Ruling on issuing employees salary certificates to obtain a loan from a bank
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question: Your Eminence, Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Baz (may Allah preserve him).
Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings, and after that:
I present to Your Eminence my problem, which is summarized as follows: I am an employee in one of the government departments, and this department oversees several other departments. My work is in the payroll and salaries section. It happened that one of the employees belonging to one of the subordinate departments applied to one of the interest-based banks for a loan. Among the requirements for granting the loan is that he must present a certificate from his employer specifying his salary. This certificate is only written by the payroll records employees, and I am one of them. When he asked me to write down his salary and other allowances, I advised him to be scrupulous and not proceed with this loan, since it is riba (usury or interest). However, he was not convinced and insisted on his request. I, in turn, insisted on my position of not issuing this document. The matter reached the department manager, who in turn insisted that I write this document stating the amount of the salary and allowances this borrower receives. I refused and explained that this is assisting in riba (usury or interest). However, he insisted on his position, to the point that he threatened to transfer me from this job if I did not write the document.
My question is: Does he have the right, as an official, to force me to do this? And if any employee comes asking for his net salary and allowances, without mentioning any specific entity to which he wants to submit this information, but I know that he wants to use it for one of the interest-based banks, do I have the right to refuse in that case as well?
I hope you will give me a fatwa (a scholarly legal ruling) that I can rely on to convince those who apply for these loans, and I will also present it to the department manager, perhaps he will be scrupulous and refrain from issuing these certificates, since the situation has worsened and the number of applicants for these certificates has increased.
Answer: And upon you be peace, and Allah’s mercy and blessings, and after that:
You have done well in what you did, if you know that the loan mentioned is interest-based. There is no doubt that borrowing from banks or others with an increase over the loans granted is among the types of riba (usury or interest) by the consensus of the Muslims.
It is not permissible for you or for any other Muslim to assist in interest-based transactions; because of the saying of Allah the Exalted: [Surat al-Ma'idah: 2].
May Allah guide everyone to what pleases Him. And peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz
Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings, and after that:
I present to Your Eminence my problem, which is summarized as follows: I am an employee in one of the government departments, and this department oversees several other departments. My work is in the payroll and salaries section. It happened that one of the employees belonging to one of the subordinate departments applied to one of the interest-based banks for a loan. Among the requirements for granting the loan is that he must present a certificate from his employer specifying his salary. This certificate is only written by the payroll records employees, and I am one of them. When he asked me to write down his salary and other allowances, I advised him to be scrupulous and not proceed with this loan, since it is riba (usury or interest). However, he was not convinced and insisted on his request. I, in turn, insisted on my position of not issuing this document. The matter reached the department manager, who in turn insisted that I write this document stating the amount of the salary and allowances this borrower receives. I refused and explained that this is assisting in riba (usury or interest). However, he insisted on his position, to the point that he threatened to transfer me from this job if I did not write the document.
My question is: Does he have the right, as an official, to force me to do this? And if any employee comes asking for his net salary and allowances, without mentioning any specific entity to which he wants to submit this information, but I know that he wants to use it for one of the interest-based banks, do I have the right to refuse in that case as well?
I hope you will give me a fatwa (a scholarly legal ruling) that I can rely on to convince those who apply for these loans, and I will also present it to the department manager, perhaps he will be scrupulous and refrain from issuing these certificates, since the situation has worsened and the number of applicants for these certificates has increased.
Answer: And upon you be peace, and Allah’s mercy and blessings, and after that:
You have done well in what you did, if you know that the loan mentioned is interest-based. There is no doubt that borrowing from banks or others with an increase over the loans granted is among the types of riba (usury or interest) by the consensus of the Muslims.
It is not permissible for you or for any other Muslim to assist in interest-based transactions; because of the saying of Allah the Exalted:
And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty.
وَتَعَاوَنُواْ عَلَى الْبرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى وَلاَ تَعَاوَنُواْ عَلَى الإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ إِنَّ اللّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِMay Allah guide everyone to what pleases Him. And peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.