Fatwa ID: 07823

 

 

Written by Aalimah Saleha Bukhari Islam

 

 

Question

 

 

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, I live in Italy and my parents want to buy a house with a non-Islamic mortgage, the mortgage is based on riba. My parents believe in Allah but they don’t practice the religion, so they don’t care if the riba is haram. If I want to help my parents in the future to free them from riba, is it haram for me to pay it off?

 

 

Even if they won’t regret it, My goal is to help them because they have sacrificed a lot for me, and I would like to repay them with this gesture. If the mortgage (including riba) costs 200k euros, can I give it to them 200k and then they pay the mortgage themselves without me having to pay it?

 

 

May Allah help me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

 

 

Answer

 

 

Wa Alaykum Assalam Wa Rahmatullah,

 

“No burdened soul will bear the burden of another: even if a heavily laden soul should cry for help, none of its load will be carried, not even by a close relative. But you [Prophet] can only warn those who fear their Lord, though they cannot see Him, and keep up the prayer– whoever purifies himself does so for his own benefit– everything returns to God.”  [Quran 35:18]

 

“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) cursed the one who consumed Riba, and the one who charged it, those who witnessed it, and the one who recorded it.”  [Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1206]

 

 

As understood from the Quran verse mentioned above, you will not be held accountable for the actions of your parents. However, one should be cautious to not take on the responsibility of paying the interest of the loan as he who pays interest is equal to the one who charges it. The safest and most cautious option in this case is to gift one’s parents the money with which they can pay off the loan and free themselves from such difficulty.

 

 

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Aalimah Saleha Bukhari Islam

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham

 

 

References

 

 

  وَلَا   تَزِرُ   وَازِرَةٌ   وِزْرَ   أُخْرَى  ۚ  وَإِن   تَدْعُ   مُثْقَلَةٌ   إِلَىٰ   حِمْلِهَا   لَا   يُحْمَلْ   مِنْهُ   شَىْءٌ   وَلَوْ   كَانَ   ذَا   قُرْبَىٰٓ  ۗ  إِنَّمَا   تُنذِرُ   ٱلَّذِينَ   يَخْشَوْنَ   رَبَّهُم   بِٱلْغَيْبِ   وَأَقَامُوا۟   ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ  ۚ  وَمَن   تَزَكَّىٰ   فَإِنَّمَا   يَتَزَكَّىٰ   لِنَفْسِهِۦ  ۚ  وَإِلَى   ٱللَّهِ   ٱلْمَصِيرُ     

[Quran 35:18]

 

حَدَّثَنَا قُتَيْبَةُ، حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو عَوَانَةَ، عَنْ سِمَاكِ بْنِ حَرْبٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، قَالَ لَعَنَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم آكِلَ الرِّبَا وَمُوكِلَهُ وَشَاهِدَيْهِ وَكَاتِبَهُ ‏.‏

[Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1206]