Back to search

Is it permissible to request housing from the company I work for if I know that the company will build the housing with an interest-based loan and sell it to employees with exorbitant installments?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

There are two issues concerning usury (riba):

1. Causing usury to occur: Such as requesting a usurious loan or providing a guarantee to obtain one. This is forbidden, based on the Almighty's saying: (And do not cooperate in sin and aggression), and the Hadith cursing the one who consumes usury, the one who feeds it, its scribe, and its two witnesses. Thus, the one who causes something forbidden has a share of the sin.

2. Usury as unlawfully gained earnings by description, not by its essence: Its sin is solely upon the one who earns it, and there is no sin upon those who deal with it through buying, selling, or other transactions. The proof for this is the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, dealing with the Jews through buying and selling, and they are the ones whom Allah described as consuming usury.

Based on this, there is no harm in purchasing a house built by a company with a usurious loan; the sin falls upon the one who agreed with the bank, or assisted, or approved, and not upon the buyer.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy