Where are the funds of riba to be spent? And is it permissible to possess them?
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Question:
A questioner says: Your Eminence, Shaykh Abdul Aziz, may Allah benefit us with your knowledge: My father has worked for the company (Aramco) for thirty-three years, and since the beginning he has been depositing his money in the company’s Social Security Bank. Now he has finished working, and they will give him his money plus an increase, or a doubling. What should he do with this money? Is it riba? And what should I do if he takes it? Please benefit us, may Allah prolong your life.
Answer:
A fatwa has been issued by the Permanent Committee on this matter: The money that is deposited in companies which stipulate that if a worker pays a portion of his salary every month, they will give him a certain amount after five years, and a certain amount after ten years, (60%) or (50%) or (100%), then this increase is riba; because they benefit from his money, grow it, and there is interest in it, and they give it to them. This is something we have seen in some of the company’s clauses, where after five years have passed they give you (50%), for example, or less or more, and if ten years have passed they give him (100%) in exchange for the installments he paid, and this is riba.
What appears to us is that it is obligatory for him to give it in charity, or spend it in charitable projects; he does not eat it; because it is riba. So he takes his money that he accumulated and obtained from the installments he paid to them.
As for the riba that they gave as an increase, this is to be spent in the causes of righteousness and good deeds, building roads and schools, restrooms, helping the poor, paying off the debts of debtors, and giving to the mujahideen and those afflicted with poverty in any place.
This is what is obligatory; because it is money that came to him from an unlawful source, so it is not burned or destroyed; but it is spent in the channels of lost money and money that has no owner.
A questioner says: Your Eminence, Shaykh Abdul Aziz, may Allah benefit us with your knowledge: My father has worked for the company (Aramco) for thirty-three years, and since the beginning he has been depositing his money in the company’s Social Security Bank. Now he has finished working, and they will give him his money plus an increase, or a doubling. What should he do with this money? Is it riba? And what should I do if he takes it? Please benefit us, may Allah prolong your life.
Answer:
A fatwa has been issued by the Permanent Committee on this matter: The money that is deposited in companies which stipulate that if a worker pays a portion of his salary every month, they will give him a certain amount after five years, and a certain amount after ten years, (60%) or (50%) or (100%), then this increase is riba; because they benefit from his money, grow it, and there is interest in it, and they give it to them. This is something we have seen in some of the company’s clauses, where after five years have passed they give you (50%), for example, or less or more, and if ten years have passed they give him (100%) in exchange for the installments he paid, and this is riba.
What appears to us is that it is obligatory for him to give it in charity, or spend it in charitable projects; he does not eat it; because it is riba. So he takes his money that he accumulated and obtained from the installments he paid to them.
As for the riba that they gave as an increase, this is to be spent in the causes of righteousness and good deeds, building roads and schools, restrooms, helping the poor, paying off the debts of debtors, and giving to the mujahideen and those afflicted with poverty in any place.
This is what is obligatory; because it is money that came to him from an unlawful source, so it is not burned or destroyed; but it is spent in the channels of lost money and money that has no owner.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.