I am in great need of buying a car, but I cannot find the means to buy it, so I went to one of the banks and they said, “We will buy this car for you, but after you sign…”

The questioner : May Allah preserve you, O honorable Shaykh. I am informing you that I am in great need of buying a car, but I cannot find the means to buy it, so I went to one of the banks and they said, “We will buy this car for you, but after you sign your commitment to purchase and repay the amount, with interest in monthly installments, and then we will buy the car for you.” What is the ruling on such sales?

The Shaykh : The ruling on such sales is that they are forbidden, because they are a clear stratagem to circumvent riba (usury or interest). If the bank were to give you fifty thousand riyals in cash to buy the car and you were to pay it back to them in installments of sixty thousand, instead of doing that, they say, “Choose the car you want, then we will buy it for you and then sell it to you.” Is this anything but a stratagem against the Lord of the Worlds, who knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal? When people resort to stratagems to circumvent forbidden matters by means that appear permissible on the surface, the sin becomes greater than openly violating the prohibition. This is because the one who openly violates the prohibition feels that he is a sinner and has shame before Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and he tries to repent. But the one who resorts to stratagems thinks he is right and remains in his stratagem as if he had not done anything forbidden.
And let it be known that those who resort to stratagems to circumvent the prohibitions of Allah resemble the Jews, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . When hunting was forbidden to the Jews on the Sabbath—meaning the hunting of fish—the fish would come to them in abundance on the Sabbath and not come to them on any other day. So the time became long for them, and they set up a net on Friday, so the fish would come on the Sabbath and fall into this net. Then they would come on the day of the boundary and take it. What was the punishment?
Allah the Exalted said: . So He made them transgressors, even though the apparent state of their affairs was that they had not hunted on the Sabbath. But Allah made them transgressors and then transformed them into monkeys, because the monkey is the most similar to the human being.
Likewise, those to whom fats were forbidden melted them and then sold them and ate their price. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said about them: . This stratagem mentioned by the questioner in the sale is closer to explicit riba (usury or interest) than the stratagems of the Jews. So the believer should fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and know that matters are judged by their meanings, not by their forms and appearances. Yes.