A man buys a farm on installment, and due to his inability to pay, he goes to Al-Rajhi Bank to have them buy it for him and then sell it to him on installment; what is the ruling?

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
My question is: A man has a farm next to him, so he went to buy it. He went to Al-Rajhi Bank and asked them to buy it for him. They told him: We will send an agent with you to appraise it, and then we will sell it to you. How is this, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : This is a forbidden transaction. That is, a person specifies a commodity, then goes to a merchant and says: Buy it for me. The merchant buys it and then sells it to him for a deferred price, meaning an installment price, that is higher than its spot price. This is riba (usury or interest), but it is riba that involves deception of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and scheming against His signs. Because instead of saying: Take its value now, one hundred thousand, and give me one hundred and twenty thousand after a year, he goes and buys it in a transaction that is not intended. He does not want it. This merchant did not want it at all. He did not buy it except to profit from you. So he did not buy it out of kindness to you, nor did he buy it except for this increase he took from you. So it is riba, but it is deceptive riba. And deceptive riba, O my brothers, does not increase except in ugliness and sin. Deceptive riba is more severe than explicit riba, because it contains two harms:
The first harm is the harm of riba, which is the increase.
And the second harm is that it involves deceiving Allah, Lord of the Worlds, who knows what is in the hearts. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified the truth, saying: . So this merchant did not buy the commodity except for the sake of riba. If he had wanted to be kind to you, he would have said: Take this as a loan from me, without any increase. Yes, if the commodity is originally with the merchant, and you come to him and buy what is worth a thousand for a thousand and one hundred, or a thousand and two hundred, there is nothing wrong with that. But as for the scenario mentioned by the questioner, it is, by Allah, forbidden and not permissible.
And I ask you now: Is this scheme closer to the forbidden, or the scheme of the Jews who were told: Do not fish on the day of Saturday? Then Allah tested them, and the fish would come on Saturday and disappear on other days. So the time became long for them, and they said: Devise a scheme for us. So they schemed and began placing nets on Friday, and the fish would come on Saturday and fall into these nets. When Sunday came, they took the fish and said: We did not fish on Saturday. So how did Allah punish them?
So they became apes, wretched. -May Allah protect us- This is one thing.
Second: Allah forbade them the fats. Do not eat the fats. They said: We do not eat them. So they melted them and made them into tallow, then sold them and ate the price. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . If you compare this Jewish scheme with the scheme mentioned by the questioner, you will find that the scheme mentioned by the questioner is closer to the forbidden than the scheme of the Jews. But the Messenger of Allah (Mighty and Majestic is He, and peace and blessings be upon him) spoke the truth regarding his Prophet, saying: . And it is not necessary that following the ways of those before us leads to disbelief as they disbelieved. If we take something from their character, we have followed their path in that thing.
For example, envy is among the characteristics of the Jews. So the envious person has a resemblance to the Jews in envy. Concealing the truth, concealing what Allah revealed in the Book and the Sunnah, is among the characteristics of the Jews. They are the ones who conceal what Allah revealed. Distorting words from their contexts, meaning interpreting the Qur'an other than what Allah intended, or the Sunnah other than what the Messenger of Allah intended, is among the characteristics of the Jews. So his saying: does not mean that we disbelieve as they disbelieved. It is not necessary. We take a share from everything in their character. So envy was found in this Ummah (the Muslim community), and schemes were found in it, and deception was found in it, and distorting words from their contexts was found in it, and concealing the truth was found in it.
So you, O my brother, must save yourself from the characteristics of the Jews and the Christians and other disbelievers, so that you are safe and become a true Muslim for Allah.
The important thing is that this transaction is forbidden for the giver and the taker, because riba is equal for the one who eats it and the one who is made to eat it. Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: .