option. As for a Muslim placing his money in the bank, then claiming that this usury or interest (riba), which is forbidden for him, benefits other Muslims, this is a contradiction of the previous verse and of the hadiths derived from it, some of which we mentioned just now, وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ but do not cooperate in sin and aggression[Al-Ma'idah 5:2]. Because if this usurer deposits his money in the bank and takes the usury or interest (riba) and feeds it to a poor person, it is only impure food. And you heard just now his saying (peace be upon him): إن الله طيب ولا يقبل إلا طيبا ... Indeed Allah is Tayyib (good) and he does not accept but what is goodJami` at-Tirmidhi 2989, and so on. This is the answer to the first question.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.