A Form of Usury
Question: When a man’s son insisted on buying a car, he went to a company that demanded cash payment, which he did not have. He returned with another man who agreed to buy the car on his behalf. This man bought the car, took it out of the shop, and then sold it to the first man with some additional amount. What is the ruling on this?
The situation is now clear: a person needed a car but did not have cash. He brought another man who said: I will buy this car from the company in cash and sell it to you on installments at a price higher than what I paid for it.
Answer: This is forbidden because it is a trick for usury. The person who bought the car and then sold it to you has effectively given you a loan with profit. Instead of saying, “Give me the price,” he said, “Suppose this is fifty thousand, I will give it to you for sixty thousand for one year.” He said, “I buy it and sell it to you.” If you were not there, he would not have bought it, and if he did not charge you interest, he still would not have bought it. But in reality, this is usury. Perhaps this act is an attempt to deceive Allah. When Allah explicitly forbade usury, this person used a trick to only change its form. Changing the form does not make the forbidden thing lawful.
This is like the people of the Sabbath, on whom Allah imposed a prohibition on fishing on the Sabbath day. Allah wanted to test them, and on the Sabbath day, fish appeared in such great numbers that they came to the surface, while on other days they did not. This period became very long for them, and they thought: fishing is forbidden for us on the Sabbath, and fish do not come to the surface on other days. So they devised a trick: on Friday, they started casting nets, and on the Sabbath, fish came and got caught in the nets and could not escape. On Sunday, they would come and take the fish out of the nets.
The reality is that they actually hunted on Sunday; they did not hunt on the Sabbath. The fish came by themselves and got caught in the nets; they neither brought them nor hunted them themselves. Did their trick benefit them? Allah says:
«وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي السَّبْتِ فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ»
“And indeed you know those among you who transgressed on the Sabbath, so We said to them, ‘Be apes, despised.'”
Allah declared those who transgressed on the Sabbath as despised apes. Allah commanded them to become disgraced and humiliated apes. Those who were humans became apes and began making ape-like sounds because they tried to use tricks regarding what Allah had forbidden. For this reason, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
“May Allah destroy the Jews; when Allah forbade them the fat of dead animals, they melted the fat, sold it, and ate its price.”
“It is in Musnad Ahmad, with a chain authenticated by some Imams, that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: Do not imitate what the Jews did, lest you begin to make lawful what Allah has forbidden through small tricks.”
The matter you mentioned is undoubtedly a case of clear trickery for usury. Therefore, it is forbidden for both the giver and the receiver of the usury because the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم cursed the one who consumes usury, the one who gives it, the one who writes it down, and the two witnesses to it.
Solution:
The solution is that both should repent. The one who bought the car and then sold it with an increase should complete his repentance by not taking that increase. The other man who bought the car, if he was unaware, is only responsible for paying the original amount to the first man. If both knew it was forbidden, then the seller who took the increase should not keep it but deposit it in the public treasury (Bayt al-Mal). However, he should not forgive the buyer because the buyer violated the prohibition. There is a difference between the ignorant and the violator of the prohibition. If both were ignorant, then the way forward is that the seller who sold with profit or usury should say: I only want my original capital; I do not want anything extra.
