What is the ruling on insuring cars against accidents?

Question:
Recently, a major insurance company has been running advertisements and promotions in the streets and in some government departments, calling on people to insure their cars against accidents. People are divided between those who approve and those who are doubtful. We ask you, Your Eminence, to clarify the ruling on this before people are swept along by it. May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
The commercial insurance that many people are calling for has been prohibited by a decision of the Council of the Senior Scholars; because it contains excessive uncertainty and usury or interest. Some of our brothers among the scholars of knowledge have permitted it; because it offers benefits to people and cooperation in preserving their wealth, especially in lands of disbelief and in foreign lands. However, the correct and stronger position among the scholars of knowledge is to prohibit it; because it contains excessive uncertainty and usury or interest.
Therefore, it is obligatory for every Muslim to stay away from it, and not to be deceived by the statement of whoever has said it is permissible. This is the commercial insurance currently practiced among people, whether for cars, or for life, or for any wealth, or for a ship, and the like. It is prevalent in nations and countries due to the many land and sea accidents, so people have resorted to this insurance to alleviate the calamities and heavy fines that may befall them. However, the obligation is to abandon what Allah has forbidden, and to exert the other means by which they preserve their wealth and protect themselves from the causes of danger.
As for cooperative insurance: this means something else. Cooperative insurance among people, a tribe, or a group, is when they gather and set aside something among themselves, with which they support their needy, help those among them who are getting married, or those who are afflicted by an accident. This is called: cooperative insurance among them. There is nothing wrong with this. They do it for the sake of Allah to help their poor, their needy, and those who are stricken among them. Their aim is not to seek worldly gain, but rather to support the needy. This is called: cooperative insurance among the group, or among the tribe, or among the people of the village. Each person puts in something and says: this will be spent on charitable causes. And if they place it under the management of a person who sells and buys with it and invests it so that it increases and grows, then there is nothing wrong with that. It is called: cooperative insurance. There is no return on it; rather, they have put it out for the sake of Allah; to help their stricken, their needy, their poor, and those who are affected by any of the accidents. There is nothing wrong with this.