Yasir Qadhi – Ask Shaykh YQ – Episode 19 – Are Credit Cards Haram

			A person says that he heard a fatwa that it is how long to have a credit card. So, he wants to know
is it allowed to have a credit card or not j? So, let us now answer this question
		

			one
		

			any game
		

			in Florida No, II know
		

			before I begin I want to state that when it comes to Islamic Finance and we will be answering many
questions over the course inshallah of the next few months and years, however long Allah gives us
this opportunity, when it comes to Islamic Finance, what I have discovered in my answering questions
Is that a lot of us Muslims, we have already made up our minds before listening to any scholar or
any show, we already have a clear in our minds black and whites how Raman Heller, and when a person
comes and gives any opinion that is not in accordance with the one they have already heard. Rather
than thinking and listening, they immediately dismissed Oh, you must be not knowledgeable, or you
		

			must be one of those progressives wanting to water Islam down. This is not the way listen and listen
to authority and listen to who is saying this. If you come with preconceived notions, what's the
purpose of asking a question, listen and see what your allama have to say about our times and
realize that economic issues modern Islamic Finance, it is one of the most diverse and hotly
contested issues. And it is not something that is black and white, it is something that is great.
For most of the questions that are being asked, it's a gray area. So anybody who has never studied
Islamic finance thinks he knows the answer. I'm 100%. European, it shows that he doesn't have any
		

			actual studying. And he's simply making an assumption great. odema say Allahu Allah, but I think
this might be the case. And somebody who has never studied has made up his mind. This is Adam and
this has had so keep this point in mind that be open minded Islamic finance is a very diverse field.
And there's a lot of views on this issue. Now, the issue of Riba there is no question and there is
no controversy that giving somebody money for as a loan and demanding more back is the essence of
Riba and it is one of the major sins and it is one of the seven deadly sins of Allah with God. And
it is the only sin regarding which Allah has said in the Quran, there will be how to be min Allah He
		

			was truly there is no difference of opinion that giving somebody money, here's $1,000 you need a
loan, but give me back 1100 there is no estimate of that this is one of the major sins of Islam that
is in the same category as murder and other crimes. However, with that, having been said also
realize that there are a number of traditions that are ascribed to the Prophet solar system that are
commonly heard and said, but in reality are not authentic. The Quran is enough and authentic hadith
in Bukhari and Muslim is enough to tell us to do but is a danger. We have to be careful we don't now
rate a Hadid that have no basis or are very weak, and of them is the one that is commonly told by
		

			the people that are 72 categories that are of Riba the least of them is like committing Zina openly
with your mother or the other below whether you are the villa Edna Josie, in his famous book about
weak ID, he mentioned a number of these a hadith that committing doing Riba is worse than this and
worse than that, he mentioned a number of them. And he says, All of these are weak or fabricated.
And he then says, How can taking the slightest amount of Riba I will do will be equal to having
dinner with your mother. It doesn't. It's not even logical. And he goes that Zina, it breaks up
families and creates children that are illegal in this and that are illegitimate, whereas Riba the
		

			harm is to yourself, whereas then the harm is to society, how can the to be the same? And the famous
scholar and why limit he commented, these ahaadeeth are not from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam and the scholar in Djibouti, and one of our teachers, he said, these types of ahaadeeth are
from the fabrications of those who used to tell stories, not from the scholars of Hadith. So you
have to be careful, the Quran is enough. We don't need these bizarre traditions that don't make
sense. And that frankly, even the mind rejects even before looking at the it's not and it's not so
these are a week now. As for the issue of Riba
		

			being on the receiving end, not on the giving end or in not taking, not giving a loan, but having
taken a loan. Realize that from the very beginning of time, there has been a dissenting voice
primarily
		

			amount of honey for a moment album, the great scholar, he would have a position that his students
supported and defended. And to this day, the Hanafi school is between these some of them, except
some of them don't, which is that this his position, I'm simply telling you to be aware of it, that
in his view, Muslims living as minorities would be allowed to deal with Riba in the minority
situation, not in the majority situation. And he defended that view. And he has a long way of
arguing and I don't want to get into there. Now, that's one method. The other three rejected this.
And they said, No, the Sharia is the same in Pakistan, as it is in America. And we should not change
		

			just because of our culture. And this is what I hold as well, by the way, but you should be aware,
there has been a view not from some strange scholar from Mr. Moon album himself. And he has some
very sound logic, if you read his logic, he was a great intellectual, and he is arguing in a way
that, in some ways, is very convincing. But then the flip side is, look, the shady as the same.
Doesn't matter if you're in this land or that land, it should be the same. So the other three did
not agree with this. Now, I agree with us the majority as well. However,
		

			almost all of our scholars, and especially our modern scholars, they are pretty much in agreement
are modern scholars that giving a loan of Riba is not the same level of how long as accepting alone
and having to pay it about on it both are out on both or how long, but the liner in the Koran is
about category one, category two?
		

			Do you guys understand the difference? giving somebody money and demanding more that's done will be
heard of him in a law he was sued. And that is sub l movies courts. As for taking the loan, and
giving more back? There's no doubt that this is a sin, but not to the level of category one. Now
what difference is to make, not to the level? I'll tell you why. In the Sharia, there is a good
principle, everybody agrees upon it, that necessity, or difficult circumstances allow the haraam to
become *, as we all know this, when it comes to eating pork, or we all know when you're about to
die, and there's nothing to eat, we all know, right? ilimitado to LA. Now, here's the point, please
		

			pay attention to this.
		

			When deciding
		

			at what level of difficulty to heroin becomes highlighted, we look at two things. Number one, the
level of harm.
		

			And number two, the level of difficulty
		

			put together a scholar, not an average Muslim, a scholar will then contextualize and say, Okay, this
level of how long is not to this level. So therefore, we can contextualize let me give you a simple
example. Somebody dying from hunger,
		

			somebody dying from hunger.
		

			And he has the option of eating maita dead meat.
		

			And he has the option of eating. So dead meat, he finds a cow on the side of the road, it's been
killed accidentally not as like, you know, just dead cow. And he finds a pig. Both are how long?
		

			Which one is you're going to reserve to resort to first?
		

			The cow. Why? Because the level of idiom of the dead cow is not to the level of tedium of the dead
pig. Do you understand this right? Now another scene I'm just giving hypothetically at the point to
another scenario, a person's dying.
		

			Or a person's threatened a gun is put to his head. And the person says, unless you steal from this
man, I will kill you. You take his wallet, you have to pick pocket. If you don't do that, I will
kill you. I'm just giving you a scenario.
		

			Pretty much most scholars would say, if he wants to take this option, he can take the pickpocket and
give him the wallet and he will be excused on Judgement Day. Now, suppose the same person puts the
gun and says you have to kill that person or else I will kill you. All of our scholars say no, he
cannot do that. Because the level of pickpocketing is nowhere near the level of
		

			killing somebody. And in no circumstance is your life more precious than the other life. You can
never be forced to commit murder, you will die before you commit murder. I'm giving you a
hypothetical example. So you understand the principle, the principle or another example. Somebody
says, oh, pickpocket that person, or I'm gonna slap you across the face. A slap is not a gun to the
head. Do you understand what I'm trying to do too. I'm trying to give you the scenarios of the level
of outcome and the level of difficulty so that you understand it's not a black and white issue. Now
who gets to decide the item not the one involved because the one involved has a selfish interest.
		

			You go to
		

			Third party and contextualize So, the one receiving the loan is not the same as the one giving the
loan hence the level of difficulty the bar is not as high as the one who has to give you see the
point here now I know this leads to the issue of mortgages and houses believe me it is like the
number two question I've been asked we will get there and I will give you a detailed answer whenever
that happens today we're asking about credit cards so, we're not going to talk about mortgages and
and whatnot today. So credit card the issue being that in a credit card, are you giving the money or
are you receiving a loan and then have to pay Which one is it? The second which is the lower
		

			category you guys follow where I'm coming from, right? Okay. The credit concept theoretically is
valid. Suppose I'm going to a shopping center and Mashallah your mom Nadeem is with me Mashallah
subotica and mom Nadeem has a lot of money in his wallet. Marshall is devata cola. I don't have
anything, right. And we go to Brother Mustapha shop. And I realize I don't have any money. I say,
Oh, I don't have any money. Mr. Sub Can you pay? Third party? Can you pay on my behalf? And You have
my word? My credit? My honor. You know, me, and I will pay you back tomorrow is this hella
		

			by unanimous consensus has had the concept of a third party credit is hella right. And there is no
doubt that the more trustworthy a person is, the more people will be willing to pay for him. If I
have asked him to do 10 times and never paid him back on the 11th time, if he pays, then he's the
one that's not acting rationally, my credit score is now in the negative. So there's no problem, a
person's credit score a person's reliability, this is all something that is heroin. So the concept
of a third party taking charges and you know what, Mr. Merchant, we will pay you your money on
behalf of Imam Saab here, don't worry, we trust him. We know his credit score, that Check, check,
		

			check. Hello, hello, hello. Where does the problem come? We all know it's in one clause in the whole
contract. The problem is not in the contract. The problem is not in the theoretical, you know,
construct of a third party paying on credit, that's not a problem. That is completely legit. The
problem in all of those five pages that you sign, there is one clause in there that says that in
case you do not pay back within the 25 days or 30 days, then no problem. We want you to actually not
pay because we will charge you Riba we all know, that's where the credit companies make money, Jay.
So this leads us to our next major controversy in a solid film. And that is, what do you do if a
		

			contract is valid, but one condition is invalid. This is a famous controversy goes back to the time
of the Sahaba. It is called a shuttle facet, or the incorrect shot the incorrect clause. And some of
the tablet, they said the whole contract is belted. And most of the time and this is what the people
pretty much agreed upon is like no, look, you can't invalidate the whole contract because of one
clause, that clause should be invalid, and the contract is valid. Therefore, theoretically, if we
sign this document with a credit card company, theoretically, if tomorrow, all of the rulings of
this country were made into shitty rulings, and then we went to a court of law and Islamic Sharia
		

			courts of law, they looked at the contract, the majority of scholars would say, Oh, the contract is
fine. Oh, but this one paragraph, deleted out and get rid of it. A shout out to Bothell, we'll have
to do so here. This is the majority interpretation. And this is what across Islamic centuries,
people have done and this is proven explicitly in the famous Hadith, but I'm not going to go into
it. But I wanted to free a slave and the people who wanted to offend she paid money for that, that
people wanted to free the slave they wanted to add an incorrect condition. And voila, Oh, man. It's
too complicated. Explain. So basically, the Profit System said that that sharp is not valid, and
		

			burrito will be fried. So he allowed the contract to go through and he made no, what
		

			are you guys understanding the point he made? No, that one clause, you understand this point, right?
You can look it up the edited video, it's a bit more it's a different topic altogether. So from
this, the majority of scholars and this is the correct opinions, the one that people have acted upon
is the common sense one, like you don't invalidate the whole contract because of an incorrect
clause. So we are not living in an Islamic land, the Sharia tribunal courts are not here. What do we
do now, here is where we get to the final point. Given all that has proceeded, that you are the one
taking the loan that in essence the contract is valid, that theoretically everything would be fine
		

			except for this one issue. And given the fact that for some people, credit cards, make life very
easy and not having that would make life extremely burdensome.
		

			The majority position from the fifth Council of Europe of North America of amager of most of our
scholars in the world, even of Serbia, and all and many countries, this is the I don't know of any
difference amongst any of the councils of Roma. And please, for modern issues go to the council's
don't just go to one chef in the middle of nowhere, go to the collective bodies that have groups of
people that discuss back and forth, even, um, Joe which is generally on the more strict side of
things that I respect that about Amgen, I'm a member of I'm just I'm not being harsh here. I attend
Amgen once in a while even um, Joe on its website has the same photo and you can read it and I
		

			checked it an hour ago just to make sure that it is there. And essentially, it is the same all of
these committees have the same ruling. What is it? What else sort of code if a person
		

			is in need, not a life and death situation but life would become quite cumbersome without a credit
card? Pause you.
		

			This means it's not an open license. It's not a green light. It's a yellow light. People have to
look at themselves. Some people live very simple, modest lives, they go to work, they go to grocery
they pay the rent, and that's it.
		

			Why would they need a credit card debit cards will do fine and cash will do find and checks will do
fine.
		

			Other people and I am one of them travel all the time and they need to rent cars, I'm renting a car
in three days I'm going somewhere they need to prepay hotels, most hotels do not accept debit cards.
Almost all hotels do not accept prepaid. Many cards you need an actual credit card. The amount of
traveling that a traveler does like myself, I know from my own experience, it would not be possible
to do what I'm doing without a credit card. So not everybody's life is the same. Those who need the
credit card. Now I go on not everybody. Those who feel that life would be very difficult without
that the fatwa says they are allowed to take one with the extensive Yani firm nelia that they will
		

			never exceed what they're able to pay number one.
		

			And number two, they will always pay on time. And so they have to be extra conscientious. They have
to monitor now the burden is on them. They don't want to fall into the bar even if it's on the other
side. So with these two conditions that are three actually number one, you really need it. It's not
just an open license for anybody. Number two that you never purchase more than you can pay by the
end of the month. You don't take advantage realize the credit card companies, they dangle more
credit in front of you because they want you to go into debt. That's how they make their money. They
you can only pay 1000 they give you 2000 credit Why? Oh you see that nice this nice. Let me buy it
		

			and then you can't pay it. What do you do, you end up paying double triple over 1015 years. That's
what the credit card companies want. We don't want that. So we try our best. Not just try that is
our sincere intention. We never purchase more than what is on our budget. And we make it sincere
effort we will pay on time and these days and hamdulillah you actually have automatic payments on
most credit cards you don't even have to sign up to write a check you literally just put it on and
it pays automatically therefore with these three conditions met the standard position or pretty much
all the scholar the committee's is that it is permissible to have a credit card for those who don't
		

			they should not and they should restrict themselves to debit cards or to cheques or to prepaid and
that's not a good thing that many average shops not not
		

			car rental companies and not hotels. But if you go to any store and you have a loaded credit card,
you know what they are not a credit card, a loaded prepaid prepaid card you know you can buy them
from Walgreens you can buy them from anywhere in Amazon or visa whatever you put on cash you pay
cash, you say here's 500 load this for 500. Now it becomes like a simple debit card. So for those
who don't definitely you should take advantage of these words. For those who need to the initial
load data it is allowed with essential load data we conclude
		

			in a feed dounia Salah
		

			Lee