Understanding the European Fatwa on House Mortgage - Dr. Shabir Ally

Dr. Shabir Ally is president of the Islamic Information & Dawah Centre International in Toronto, Canada. He is a Muslim activist, academic, scholar and public speaker on Islam and comparative religion. He is viewed as the leading Muslim debater in the world on Islam and Christianity, having engaged in public debates around the world with noted theologians, Christian apologists and renowned philosophers. Dr. Shabir Ally holds an M.A. and PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Toronto, and a BA in religious studies from Laurentian University with a specialization in Biblical Literature. He is the author of numerous booklets on Islam and Christianity. #ShabirAlly #IslamicMortgage #Europe

[@OujdaSociety]

Salam Alaikum dear Dr. Shabir Ally, greetings to you from Germany. As always it is a great pleasure to listen to your lectures and always to benefit and to learn from you, may Allah the merciful be pleased with you. Although my knowledge on Quran and hadeeth are very limited, I have done a little research on the topic. For this, I have a couple of basic remarks and questions regards the topic. 1. You have translated Ribba' as interests. Is this the right translation? In the time of the prophet (s) the understanding for Ribba' was a very harsh and unfair way of money lending. It even allows the lender to take your kids and/or wife as slaves. Can this be easily compared to the mortgages from today? 2. Our Prophet (s) has thought us, that the exchange of Dates with Dates is as well Ribba'. No interests here, but a situation which privileges a rich party. Is Ribba' way more than just interests? 3. After studying the Hadeeth and Quran, I came to the conclusion, that Ribba' is not interests, but a contractual agreement where from the beginning on the more powerful party is privileged by the contract. A contractual situation containing interests with harsh conditions might be one of these situations. What is your idea about this concept? 4. And finally analysing today's real estate mortgages here in Europe, they are far away from beeing unfair and harsh regards the taking party. Even if you are not able to pay anymore, the bank is not allowed to just take the entire real estate. The Bank can ask a court to sell and they will only get, what is missing to finish the mortgage. The rest from the selling will come back to the borrower. Is this not the absolut fairness one can imagine? Is this not Islam? Sorry my shaikh for the long question and as well sorry if I have used not appropriate words, as English is not my native language. Jazaka Allahu Khairan

[@roberthannah7983]

Poor debtors borrowing from money lenders at the time of the prophet who got sold into slavery was like loan sharking and predatory lending burdening the poor today. Modern interest is not riba. Why is this so difficult to understand?

[@Hamza00011]

Jazakallah brother

[@loadedpipe1311]

Playing around the boundaries of fire.

[@AdnanZamanHydCanadian]

I really like Dr. Ali and have been following since ages however I understand his POV of EU Fatwa but somehow still feel as he is more of western liberal scholar he or fatwa council is only trying to push the Agenda and this sounds more of a sales pitch for okaying dealing in Interest esp giving. It's my dream to own a house and only thing stoping me is the war hadith. So as per me I think it's not allowed period and in the end I feel it's upon once taqwa which might help them decide to pay or not and also this could be a test for us that could we control the urge of owning something and to Rather live like a traveller as encouraged by our prophet PBUH.

[@lll7183]

I want to move to an area where theres a mosque and a muslim community. As where i live is isolated. And a long way to go to a mosque. Even for quran classes. And the area with my requirements are quite cheap and affordable housing. But unfortunately can go for sharia compliant as the deposit is 25 percent where as convention banks have 0 to 10 percent products. But in the end for islamic morgage have to pay nearly or than convention banks.

[@fidelcatsro6948]

First!