Is it permissible to pay tuition fees in easy installments after the discount offers have ended and the amount has become fixed for all payment methods (deferred and cash), knowing that installment payment is easier for the مكلف (financially responsible person), and for fear of engaging in a transaction of selling debt to someone other than the debtor?

If an office announces that the full amount of school fees will be paid without discount, whether paid promptly or in installments, it is possible that the office is immediately paying the school a lesser amount than its due, then collecting it from you in installments. This falls under the prohibited sale of debt, which involves usury of both delay (riba al-nasi’ah) and excess (riba al-fadl).

The Islamic Fiqh Academy has stipulated: "It is not permissible to sell a deferred debt to anyone other than the debtor for immediate cash, whether of the same kind or a different kind, as it leads to usury."

It is obligatory to ascertain the method by which the office deals with the school. If it is merely an intermediary that transfers your funds to the school as they are, whether prompt or in installments, in exchange for a commission it receives from the school, then there is no objection, whether its commission is a lump sum or a percentage.

There is no objection for you to change the payment method to installments instead of cash payment, as long as the fees remain fixed and will not be increased in exchange for the installments.

However, if the office pays the money to the school in cash when you pay it in installments, then this is prohibited, and it is not permissible for you to assist in it.