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What is the ruling on joining a cooperative society that allows borrowing double the savings after repaying the debt, and are its terms permissible according to Sharia?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the association has various charitable activities, then there is no harm in charging membership fees from members, and then lending them interest-free loans (qard hasan). However, if its activity is limited to lending, then the membership fees are considered forbidden usurious interest, because it is a loan that draws a benefit. Similarly, conditional savings for obtaining a loan, if it means a reciprocal loan between the member and the association, is forbidden because it falls under the rule "every loan that draws a benefit is usury."

Therefore, it is not permissible to borrow from this association or to subscribe to it if it results in a benefit for the association in exchange for the loan.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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