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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Ruling on working in a company that deals with interest-based banks

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We received this message from some listeners, who say: Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
I ask that my question be presented to one of the answering scholars on the program *Nur 'ala al-Darb*. He says: A large Saudi company manages an important facility in our beloved country, and I am one of its employees. My question is: If this company deals with banks by depositing amounts for short periods, such as one, two, or three months, for interest; and because it needs liquidity, it deposits the amounts it needs immediately in banks for a very short period in exchange for percentage interest, is working in this company lawful or forbidden? It is known that it receives a large amount of assistance, and citizens participate in it with many shares guaranteed by the state. Your brother, Mu'min.
Answer: It appears that working in this company is not forbidden; because the forbidden element in it is small compared to the contributions it receives and the assistance it obtains. However, if a person is scrupulous and leaves it to work in another company that does not engage in this, or in another job that is far from riba and from what is forbidden, that is more cautious. This is like what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt.دع ما يريبك إلى ما لا يريبك
Sunan an-Nasa'i 5711Sahih (Darussalam)
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Scrupulousness in such matters is among the important things, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
So he, who saves himself from these doubtful things, saves his religion and his honorمن اتقى الشبهات فقد استبرأ لدينه وعرضه
Bulugh al-Maram 16:32
This interest-based transaction with banks makes the money contain a doubt, and mixes it with what is forbidden. So if a Muslim leaves working with them and participating in their affairs as a precaution, that is good.
As for prohibition, prohibition does not appear due to the presence of large amounts of clean money in it, free from riba. The shared money that contains a mixture of riba does not make it forbidden for a Muslim to deal with its people. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) dealt with the Jews and bought from them, and their money contained riba, and contained things that are forbidden. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) bought from the disbelievers, and the money of the disbelievers is never free of that.
But if he engages in riba himself, or helps in it, or knows that this money is riba, that is not permissible for him if he knows. As for money in which riba has entered, or in which something forbidden has entered, and it is a large amount, the original state is purity, and the original state is safety. So it is not forbidden for a person except what is clearly forbidden to him and he knows with certainty that it is forbidden, or that it is from forbidden earnings. Yes.
Source binbaz.org.sa

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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