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What is the ruling on buying shares in the Cooperative Insurance Company, which are offered on the Saudi stock market?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

In summary: The majority of contemporary scholars have concluded that commercial insurance is prohibited, while cooperative insurance is permissible. Commercial insurance differs from cooperative insurance in that the former relies on a contractual obligation and profit-making from the difference between premiums and compensations. The latter, however, does not aim for profit and involves returning any surplus to the policyholders. As for subscribing to the Takaful (Cooperative) Insurance Company, it is not permissible because its insurance contract is commercial, not cooperative, and because the company invests in prohibited activities. Proposals have been submitted for a cooperative insurance model that aligns with Sharia regulations. The most important of these are: separating the shareholders' financial center from the insurance operations, collecting fees for management, investing funds in permissible activities, avoiding prohibited investments, and adhering to compensations in a manner that does not contradict the principles of cooperative insurance.

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

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