Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Enter Question
View By Subject
Fatwa Of The Week
Selected Fatwa
Fatwa CenterTaking Out an Interest-Based Loan to Buy a Home Is Not Permissible
Question
my family is growing, and finding suitable housing in Sweden is difficult. Affordable rentals are often in areas with high crime rates, where I fear my children may be negatively influenced, while safer, larger homes are very expensive to rent. I have two daughters sharing one room, and more children may come. Buying with a mortgage would cost less monthly than renting. I understand interest is generally haram. Are there circumstances where a conventional mortgage may be permissible?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Taking out an interest-based loan to buy a home is not permissible except in a case of necessity recognized by the Sharia. The mere wish to own a home is not enough, nor is the fact that the installments for owning it are lower than rent, or that rents have risen, so long as it is possible to find a rented home without severe hardship that people would not normally bear.
If renting is not possible, or it brings a hardship too difficult to bear, and that hardship can be removed only through an interest-based loan, then there is no blame in it, under the principle that necessities permit what is otherwise prohibited.
The European Council for Fatwa and Research has previously ruled that Muslims living in Europe may buy a home to live in through the banks there, based on considerations of the Sharia, including necessity and need.
Among what the fatwa states: “In light of the evidence, principles, and considerations of the Sharia, the Council sees no objection to resorting to this means, namely an interest-based loan, to buy a house that a Muslim needs for himself and his family to live in, on the condition that he has no other house that suffices him, that it will be his primary residence, and that he does not have surplus money that would enable him to buy it by other means.”
The Council relied in its fatwa on: The principle “necessities permit what is otherwise prohibited,” which is agreed upon, ...
Among what the jurists have established is that need may be treated as necessity, whether specific or general. Need is that which, if not met, leaves the Muslim in hardship even though he is able to live, unlike necessity, without which he cannot live. Allah the Exalted has lifted hardship from this Ummah through the texts of the Qur’an, ... The home that removes hardship from a Muslim is the one suitable for him in its location and its facilities, so that it is truly a dwelling... [End of quote, slightly adapted.]
Allah Knows best
Search Fatwa
Fatwa Subject
