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Is it permissible to take out a loan to help a sister who is suffering from many debts and needs eye surgeries, as she can only see with one eye?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Borrowing with interest is Islamically forbidden except in cases of necessity. The criterion for necessity is reaching a point where, if one does not partake of the forbidden, one would perish or be close to perishing, such as someone who needs a surgical operation, the omission of which would lead to the loss of an organ or its function. As for merely settling debts, it is not a necessity unless the failure to settle them leads to severe harm like imprisonment. It is permissible to borrow with interest to ward off a necessity for a Muslim, for a Muslim is like one's own self. It is obligatory to commit a forbidden act or abandon a duty to save another Muslim, such such as a fasting person breaking their fast to save a drowning person, or swearing falsely to save a human being.

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

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