Mortgage, specific situation
Salam Dear Shayukh.
Thank you so much for offering this service.
My question is re: mortgages, but this question is perhaps quite specific to my circumstances.
My father lives in a homeless shelter after he separated from my mum, renting via the UK council after he had to sell his home for various unfortunate reasons. He has lost nearly all of the money he gained from selling him home (it was stolen).
The council currently help him pay rent and he may soon be allowed to move into a better place to live.
I feel very sad to see my dad in this state. He is all alone and we cannot visit him. We therefore made a plan to save enough money for a deposit towards a shariah compliant islamic mortgage.
We spent the best part of a decade raising funds. We then applied for the Islamic mortgage and they rejected us because their criteria is very high for acceptance.
Our broker told us that no Islamic Bank will accept our savings but a conventional bank will accept us and grant us a mortgage, but of course this mortgage I understand would be haram as it would be riba based.
I have a couple questions based on the scenario above.
1. Given the above, would it be permissible for me to take the conventional riba based mortgage out?
2. If it is haram for me to take out the mortgage, my broker mentioned that if we take out the mortgage for a year or just less, we can refinance to a halal islamic mortgage. Is it permissible for me to take out the conventional mortgage for say 1 year, with the intention that within 1 year or as soon as possible, I will transfer the mortgage or in other words, refinance the mortgage using an islamic Bank/mortgage scheme?
If question number 2 is still haram, if I still go ahead with number 2, would the ruling/punishment of those who take out riba apply to me? Even if I have the intention to change to an islamic mortgage straight after, as soon as possible? And all of this is literally to help the wellbeing of my father.
If any of the above is permissible, could you please discuss this in light of the Islamic principal of “Darura”. Most people I have met say conventional mortgages in nearly all situations is haram due to the principal of darura in Islam.
Jzk khayr my dear brother or sister. May Allah SWT reward you.
Answer
Wa’alaykum as Salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,
We pray that Allah makes things easy for you and your dad.
The life of this world is a test. Whilst some people are tested with illness, others are tested with abject poverty, not knowing from where their next meal will come from. There are those in war-torn countries who had their homes bombed, and others had their parents killed.
Your father was tested by losing all his possession. In turn, your test is in witnessing your father in this condition.
To respond to your queries:
- No, it is not permissible to take out a mortgage based on interest.
- This too is not permissible.
- Any person connected to this interest bearing deal will be sinful.
Please do not under-estimate the punishment of interest. Allah Ta’ala declares war on the one who engages in interest transactions. Allah Ta’ala says:
يأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللَّهَ وَذَرُواْ مَا بَقِىَ مِنَ الرِّبَواْ إِن كُنتُمْ مُّؤْمِنِينَ ، فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُواْ فَأْذَنُواْ بِحَرْبٍ مّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ
O you who believe! Fear Allah and give up what remains (due to you) from Riba, if you are (really) believers. And if you do not do it, then take a notice of war from Allah and His Messenger (al-Baqarah, 278 – 279)
Hence, leave alone one year, even one month or one day is too much, to be engaged in this deal / to be in war with Allah.
The concept of Dharurah does not apply, since your dad does have a roof over his head, and he is sheltered.
You mentioned that ‘he may soon be allowed to move into a better place to live.’ Rather wait and see what place he gets. Try to expedite that.
Otherwise, your solution is to find a wealthy person and ask him to finance the house on a similar concept of a bank (he buys it and sells to you at a profit, giving you the option of paying in installments). You can ask a local Mufti to assist in drawing up the contract.